Donald Fehr
Don Fehr is the Executive Director of the NHLPA. Since assuming the post in 2010, Don has focused on building active participation by players in their union, and has travelled extensively to meet and consult with players around the league. Don serves as chief negotiator in collective bargaining with the NHL.

Prior to joining the NHLPA, Don spent 33 years with the Major League Baseball Players Union (MLBPA), the last 26 as Executive Director. Over this time, Don successfully maintained unity through one lockout and two strikes; litigated the collusion cases of the 1980s which led to the owners paying $280 million in damages to the players; won the bad-faith bargaining case that ended the 1994-95 strike and subsequently negotiated an agreement; and negotiated new agreements with MLB in 2002 and 2006. These achievements resulted in an extended era of uninterrupted play, and new levels of stability in baseball labor relations.

Don helped build the strength of baseball's union by keeping the players involved and informed, and developing a strong consensus on all important issues. His goals are the same at the NHLPA.

Gabe Feldman
Gabe Feldman is the Paul and Abram B. Barron Associate Professor of Law at Tulane Law School, the Director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, the Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance at Tulane University, and the co-Founder and co-Director of the Tulane Center for Sport. Professor Feldman has emerged as one of the leading voices in the country in the growing field of sports law. His extensive experience in sports law includes representing a variety of sports entities while he was in private practice, and he continues to act as a consultant for a number of clients in the sports industry.

Professor Feldman joined the Tulane Law School faculty in 2005 after nearly five years as an associate with Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C. Before that, he served as judicial clerk to Judge Susan H. Black of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Jacksonville, Fla. He is regularly quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other newspapers throughout the country, and he has made numerous appearances on national television and radio. He also currently serves as the on-air legal analyst for the NFL Network.

Professor Feldman is editor of The Sports Lawyers Journal, a law journal devoted to the study of sports law, and The Sports Lawyer, a monthly online newsletter, and was a sports law contributor to the now-defunct Grantland.com and the Sports Law Blog. He is director of publications for the Sports Lawyers Association; co-authored of one of the leading sports law casebooks in the country, Sports Law: Cases and Materials; is one the Articles Review Board for the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport; and has been published in a variety of journals and periodicals. Much of his writing focuses on the intersection of antitrust, labor, intellectual property law and the sports industry. Professor Feldman also serves as a mediator and arbitrator.

Professor Feldman serves on the board of directors of the Sports Lawyers Association, Walk Again Athletic Warriors and Athletes for Hope, a nonprofit organization created to harness the power of sports to impact social change. He is also the Director of Special Olympics in New Orleans. He is also a member of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports.

Professor Feldman teaches Antitrust, Sports Law, Negotiation and Mediation and Contracts. In 2013, he received a President's Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching, a Tulane University recognition of excellence in teaching, learning and research.

Craig E. Fenech
Mr. Fenech has been an attorney since 1973. He has represented athletes and media figures since 1980. He received a BA with honors in Economics from the University of Notre Dame in 1969.

He received his law degree in 1973 from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall School of Law). During his time at Berkeley, he served as President of the Associated Students of the University of California at Berkeley, co-founder of the National Student Lobby in Washington, DC and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Student Association in Washington, DC.

Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Fenech served as staff attorney in civil litigation for IBM Corporation and went on to practice both corporate and international trade law for IBM. Upon leaving IBM, he practiced federal criminal defense work for Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. in San Diego, California.

Mr. Fenech has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences related to the Business of Sport. He has participated in panel discussions in Washington, DC regarding the Federal Regulations of Agents and in Canada regarding the Business of Sport for the Canadian Institute Sports Conference. Mr. Fenech has taught a course on the Business of Sport at the Management Institute of New York University. He has also lectured on the Art of Negotiation before the New Jersey Bar Association and at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and has guest lectured on related topics at law schools and universities across the country.

Lucas Ferrer
He joined the Mercantile and Sports Department of Pintó Ruiz & Del Valle in 2004, where he worked for three years advising national and foreign companies and sports clubs, players and institutions. He began a new stage in his career in 2007 as Legal Counsel with the Tribunal Arbitral du Sport - Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS-CAS), based in Lausanne (Switzerland), where he stayed until 2011. During this time, he played an active part in over 400 sports arbitrations as advisor to the Court, drafting arbitration orders and rulings in all areas of sport (football, doping, swimming, tennis, etc.). In 2010, he took part as Counsel of the Ad Hoc Division of the TAS-CAS in Vancouver during the Winter Olympics held there. He returned to Pintó Ruiz del Valle in September 2011 as Partner and Head of the Sports Law Department, where he currently advises a number of operators in the sports market (clubs, players, leagues, associations, etc.) in contractual and statutory matters and where he acts in lawsuits and arbitrations with FIFA, TAS-CAS and other international and national institutions relating to sports or commercial sports matters. In 2012 he was appointed as arbitrator of the Spanish Sports Arbitration Court (TEAD) and in 2015 he was appointed as member of the Arbitration Panel for the 35th Edition of the America's Cup of sailing.

Buffy Filippell
Buffy Filippell has been a part of many firsts in her career. And many of those firsts, including the founding of TeamWork in 1987, the first recruiting company to focus on sports executive recruiting, have created a legacy that reaches across nearly every professional sport, multiple collegiate programs and the leading live event producers in the world.

Filippell is one of the most honored and respected leaders and women in the sports world — known by many as the "Godmother of Sport Management" — having not only created TeamWork Online, as a first-of-its-kind mobile talent recruiting system focused on connecting employer to candidates in the business of sports and live events, but also having been the first female agent at IMG and one of the very first recruiters to focus on sports while at Korn/Ferry.

All of this has resulted in the expansive TeamWork network, which in Spring, 2016 will see their 100,000th community member follow their passion by accepting a position in the sports and live event world by applying for a position through TeamWork.

Lisa M. Friel
Lisa joined the NFL in April 2015 as Special Counsel for Investigations, following her role as Vice President of the Sexual Misconduct Consulting & Investigations division for T&M Protection Resources and a distinguished 28- year career as a Manhattan prosecutor. She oversees investigations related to alleged violations of the League's Personal Conduct Policy. As such, she works closely with NFL Security, Management Council and the Special Counsel for Conduct, as well as the owners' Conduct Committee. In addition, she assists in the development and delivery of educational sessions regarding domestic violence, sexual assault and other conduct-related areas to both internal and external audiences and in this role, works closely with NFL Social Responsibility, Player Engagement and Football Operations departments. Prior to coming to the League full time, Ms. Friel served seven months as Special Advisor to Commissioner Goodell on matters relating to domestic violence and sexual assault.

At T&M Protection Resources, Ms. Friel and her team developed policies and procedures, provided training workshops and conducted sensitive investigations into issues of sexual misconduct (both sexual assault and sexual harassment), domestic/dating violence, harassment, hazing and bullying for primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, athletic teams and leagues (collegiate and professional), non-profit organizations, corporations and private individuals.

Ms. Friel began her professional career at the New York County District Attorney's Office. Hired by District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau in 1983, Ms. Friel specialized in sexual assault cases for the majority of her career at the District Attorney's Office. She was the Chief of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit for nearly a decade and its Deputy Chief for 11 years. Supervising more than 40 assistant district attorneys, support staff and investigators, she typically managed 300 cases and investigations at any one time. Since her first days as a prosecutor in 1983, and continuing in her tenure at T&M Protection Resources and now the NFL, Ms. Friel has directed thousands of investigations into allegations of sexual assault, domestic/dating violence and other misconduct and has trained hundreds of law enforcement personnel throughout the world. Lawmakers in Albany and Washington repeatedly called upon her expertise to toughen laws against sexual predators, combat human trafficking, create DNA databanks and establish laws and protocols to eliminate the backlog of untested rape kits on the shelves of police departments' evidence rooms around the country.

An instructor, educator, lecturer, and former Division 1 varsity basketball and tennis player and basketball coach, Ms. Friel has connected with diverse audiences ranging from seasoned detectives to school children, doctors to volunteer sexual assault advocates, as well as athletes and athletic personnel at all levels. She has headlined legal, sports and education conferences, has provided training to all types of audiences and has participated in numerous interviews and films addressing sexual assault, stalking and domestic violence.

Ms. Friel earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Dartmouth College, graduating cum laude. At the University of Virginia Law School, she finished in the top seven percent of her class and was awarded the Order of the Coif upon receiving her Juris Doctor.

Layth Gafoor
Layth is a Partner at Lucentem Sports & Entertainment in downtown Toronto. He advises on business matters in the areas of sports and entertainment law. His practice has allowed him to serve as counsel and agent to a variety of sporting organizations, teams, elite professional athletes and artists. He also provides legal advice and representation to clients in the music, film and television industries.

His experience in the area of sports law has allowed him to become one of Canada's leading television and media legal commentators. He is called upon to cover a wide variety of national and international sports stories and analyze them from a Canadian legal framework. He regularly lectures at leading universities throughout Canada and the United States in the area of comparative American and Canadian jurisprudence as it relates to sports and entertainment matters.

Layth is the Supervising Attorney at the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law, Sport Solution Clinic. He also holds seats on the Sports Lawyers Association (SLA) Board of Directors and the York University Alumni Association Board.

Jeff Gewirtz
Jeff Gewirtz Executive Vice President, Business Affairs & Chief Legal Officer Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center, New York Islanders (Business Operations), Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Jeff Gewirtz is the Executive Vice President of Business Affairs and Chief Legal Officer for the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center. Gewirtz joined the Brooklyn Nets and its affiliated arena operating company in May 2007 as Senior Vice President and General Counsel and he was promoted to his current position in 2010. He also serves as Corporate Secretary for the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center.

Gewirtz oversees legal and business affairs for the Nets, Barclays Center, the business operations of the New York Islanders, and Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum through an affiliated company, Nassau Events Center, LLC. Gewirtz is also responsible for interfacing with the NBA on a wide range of transactional and compliance matters.

Prior to the Nets, Gewirtz served as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) General Counsel and Chief Legal & Government Affairs Officer where he was responsible for all USOC legal matters, as well as the USOC's government relations activities with Congress and federal government agencies.

Before he joined the USOC, Gewirtz was Counsel - sports & entertainment transactions, marketing and media in The Coca-Cola Company's Corporate Legal Division, where he negotiated many of Coca-Cola's most significant sports marketing and media transactions, including its $500 million+ NCAA Corporate Champion marketing and media alliance with CBS Sports. In 2005, as a secondment, Gewirtz served as Counsel for Coca-Cola's Southeast and West Asia Division, based in Bangkok, Thailand. Prior to Coca-Cola, Gewirtz was Director of Legal Affairs for IOC Television & Marketing Services SA, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he was a primary negotiator of global Olympic sponsorship, technology, and media alliances for the International Olympic Committee and for the Salt Lake and Athens Olympic Organizing Committee, respectively. He has also served as General Counsel for the LPGA TOUR and as Manager of Tournament & Business Affairs with the WTA. Gewirtz began his legal career as an associate with the New York City law firm of Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller, LLP, where he served as the associate to the General Counsel of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and worked within the firm's Corporate and Advertising Industry legal groups. In addition, he previously served as pro bono General Counsel of the USTA's Eastern Section.

Gewirtz was named 2014 Sports Counsel of the Year by the Association of Media & Entertainment Counsel and his current legal department was named one of the top 50 in-house legal departments in the United States under the GC Powerlist for 2015, published by The Legal 500 Series. In 2009 Gewirtz was selected to the prestigious "Forty Under 40" by Sports Business Journal as one of the 40 top sports executives under the age of 40 in the United States. In addition, in 2003 he was named to the annual list of "Georgia Lawyers on the Rise" by Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta's legal newspaper of record.

Gewirtz was formerly on the faculty of Brooklyn Law School and New York Law School, serving as an adjunct professor of sports law at both schools and he is currently on the adjunct faculty of the Madrid, Spain-based Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economia for its US-based masters program in global sports law, which is associated with Columbia University's graduate sports management program. He is the immediate-past Chair of the Sports Division and was a member of the Governing Committee of the American Bar Association's Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, he sits on the Board of Directors of both the National Sports Law Institute and the Sports Lawyers Association, and he is a Board of Editors member of both the Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law and Professional Sports and the Law. Gewirtz has lectured extensively, both in the United States and internationally, on a variety of comm ercial legal and business issues in sport, including before groups such as the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, the Australia and New Zealand Sports Law Association, the British Association for Sport and Law, the Oceania National Olympic Committees, and at the 2003 SportAccord International Convention in Madrid, Spain. In June 2010 Gewirtz was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Jewish Vocational Services of MetroWest New Jersey and was a former Executive Committee member of the UJA-Federation of New York Sports for Youth Initiative.

A native of Baldwin Harbor, New York, Gewirtz is a graduate of Tufts University, where he was a four-year member and 1990-91 Captain of the Tufts Varsity Tennis Team, as well as a member of its 1989 New England Championship team. In 2016 he was appointed to the Tufts Athletics Board of Advisors. Gewirtz received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School, where he was the recipient of a three-year merit scholarship and from which he is a two-time recipient of its Alumni Achievement Award in Sports Law. As a junior tennis player, Gewirtz held the #1 Doubles Ranking in the USTA's Eastern Section and he also held the #1 singles ranking in the Long Island District of the Eastern Section.

Phillip Gharabegian
Phillip Gharabegian is Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs, Content & Acquisitions at Fox Sports Media Group. He is responsible for helping to structure, negotiate and oversee the drafting of media transactions primarily in connection with domestic regional and certain national sports properties. Over the last decade Phillip has handled numerous negotiations with professional sports teams and leagues such as the NBA, NHL, MLB, FIFA and others. He also manages the business and legal affairs team that supports the multi-media rights and sponsorship sales relationships with various collegiate properties such as University of Southern California, University of Florida and several others. Phillip received his J.D. from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Kevin Glidewell
Kevin is in-house counsel for Turner's sport businesses and programming, including ELEAGUE, the new eSports league formed by Turner and IMG. He has nearly a decade of experience supporting popular sports TV programs and online properties, such as Bleacher Report, the NBA on TNT and NCAA March Madness. Kevin is registered to practice before the US Patent Office and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US). Prior to working at Turner he was a member of the Technology, Privacy & IP Transactions Group of a leading Atlanta law firm.

Kevin Goering
Kevin Goering is a member of the New York law firm of Norwick, Schad & Goering which specializes in litigation and counseling for clients in the areas of intellectual property, libel and privacy, publicity rights, communications law, First Amendment, sports law and related matters. Mr. Goering represents content creators including authors, athletes, artists, actors and musicians, as well as their representative associations, agents and entities who disseminate their creative content. He has also represented many leading publishers, broadcasters and internet service providers. In addition to his sports law, media law and intellectual property practice, Mr. Golering has extensive commercial litigation experience, including pretrial, trial and appellate work in state and federal courts.

After graduating with honors from the University of Kansas and the Cornell Law School, Mr. Goering served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard J. Cardamone of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mr. Goering was then a partner and head of litigation in the New York City office of Coudert Brothers and, later, a partner with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. Mr. Goering is an active member and former leader of a number State and Federal Bar Association committees, the Copyright Society of the USA, and the Media Law Resource Center. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.

Mr. Goering has been consistently recognized as a leader in his practice areas by Best Lawyers in America, New York Super Lawyers, and Chambers USA. He is a frequent speaker, moderator and panel member on Intellectual Property Law topics and has advised numerous foreign governments on emerging intellectual property issues in the digital age.

Brett Goodman
Brett Goodman serves as Senior Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs, for the NBC Sports Group. In this capacity, he co-manages a group of 18 lawyers and other personnel responsible for all legal matters related to each of NBCUniversal's sports-related businesses, including the NBC Television Network, NBC Olympics, NBCSN, Golf Channel, a number of regional sports networks located throughout the United States, and the digital platforms associated with each of the foregoing.

Among other things, Goodman negotiates long-term rights deals with a number of important sports organizations. He has served as lead drafter of NBC's multiple winning Olympic rights bids, and he has led NBC's legal team in groundbreaking negotiations with the National Football League, including the creation of the first-ever "flexible scheduling" concept and the recent addition of "Thursday Night Football." In addition, Goodman has negotiated agreements with the National Hockey League, Premier League, PGA Tour, PGA of America, The R&A, the University of Notre Dame, and other high-profile properties. In furtherance of NBC's Olympic broadcasts, Goodman has represented NBC in numerous foreign countries, lobbying for favorable tax treatment and immigration and labor relief before the governments of Greece, Italy, the People's Republic of China, Canada, the United Kingdom, Russia, Brazil, Korea and Japan. He also has handled talent negotiations and other contract and licensing work, along with intellectual property, regulatory, litigation and insurance matters.

Goodman also serves as Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, for NBC Olympics. In this capacity, he is among NBC's key liaisons to the International Olympic Committee, United States Olympic Committee, and many domestic Olympic-sport national governing bodies. Goodman also assists in maintaining NBC's strong relationships with Olympic athletes and agents in furtherance of NBC's production, programming, digital, marketing and promotional objectives.

Goodman first was employed by NBC after college, when he won an Emmy award as a researcher on the network's telecast of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Working with the network's broadcasters, producers and directors, Goodman compiled statistics and information and helped write for Bob Costas, Katie Couric, Dick Enberg and others.

Prior to re-joining NBC in 2000, Goodman was an intellectual property associate at New York's Dewey Ballantine LLP, where he handled both litigation and transactional matters in the fields of trademark, copyright, patent and internet law for the firm's international and domestic clients.

Goodman graduated from Princeton University in 1990 and is a 1995 graduate of Columbia University Law School.

Brian S. Grayson
Brian S. Grayson is the Vice President of Legal and Business Development at Hi-Rez Studios, Inc., a video-game company located just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Brian's responsibilities include forming strategic business relationships, developing new game projects, and handling all legal matters related to the company. Brian's team supports every department at Hi-Rez Studios, including product development, platforms and technology, marketing, shared creative services, and G&A. Prior to joining Hi-Rez Studios, Brian practiced law at Foley & Lardner LLP, and also collaborated with Hi-Rez Studios for two years as a commentator to build an eSports foundation for the company.

Bobby Hacker
Bobby is the Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for FOX Sports. He has been with FOX since 1998.

In his capacity as the VP of FOX Sports, he is responsible for negotiating and drafting above-the-line talent deals (on-air talent, producers and directors) as well as other agreements for all national sports programming, which include rights agreements, such as the NFL, MLB and NASCAR, as well as all production related contacts such as mobile production facilities. For 3 years he also headed the FOX Sports Music department.

Prior to coming to FOX he was in private practice. He began with two small firms, eventually moving into his own firm in 1993. He transitioned from being a commercial litigator, to a real estate litigator, to a transactional real estate attorney, specializing in construction and leasing, to production counsel for cable television movies and series. He is a graduate of the University of California (1976) and San Fernando Valley College of Law (1979), and is admitted to practice in California and before all US District Courts in California and the Ninth Circuit.

He is a member of the board of the Sports Lawyer's Association, where he serves on the conference (2010 and 2012 conference chair) and venue committees. He is a long-serving member of board of directors of the Santa Monica Rugby Club (2005 and 2006 Men's D-1 National Champions) as well as having been a long-time player and a coach for both the men's and women's teams.

Maureen Hanlon
Maureen Hanlon is a corporate partner in Hogan Lovells' New York office. Maureen focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructuring and commercial transactions. Maureen bridges the gap between law and business. As a lover of sports and all forms of media, keeping up with over two decades of changes in technology and the industry has not been a challenge for her. In her 25 years practicing law, Maureen has bought, sold, financed, reorganized, and brought together numerous domestic and cross-border entities primarily in the sports, media, and entertainment industry.

In addition to providing clients top-notch legal advice on acquisition, joint venture or commercial transactions, Maureen also fully appreciates the broader aspects of how these corporate transactions impact a company's operations. She doesn't leave when the deal closes.

Maureen also believes that lawyers should have a greater impact on the world around them and must invest in our future. She is actively involved in the firm's global and New York pro bono, citizenship and summer associate committees and spends time recruiting, training, and mentoring associates and summer associates.

Representative Experience
Representing Onexim Sports and Entertainment in connection with its joint venture interests and purchase of 100% of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center

Representing Onexim Sports and Entertainment in its acquisition of a majority interest in Nassau Events Center

Large-scale reorganization and split-off of public company resulting in split of News Corporation from 21st Century Fox

Counsel to 21st Century Fox in the launch, acquisition, disposition, and creation of joint ventures for cable channels, content distribution, team and venue ownership and internet

Counsel to 21st Century Fox in respect of international film distribution rights

Acquisition, financing, and sale of fine art, rare books and other high-value collectibles

Jason Hillman
Jason Hillman joined the Cleveland Cavaliers as Company Counsel in the fall of 2005, was promoted to General Counsel in the summer of 2008 and added Vice President to his title in 2011. He has primary responsibility for the organization's legal matters, including marketing and sponsorship, lease compliance, employment, television and radio, arena matters at Quicken Loans Arena as well as select basketball operations matters. In addition, Hillman has assumed primary responsibility for legal matters relating to the Lake Erie Monsters, the AHL hockey team that began play at Quicken Loans Arena in Fall of 2007, the Canton Charge of the NBA Developmental League, and the Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football League. Prior to joining the Cavaliers, from 2001-2005, Jason was an attorney in the Real Estate Transactions Group at Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer & Weiss, P.C., in Southfield, Michigan, where he counseled clients on all aspects of commercial real estate acquisition, development, leasing, sales, condominium conversions, and entity formation relative to such transactions. Prior to law school and continuing through his days in private practice, Hillman was a sportscaster on television and radio in the Detroit area, including a two-year stint with Detroit regional sports network PASS, where he served as network's lead reporter of its nightly news magazine show "Live on Pass", and Detroit Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers broadcasts. His radio experience has spanned nearly 7 years, and includes update anchor and talk-show host duties for WDFN Sports Radio 1130 (The Fan), pre-game, post-game and halftime hosting duties for Detroit Pistons' radio broadcasts, Michigan State University football broadcasts as well as play-by-play for Detroit Shock (WNBA) broadcasts. Hillman has also returned to his television roots by serving as an intermission host/rinkside reporter for select television broadcasts of Lake Erie Monsters' games.

Hillman is a 1994 Cum Laude graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in broadcast journalism, and a 2001 Cum Laude graduate from the Wayne State University School of Law. He is a past co-chair of the Sports Division of the American Bar Association's Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries, and a current member of the Sports Lawyers Association, the State Bars of Michigan and Ohio and the Ohio State Bar Association. He serves on the Board of Trustees/Directors of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and University Hospitals' Partnership for Families. Hillman resides in Solon, Ohio with his wife Meredith, and daughters Caitlin, Morgan and Devin.

Lynn Holzman
Lynn Holzman was named the third full-time Commissioner in the history of the West Coast Conference in June 2014. As the Commissioner, Holzman is responsible for strategically building on the historical success of the West Coast Conference within the values and philosophy of the Conference membership. Holzman works closely with the Presidents' Council and Executive Council to develop and implement strategies designed to achieve the mission and vision of the Conference and ensure long-term viability. She is responsible for development and implementation of the Conference's strategic plan, fiscal and resource management, operational leadership and partnership with Conference members, provision of essential services to the WCC membership, enhancing the national and regional exposure for the conference (including television, digital and public relations initiatives), ensuring compliance with NCAA, legal, regulatory and agreement requirements and enforcement of conference rules, appointment and management the Conference office staff who attend to the day-to-day needs of the membership, including sports administration (e.g., scheduling, officiating programs, conduct of conference championships), serving as the primary spokesperson for the conference. Holzman also actively serves on NCAA, professional organization boards and represents the Conference at a variety of events.

During Holzman's first year as Commissioner, the Conference has adopted and implemented a strategic plan that includes a vision to provide premier educational and athletic opportunities to West Coast Conference student-athletes, and to be recognized nationally for achievements in the areas of leadership, student-athlete experience, competitiveness and exposure. The Conference added women's beach volleyball as its 15th sport and enjoyed a successful Men's and Women's Basketball Championship with record attendance and all 18 games being televised nationally. The Conference instituted a student-athlete leadership summit while also increasing student-athlete engagement in campus and conference matters. Holzman serves as the West Coast Conference representative on the NCAA Division I Council, serves on the Strategic Vision and Planning Committee and chair of the Student-Athlete Health and Safety Subcommittee. She has been asked to serve, chair or speak at numerous other NCAA governance and intercollegiate athletics groups.

Prior to being appointed Commissioner, Holzman served as the Conference's Executive Senior Associate Commissioner/Chief Operating Officer. In that role, Holzman worked closely with the Conference's Presidents' Council and Executive Council on all conference matters. She was charged with overseeing all the Conference's day-to-day affairs. Holzman joined the Conference staff as the Senior Associate Commissioner for Governance and Administration in 2012 and in that role oversaw all of the conference's internal operations and facilitated all conference and NCAA governance matters. She was responsible for compliance, sport administration - including the addition of softball as the conference's 14th sport - human resources, and staffing.

Before joining the West Coast Conference staff, Holzman worked at the NCAA national office for 16 years, last serving as a Director of Academic and Membership Affairs (AMA). Holzman was involved in managing and facilitating membership engagement on numerous Division I governance issues. In that role, she also provided guidance to NCAA campus and conference leadership and various other organizations, such as coaches associations, in many areas including academic standards, amateurism, diversity, gender equity and Title IX, legislative matters, strategic planning, and student-athlete well-being. She was a member of the senior management team that oversaw AMA's resource allocation, budget and strategic planning, technology efforts and business performance management.

Holzman is a member of and served on various Boards including the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA), National Association of Athletics Compliance, Women's Basketball Coaches Association and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Center for Research in Intercollegiate Athletics (CRIA). She is also a member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and the Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative (BAWSI). She was named NACWAA's Conference/Organization Administrator of the Year in 2013.

Holzman earned her Bachelor of Science degree at Kansas State University where she was captain of the women's basketball team and a three-time selection to the Academic All-Big Eight Team. She also earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Master of Business Administration from Purdue University. She was awarded the Big Eight Conference Postgraduate Scholarship and is recognized as a Distinguished Alumni by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Erik Huey
Since 2009, Erik Huey has served as the Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at ESA, the trade association representing the business interests of interactive entertainment software publishers and console makers. In this capacity, Erik manages a team of seven employees and fifty outside consulting firms and oversees all federal and state government relations as well as strategic partnerships for the $23 billion U.S. video game industry.

During his time at ESA, Huey has helped successfully guide the videogame industry through two major challenges by orchestrating the government affairs campaign in support of its historic free speech victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, and by developing the strategy and managing the day-to-day response to numerous legislative efforts to restrict the industry's creative expression and distribution model.

For nearly two decades, Huey has been at the center of high profile and controversial policy debates affecting the technology, media and telecommunications industries, including issues like combating digital theft of copyrighted content, media ownership, expanding broadband deployment, and preserving creative freedom and First Amendment rights.

Born outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Huey graduated cum laude with a B.B.A. from the University of Miami and with a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School. Outside of work and politics, Erik pursues two creative passions as a screenwriter and as the lead singer of The Surreal McCoys, his Americana rock band, which recently put out its second, original full-length album and regularly performs live.

Howard Jacobs
Howard Jacobs is solo practitioner in the Los Angeles suburb of Westlake Village, California. Mr. Jacobs has been identified by various national newspapers as one of the leading sports lawyers in the United States, and was profiled by USA Today in a feature article titled "Athletes accused of cheating find perfect advocate." His law practice focuses on the representation of athletes in all types of disputes, with a particular focus on the defense of athletes charged with doping offenses. Past clients include U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic, Olympic gold medalist Veronica Campbell Brown, basketball legend Diana Taurasi, and many others. He has also represented numerous professional athletes in salary disputes around the world.

Mr. Jacobs has represented professional athletes, Olympic athletes and amateur athletes in disputes involving doping, endorsements, unauthorized use of name and likeness, salary issues, team selection issues, and other matters. He is at the forefront of many cutting edge legal issues that affect athletes, winning cases that have set precedents that have benefited the athlete community. Because of this, Mr. Jacobs is a sought after expert on sports law issues. He is regularly quoted in major newspapers and sports magazines and appears on national and international television and radio shows.

Mr. Jacobs graduated from Florida State University in 1987 and William and Mary Law School in 1990. He ran cross country and track & field for Florida State University and competed as a professional triathlete during law school.

Further information can be obtained at Mr. Jacobs' website, www.athleteslawyer.com.

Roger Kaplan
Roger Kaplan has been a full-time arbitrator since 1981. A graduate of the University of Maryland in 1965, Mr. Kaplan received his Juris Doctor Degree from the George Washington University Law Center in 1968. Prior to becoming an arbitrator in 1981, Mr. Kaplan was Chief of the Labor Law Branch of the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service for six years. From 1971 to 1974, he served as General Counsel of the National Association of Government Employees. Mr. Kaplan is a former adjunct professor at the graduate school of the George Washington University.

Mr. Kaplan is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators. He is on the National Labor Panels of the American Arbitration Association, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the National Mediation Board. He has substantial experience in both the public and private sectors. In the private sector, Mr. Kaplan was the Grievance Arbitrator for the National Basketball Association and the NBA Players Association from 1999-2004. He served on the arbitration panel of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1996-2004. He currently serves as a permanent arbitrator on many arbitration panels in the private sector including U.S. Air and the Air Line Pilots Association; AK Steel Corporation and the International Association of Machinists; the Hotel Association of Washington, DC and UNITE HERE Local 25; Children's Hospital and the District of Columbia Nurses Association; Kaiser Permanente and OPEIU, Local 2; spirit airlines and airline pilots association, department of agriculture and afge, department of health & human services and nteu. Also, he is the Permanent Umpire for disputes arising between National Football League players and their agents. In the Federal Sector, Mr. Kaplan currently serves on numerous panels of arbitration. These include the Department of Homeland Security and the National Treasury Employees Union; Office of Personnel Management and the AFGE; and the General Services Administration and the AFGE.

Mr. Kaplan formerly served as a Member and Chair of the Personnel Appeals Board of the General Accounting Office. He previously served for two years as the Permanent Umpire for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the NTEU. Mr. Kaplan was a Hearing Board Member for the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices until its abolishment in 1996. He also served as the Permanent Umpire for internal disputes for members of the Association of Flight Attendants.

He was born in 1944 in New York City and currently resides in Alexandria, Va.

John Keenan
John Keenan joined AEG in 2003 and serves as the organization's Senior Vice President & General Counsel. In this role, Keenan manages and directs all legal aspects pertaining to AEG's properties, business units, franchises as well as its owned, operated or managed entities in the United States, Asia, Australia, Europe and South America.

His day-to-day responsibilities include negotiating and preparing all agreements and contracts for a variety of AEG's corporate divisions and its affiliated entities including agreements relating to project financing, marketing and sponsorship, naming rights, event licensing, concessions, broadcasting, ticket sales, season ticket licenses, luxury suites, ADA accessibility, venue leaseholds and venue operations. Keenan also oversees professional sports league relationships on behalf of the Company, employment for coaches and other personnel, player agreements, player loan documents as well as various real estate transactions, land use, joint use relationships, and other agreements relating to the creation and operation of AEG-owned franchise and affiliated-venues, while participating strategic negotiations for the aforementioned entities.

Keenan is also responsible for supervising the Company's internal legal department in addition to managing relationships with outside counsel with respect to litigation and specialized issues pertaining to various AEG entities including contractual issues and government projects. Prior to joining AEG, Keenan served as an associate at the law firm of Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak and Cohen, P.C., in Boston, MA, and Pullman and Comley, LLC in Connecticut.

Keenan earned his Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center where he served as a member of The Tax Lawyer Law Journal. Prior to obtaining his law degree, Keenan attended Amherst College and received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with Cum Laude honors and played on the basketball and lacrosse teams.

Keenan lives in Hermosa Beach, CA, with his wife Kristen and two children, Finn (7) and Kaylee (6).

John Kiernan
John Kiernan has been Co-Chair of the firm's Litigation Department since 2002 and Chair of its Ethics Committee since 1994. His representations have embraced a broad range of commercial disputes and internal investigations, including disputes relating to contracts, purchases and sales of businesses, corporate governance, derivative and class action claims, international treaties, securities claims, patents and other intellectual property, consumer fraud, accountant liability and mass torts.

Mr. Kiernan is recognized as a leading litigator by numerous publications. According to Chambers USA, clients praise his "great judgment," (2010) and recognize him as "technically excellent" (2009), "incredibly creative," "great when put in front of a board of directors" (2012) and a "superb litigator" (2011), with peers describing him as "an extremely bright, first-class litigator, thinker and colleague" (2008) and a "superstar" who applies a "deft touch rather than a sledgehammer" in commercially sensitive contract disputes, international treaty claims and securities actions (2007). In addition, IFLR Benchmark Litigation Guide has ranked Mr. Kiernan in its top 100 commercial litigators in the U.S. and in New York each year since 2010 and notes "his extensive experience and breadth of knowledge." He is also recognized as a leading securities litigator in The Legal 500 US (2007) and as a leading litigator for commercial litigation or alternative methods of dispute resolution in numerous other "Best Lawyers" publications.

Mr. Kiernan is the Board Chair of Prisoners' Legal Services of New York, Chair of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution ("CPR") and Co-Chair of the Inner City Scholarship Fund, Lawyers Division. He has previously chaired the Boards of Legal Services-New York City, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Volunteers of Legal Service, the Justice Resource Center and the New York City Bankruptcy Assistance Project (which he co-founded), and was the Mayor of Pelham Manor, NY from 1999-2001. He has also served as a director or trustee of the City Bar Justice Center, New York Alliance for the Public Schools, Practicing Attorneys for Law Students, United Way of Pelham, NY, the Pelham Art Center, the Federal Bar Council, the Village Board of Pelham Manor and the Point O'Woods, NY, Association. He served for 15 years as a volunteer coordinator for the AmeriCares/HomeFront home rehabilitation project, and for 28 seasons as a travel soccer coach.

Mr. Kiernan will serve from May 2016 through May 2018 as President of the New York City Bar Association, where he has previously served on the Executive Committee and chaired several other committees. He has also chaired numerous committees of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association and the Federal Bar Council. He was appointed by New York's Chief Judge to serve on a Committee on Non-Lawyers and the Justice Gap. He was a speaker at annual ALI-ABA Seminars on Accountants' Liability for 12 years, and has spoken at numerous other seminars and written numerous articles on substantive issues in litigation, approaches to resolving complex disputes, and discovery. He is the co-editor of the three-volume Litigation Manual (ABA, 3rd ed., 1999), a contributing author of New York Business Litigation (ALM 2014) and Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts (Thomson Reuters, 4th ed., 2015), and an Adjunct Professor at NYU Law School. Mr. Kiernan joined Debevoise in 1981 and became a partner in 1988. He received his B.A. in 1976 magna cum laude from Harvard and his J.D. in 1980 magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. From 1980-81, Mr. Kiernan served as a Law Clerk to the Hon. Walter R. Mansfield, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Nona Lee
Nona Lee is in her 17th season with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2016 and seventh as Senior Vice President & General Counsel. Lee has served as Vice President & General Counsel since 2005, overseeing all legal issues for the organization. Before dedicating her time solely to the D-backs, she served as Associate General Counsel (2000-04) and Vice President and Associate General Counsel (2004-05) for the Phoenix Suns, D-backs, Phoenix Mercury, Arizona Rattlers, Chase Field, US Airways Center and the Dodge Theater.

Prior to joining the sports industry, Lee had a brief stint as a corporate associate at Gallagher & Kennedy, specializing in corporate transactions and securities, after having worked as a litigator for Meyer Hendricks, specializing in commercial litigation, personal injury and medical malpractice, from 1995-99. Lee received her Juris Doctor in 1995 from the Oklahoma City University School of Law, where she graduated summa cum laude.

Lee is also active in the community, serving as the founder of the Phoenix Women's Sports Association, an Arizona non-profit organization whose mission is to help girls and women find their power through sports. In addition, she also has served on the board of the Women's Sports Foundation in New York, a non-profit organization founded by Billie Jean King that is dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women through sports and physical activity and until late 2012, also served on the Board of the Phoenix Regional Sports Commission, the mission of which is to "enrich our community through sports." She currently serves on the board of the Sports Lawyers Association, a non-profit, international, professional organization whose common goal is the understanding, advancement and ethical practice of sports law, as well as on the Pepperdine Athletic Board, and the board of Florence Crittenton, a local non-profit organization designed to help at-risk girls overcome issues of abuse, neglect, teen pregnancy, teen parenting and behavioral and/or mental problems.

She is a past recipient of the YWCA of Maricopa County's Sports Leader Award, was recognized by the Phoenix Business Journal as one of the Women in Business honorees and was also an Athena Award honoree. She was a recipient of the Joyce Holsey Award of Excellence from the Black Women Lawyer's Association, and has been recognized as one of the Arizona Foothills Magazine's "Women Who Move the Valley". Since 2014, she has been recognized by Republic Media as one of the 50 Highest Ranking Women in Business in Arizona, by AZ Business Magazine as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Arizona, and also received the Spotlight on Success Award from One Community for her commitment to diversity. Most recently, Lee was recognized by the Arizona Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel as Attorney of the Year for Private, Medium Sized Companies.

Lee played college basketball at Pepperdine, where she was a guard for the Waves and was part of a team that compiled a 103-33 record and made three appearances in the AIAW Championships. After earning her undergraduate degree in broadcasting from Pepperdine, she was a graduate assistant for the women's basketball team while working on her post-graduate studies in Broadcast Management.

Christina Lembo
Christina Lembo is a Director of Business and Legal Affairs at FOX Sports. She negotiates, drafts, and reviews a wide range of agreements for FOX's regional and national sports networks and is heavily involved in FOX's growing college multimedia rights business. Additionally, Christina manages the FOX Sports internship program. Christina started her career in sports during college where she gained experience in marketing, sponsorship activation, and event planning and promotion while working with RunTex and former Arena Football League team, the Austin Wranglers. During law school, Christina gained in-house experience working on sports sponsorship agreements and talent deals at The Coca-Cola Company. She also supervised in-game sponsorship activation and promotions for the Atlanta Falcons. Christina has undergraduate degrees in Marketing and Sport Management from The University of Texas at Austin and a Juris Doctorate from Emory University School of Law.

Brandon Leopoldus
Brandon Leopoldus is the President of the Leopoldus Professional Corporation, a law firm in Los Angeles helping athletes with their individual legal needs and setting legal strategies so clients remain Protected during and after their playing careers. His clients have included Olympians, NFL stars, individuals with multiple World Series rings, sports entertainers, broadcasters, and businesses ranging from the initial start-up phase to businesses being acquired.

Prior to working as an attorney, Brandon was an umpire in Minor League Baseball. He umpired more than 600 professional games in the Appalachian, Pioneer, Midwest, California, and Pacific Coast Leagues. He was named an All-Star twice and was selected to umpire 7 playoff series including one championship series assignment. Following his umpiring career, he worked in the front office of the Mountain Collegiate Baseball League as the Director of Baseball Operations before attending Thomas Jefferson School of Law and working for Mandalay Sports Properties.

Brandon is a featured legal contributor to Referee Magazine and Legal Ink Magazine, and is a frequent speaker on business and sports law topics across the country. He holds positions as a Sports Lawyers Association Regional Captain, a founder and board member of the National Sports Law Negotiation Competition, and a member of the Los Angeles Sports Business Alliance.

Catherine Lindsey
Catherine Lindsey is the former Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and General Counsel of CBS Sports Network. In 2015, after twelve successful years at CBS, Cathy left to form her own consulting company, CLP Sports Media. CLP Sports Media provides advisory services in the sports and media industries, with a particular focus on the representation of talent, executives, and rightsholders in their media ventures.

In 2003, Cathy joined CSTV Networks, Inc., the first 24-hour cable network devoted exclusively to college sports, as Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs. She was promoted to EVP, Business Affairs and General Counsel in 2007, shortly after CSTV was acquired by the CBS Corporation and rebranded as the CBS Sports Network. In that role, she managed the network's business affairs/legal department staff, whose objectives were to negotiate and manage business and legal aspects of program acquisition, production, distribution, talent, operations, sponsorship and marketing, syndication and affiliate sales across all media platforms. She has negotiated agreements with conferences (including the Big East, Big Ten, AAC, Atlantic 10, C-USA, Mountain West, Ivy League and Patriot League), rightsholders (including the NFL, PBR and AVP) and networks (including ESPN, Turner, FOX and NBC). She handled major talent deals as well as carriage deals with cable and satellite companies.

Prior to CBS, Cathy served as a Vice President at IMG/TWI (now WME/IMG), a leading sports and entertainment agency and, at the time, the world's largest independent producer of sports programming. Over her eight years at IMG/TWI, her work included negotiating network talent agreements for IMG's broadcasting clients (e.g., Bob Costas, John Madden, Dick Vitale), serving as the Account Coordinator on the Muhammad Ali account and negotiating all of Ali's licensing, appearance and endorsement deals, negotiating sponsorship agreements for IMG properties (e.g., US Soccer, Stars on Ice) and negotiating licensing and endorsement agreements for athlete and celebrity clients (e.g., Venus and Serena Williams, skater Kristi Yamaguchi). In addition, Cathy negotiated various agreements for IMG's multimedia arm, TWI, including website production agreements and domestic and international television license agreements (for such properties as Wimbledon, the British Open, the Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup, PBR, the GQ Men of the Year Awards, US Soccer matches and numerous figure skating shows).

Before breaking into the sports and entertainment arena, Cathy practiced at two different Philadelphia law firms: Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen (as a corporate associate) and Cozen and O'Connor (as a litigation associate).

Cathy graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Finance. She received her J.D. from George Washington University Law School. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and their seven year old twins.

Kate C. Lowenhar-Fisher
Kate C. Lowenhar-Fisher is a leading Nevada gaming attorney who counsels many of the world's premier gaming companies on regulatory issues in connection with mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, reorganizations and financings. She advises clients on issues related to Internet gaming, social gaming, fantasy sports, liquor licensing, nightclubs, restaurants, sweepstakes, contests, and promotions. She regularly represents individuals and businesses before regulatory agencies, including the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, the Nevada Gaming Commission, the Clark County Liquor and Gaming Licensing Board and the Las Vegas City Council. Kate is known as a go-to source on gaming issues. She's been quoted by several major media organizations, including ESPN and Bloomberg News, most recently regarding the controversy surrounding regulation of daily fantasy sports sites and initiatives to legalize sports betting in certain states . She is a member of the International Association of Gaming Advisors and the International Masters of Gaming Law. In addition, she is active in nonprofit organizations, and she sits on the board of directors of Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada.

Oliver Luck
Oliver Luck is the NCAA's first-ever executive vice president for regulatory affairs. In this new role, Luck will bring together all the regulatory functions of the NCAA under one umbrella � enforcement, academic and membership affairs and the eligibility center. He oversees the day-to-day operations of these three vital areas of the national office and is charged with strengthening the collaboration between those groups and increasing efficiency. Developing stronger relationships with member schools is a key part of his job.

As Director of Athletics at West Virginia University, Luck's accomplishments were impressive. In 2013-14, he successfully guided the start of construction on a new $21 million baseball park, which opened in early 2015 and provides the Mountaineers with one of the best facilities in the Big 12. Add in his tireless efforts to secure a $75 million bond, start a $25 million fundraising effort and proceed with a $6 million new football team room and Luck's efforts will show $106 million in facility improvements in the coming years to bring WVU's aging facilities into the modern times.

His work on the national level is equally impressive and equally valuable to West Virginia University. He was named in 2013 to a three-year term on the inaugural College Football Playoff committee, which will change the face of the college football national championship. He serves on the NFL Player Safety Advisory Committee, chairs the Big 12 Budget and Finance Committee, serves on the board of American Campus Community, Inc., and in May, 2014, was one of the featured speakers at the White House at the Healthy Kids and Safe Sports Concussion Summit through his work with the organization Practice like Pros.

Among athletic directors, Luck is also one of the most popular speakers on the national circuit. Countless seminars and conventions feature him on panels and discussion groups to tap into his knowledge of the corporate and collegiate world.

Before 2014, his previous three years at WVU were equally impressive and busy. He has hired new coaches to bolster WVU's level of success. He guided the completion of major capital projects such as the $25 million WVU basketball practice facility for men's and women's basketball and the women's soccer training complex. He led WVU into the Big 12 Conference, presided over the best fundraising year in school history (2012), implemented several safety and crowd enhancements at Mountaineer sporting events, increased overall department revenue, continued a master plan for facility upgrades and watched his football program gain its third BCS bowl victory.

In 2013, Luck oversaw the reseating of the WVU Coliseum to further increase WVU's fundraising efforts. He added an 18th varsity sport - men's golf, which will tee it up in 2015 for the first time since 1982. He outsourced WVU's media rights to secure a 12-year guaranteed annual revenue source of at least $6 million per year from IMG. However, through all his accomplishments in four years in Morgantown, it all has occurred while he has fostered an atmosphere for achievement and triumph in the classroom and on the field.

Luck, was appointed the University's 11th Director of Athletics on June 9, 2010 and he was no stranger to success. In fact, Luck's athletic and professional career has been the epitome of success, first as a record-setting quarterback for the Mountaineers from 1978-81, then as a professional quarterback for the National Football League's Houston Oilers, and later as a professional sports executive.

Luck's journey to the big chair at WVU began in his native Cleveland, where in 1977 he was named the Cleveland Touchdown Club Player of the Year at St. Ignatius High. Luck chose WVU over Ivy League schools Harvard and Yale, embarking upon a career that saw him establish school records for touchdown passes and completions during his playing days, while also leading the Mountaineers to a 26-6 upset victory over Florida in the 1981 Peach Bowl. His best season came as a senior in 1981 when he completed 216 of 394 passes for 2,448 yards and 16 touchdowns. He passed for a career-high 360 yards in a 27-24 loss to Syracuse at the Carrier Dome in the final regular-season game of his career.

Luck ended his college career with 5,765 yards and 43 touchdown passes, both figures still ranking among the best in school history. Luck was a two-time team MVP in 1980 and 1981, and also received the Louis D. Meisel Award for the WVU football student-athlete with the highest grade point average. The two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American was the recipient of Today's Top Five, presented for scholastics by the NCAA and was selected by the National Football Foundation as one of its 10 scholar-athletes to make a keynote speech at its annual banquet in 1982.

Selected in the second round of the NFL draft by the Houston Oilers (44th overall pick), Luck spent four years with the Oilers from 1982-86. His most extended action came in 1983 when he started six games and finished the season completing 124-of-217 passes for 1,375 yards and eight touchdowns. After retiring from football, Luck became vice president of business development for the NFL and later was appointed general manager of the Frankfurt Galaxy of the newly created World League of American Football. He spent the '95 season as general manager of the Rhein Fire before being named President and CEO of NFL Europe in 1996. Luck totaled more than 10 years with the NFL, before becoming chief executive officer of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority in 2001. In that role, Luck oversaw the development and management of a $1 billion professional sports and entertainment complex for the city of Houston that included Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans, the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets.

In 2005, Luck was appointed as the first president of Major League Soccer's Houston Dynamos, helping that organization to a pair of MLS Cup titles in his first two years at the helm. Luck secured the funding for an $80 million soccer complex to house the Dynamos when the call came to return to his alma mater. BBVA Compass Stadium was built and opened in 2012 adding to Luck's legacy with the professional soccer team, and the overall Houston sports facility complexes. He returned to Houston in May, 2012 for the opening ceremony of the soccer stadium that he fought so hard for.

Prior to his current position at WVU, Luck was appointed to a four-year term on the West Virginia University Board of Governors, a spot he relinquished to become director of athletics. The Rhodes Scholar finalist graduated Phi Beta Kappa from WVU in 1982. He also earned a law degree from Texas, graduating cum laude in 1987. In 1997, Luck was inducted into the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2000, he was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame. He is married to the former Kathy Wilson. They have two sons and two daughters: Andrew, a former All-American quarterback and two-time Heisman Trophy finalist at Stanford and No. 1 overall pick of the 2012 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts; Mary Ellen, a standout volleyball player and graduate of Stanford; Emily, a current student at Stanford and Addison, who attends Morgantown High.

Despina Mavromati
An international sports lawyer with many years of experience in arbitration, Despina is Head of research and mediation at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In this capacity, she is responsible for all research-related activities, mediation proceedings and knowledge dissemination events at the Court. Her research focuses on the analysis of CAS jurisprudence (both procedural and substantive aspects), issues related to good governance, disciplinary and ethics proceedings, the law of international sports federations and the use of mediation in resolving sports-related disputes. Despina is the author of the critically acclaimed book "The Code of the Court of Arbitration for Sport: Commentary, Cases and Materials" (with Matthieu Reeb). She has taught sports law and arbitration as well as international arbitration at the CIES FIFA Master (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland) and in various Swiss and European Universities. Despina is visiting scholar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy for the academic year 2015-2016.

Kai McGintee
Kai is a shareholder at Bernstein Shur in Portland, Maine. She represents private and public institutions of higher education and advises them in the areas of student affairs, employment, and Title IX compliance. Kai regularly presents training sessions to administrators, faculty, and hearing boards on Title IX and investigations. Kai has also successfully defended academic institutions in tenure and discrimination cases brought in state and federal court. She is a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys and the Association of Workplace Investigators.

In addition to Kai's higher education law practice, she is an experienced Title IX investigator and specializes in investigating sexual violence complaints. Kai serves as a neutral, external investigator to colleges, universities and private secondary schools throughout New England. She also frequently speaks on the topic of sexual misconduct to schools.

Kai graduated from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, where she now serves as an independent appeal officer in sexual misconduct cases. Kai attended law school at the University of Maine School of Law. She graduated magna cum laude and was Case Note and Comment Editor of the Maine Law Review.

Kai lives in Yarmouth, Maine and is an avid skier, runner, and devoted mom to a feisty three year old.

Jane McManus
Jane McManus has covered New York sports since 1998 and began covering football just before Brett Favre's stint with the Jets. Her work has appeared in Newsday, USA Today, The Journal News and The New York Times.

Currently, McManus covers the NFLfor ESPN.com, and writes columns and features for espnW, a part of the website which covers women's sports and represents female sports fans. She also hosts a weekly radio show on ESPN Radio.

She has broken national news stories, and has appeared on ESPN's shows and numerous radio affiliates to talk sports.

McManus is an adjunct professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, the same program from which she received her Master's degree, where she teaches the sports journalism class.

McManus lives in the New York suburbs with her husband and their two daughters. Beginning in 2008, she embarked on a seven-year roller derby career and once scored 99 points for her Suburban Brawl against Jersey Shore.

Maria McNulty
A graduate of the University of Utah College of Law, Ms. McNulty has been involved with emerging sports for over two decades. She has extensive global experience consulting on issues ranging from sponsorships to rights management, event management to content/television production, working with national governing bodies to international federations. Among other projects, Ms. McNulty has served as Chairman of the Board of the World Snowboard Tour since 2003 and oversees international expansion for Street League Skateboarding. Ms. McNulty lives in Park City, Utah and is an avid snowboarder.

Jayma Meyer
Jayma is Counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and a Visiting Scholar at Indiana University. Jayma advocates the power of sport to bring about social change. Her focus is on achieving gender equality, inclusion, safety and integrity in sports through education, activism and litigation.

Jayma received a B.S. from Indiana University in 1975, with high distinction, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. She began her legal career as an attorney in the Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission, in Washington, D.C., and moved to private practice in 1981 when she joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City. Jayma established Simpson Thacher's Los Angeles office in 1995 and returned to the New York office in the fall of 1998. She has focused her litigation practice on antitrust and Title IX. A Visiting Scholar at Indiana University, Jayma teaches sports law and public policy, consults on matters impacting student-athletes, and lectures on Title IX, amateurism and ethical issues in sports.

Jayma is on the Boards of the Women's Sports Association and National Women's Law Center, a member of the Dean's Council, School of Public and Environmental Policy, Indiana University, and on sports advocacy groups for several nonprofit advocacy groups. Jayma has been named multiple times a New York Super Lawyer in the categories of Antitrust and Top Women Lawyers, and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University (SPEA) in 2014.

Matt Mitten
Professor Mitten is the Director of the National Sports Law Institute and the LL.M. in Sports Law program for foreign lawyers at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as the Law School's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from July 2002 to June 2004. He currently teaches courses in Amateur Sports Law, Professional Sports Law, Sports Sponsorship Legal and Business Issues Workshop, and Torts, and has also taught Antitrust Law, Comparative Sports Law, International Sports Law, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and a Sports Law seminar during his 25-year teaching career.

Professor Mitten earned a B.A. in Economics from The Ohio State University and his JD, magna cum laude, from the University of Toledo College of Law. He is a member of the Order of the Coif and served as a Note & Comment Editor for the University of Toledo Law Review's editorial board. He practiced antitrust and intellectual property law as well as commercial litigation with Kilpatrick Townsend in Atlanta, Georgia, and previously taught at South Texas College of Law in Houston. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Toledo College of Law and as a visiting lecturer in sports medicine at The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine. He has taught United States Sports Law as a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School in Australia (2006, 2008, 2010, and 2013) and is a member of its International Advisory Board for its Graduate Diploma in Sports Law program. He regularly lectures at Western Law School in Canada, and also has taught international and comparative sports law courses at the University of Barcelona in Spain and the University of Queensland in Australia.

Professor Mitten has authored Sports Law in the United States (Wolters Kluwer 2011, 2d. ed. 2014) and co-authored a law school textbook, Sports Law and Regulation: Cases, Materials, and Problems (Aspen/Wolters Kluwer 2005, 2d. ed. 2009, 3d. ed. 2013), and Sports Law: Governance and Regulation (Wolters Kluwer 2013, 2d. ed. 2016). A leading sports law scholar, he has published articles in several of the nation's leading law reviews as well as in medical journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, and is a member of the editorial board for The International Sports Law Journal.

Professor Mitten is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Lausanne, Switzerland) (serving on the ad hoc Division for the XXI Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia), the American Arbitration Association's commercial, consumer, Olympic sports, and United States Anti-doping Agency arbitration panels, and the Ladies Professional Golfers Association's drug testing arbitration panel, and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution Sports Arbitration Panel. He is the president of the Sports Lawyers Association and serves on its Board of Directors as well as the Advisory Board for the Sports & Society Initiative of The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences. He formerly chaired the American Association of Law Schools' Section on Law and Sports and the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, and served on the inaugural Board of Directors of the Forum for the Scholarly Study of Intercollegiate Athletics at the invitation of former NCAA president Myles Brand.

Professor Mitten testified before a Congressional joint subcommittee regarding proposed federal regulation of ephedrine in August 2003 and the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics regarding alternative regulatory systems for college sports in May 2015. He has discussed a wide variety of sports law topics at more than 150 conferences and seminars throughout the United States as well as in Australia, Canada, China, England, the Republic of Korea, and Turkey.

Benjamin R. Mulcahy
Benjamin R. Mulcahy is the Co-Team Leader of Sheppard Mullin's Sports Industry, Digital Media and Advertising Industry Teams.

Mr. Mulcahy represents and counsels major film studios, broadcast and cable television networks, retailers, consumer brands and their agencies. His practice includes sports and entertainment marketing, interactive marketing, e-commerce and branded entertainment, which consists of preparing endorsement and sponsorship agreements, implementing and avoiding ambush marketing campaigns, preparing and negotiating joint promotion alliances, analyzing and licensing copyright, trademark, publicity rights and other intellectual property rights, reviewing and clearing long-form and short-form content in all media, structuring user-generated and professionally-produced content distribution and monetization initiatives, complying with privacy concerns, preparing advertising agency and media planning and buying agreements, and advising clients in complying with state and federal anti-lottery and anti-gambling regulations governing eSports, fantasy sports, online and mobile gaming and high-profile multi-channel promotional initiatives.

Mr. Mulcahy has been ranked as one of the country's leading attorneys by The National Law Journal, which named him at the age of 36 to its annual "40 Under 40" list. In 2014, he was named one of California's "Top Entertainment Lawyers" by The Daily Journal. Mr. Mulcahy received a prestigious Burton Award, one of the highest literary honors in law, in 2008 for his legal writing on the virtual world Second Life. He has been consistently selected for inclusion in the annual editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers, has been consistently named a "Super Lawyer" in both New York and Southern California by the editors of Law & Politics, and has been recognized by Lawdragon Magazine and by the Legal 500 as one of the leading Film, Television and Advertising lawyers in America.

James A.R. Nafziger
James A.R. Nafziger is the Thomas B. Stoel Professor of Law and Director of International Programs at Willamette University College of Law. After receiving B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Wisconsin and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, Professor Nafziger was Henry Luce Fellow and later Administrative Director of the American Society of International Law, in which he currently serves as Secretary. He is a former Fulbright lecturer at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the National and Otgontenger Universities in Mongolia.

As a Scholar-in-Residence at the Rockefeller Foundation's Study Center in Bellagio, Italy, Professor Nafziger completed the first book specifically on international sports law, which is now in its second edition. He has authored or edited two other books on international and comparative sports law and many published articles in that field, among others. Professor Nafziger serves as Honorary President of the International Association of Sports Law (IASL), from which he received that organization's first (Aisimnitis) prize for outstanding contributions to the development of sports law. He also received the Award for Extraordinary Contributions from the American Society of Comparative Law. In 2005 he served as the co-director of The Hague Academy of International Law Centre for Studies and Research.