Steven Fehr
NHLPA

Steven Fehr is an attorney from Kansas City who currently serves as Special Counsel to the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA). In that role he represented the NHLPA during the owner's lockout in 2012-13 and was one of the lead negotiators in the bargaining that led to a new collective bargaining agreement that was reached in January 2013. He continues to work with the NHLPA on a wide range of matters including contract administration, health and safety, and governmental affairs.

Mr. Fehr's work in sports dates back to 1980. Previously as longtime outside counsel to the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), matters he worked on included strikes, lockouts, several rounds of collective bargaining, the collusion cases of the late 1980s, the Mitchell Investigation in 2006-7 regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs, and the events that led to the passage of the Curt Flood Act of 1998.

Gabe Feldman
Tulane University Law School

Gabe Feldman is a law professor at Tulane Law School, the Director of the Tulane Sports Law Program and the Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance at Tulane University. He joined the Tulane Law School faculty in 2005 after nearly five years as an associate with the Washington, DC law firm of Williams & Connolly. Prior to that, he served as judicial clerk to the Honorable Susan H. Black of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Jacksonville, Florida. He attended Duke University and the Duke University School of Law, where he received a Bachelor's degree in economics and psychology, a Masters degree in social psychology, and a Juris Doctor. Professor Feldman has extensive experience in the field of sports law. He represented a variety of sports entities while in the private practice of law and still serves as a consultant for a number of clients in the sports industry.

Professor Feldman has emerged as one of the leading voices in the country in the growing field of sports law. He is regularly quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers throughout the country, and he has made numerous appearances on national television and radio. Professor Feldman serves as the legal analyst for the NFL Network and is a contributor to Grantland.com. He currently serves as the editor of The Sports Lawyers Journal, a law journal devoted to the study of sports law, and The Sports Lawyer, a monthly on-line sports law newsletter, and is a regular contributor to the Sports Law Blog. He is the Director of Publications for the Sports Lawyers Association, the co-author of one of the leading sports law casebooks in the country, Sports Law: Cases and Materials, and has been published in a variety of journals and periodicals. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Athletes for Hope, a non-profit organization created to harness the power of sports to impact social change. He teaches Antitrust, Sports Law, Negotiation and Mediation, Intellectual Property and Contracts.

Professor Feldman received the Tulane President's Awards for Excellence in Professional and Graduate Teaching in 2013.

Buffy Filippell
TeamWork Online

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.

Ari Fleischer
Fleischer Communications

As former White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer was the primary spokesperson for President George W. Bush and delivered the daily White House briefings from 2001 to 2003. He previously served as the spokesperson for the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign. In his almost four years working for President Bush, he served as spokesperson during the historic presidential recount, September 11th, two wars, and the anthrax attack. His best-selling book, Taking Heat, details his years in the White House and reached #7 on The New York Times Best Sellers list.

Prior to joining the Bush campaign, Fleischer was the national spokesperson and communications director for Elizabeth Dole's presidential campaign. He has also worked on Capitol Hill as a press secretary to three Congressmen and one U.S. Senator.

Fleischer is a native of Pound Ridge, New York and a 1982 graduate of Vermont's Middlebury College. Now president of his own firm, Ari Fleischer Communications Inc., he offers advice to clients in the corporate and sports worlds on how to handle the press. He is also a Fox News contributor.

He resides in Westchester County, New York, with his wife, Becki, and their two children.

Bob Foose
MLS Players Union

Bob Foose is the Executive Director of the Major League Soccer Players Union, a position he has held since the Union's formation in 2003. During his tenure, the Union has successfully negotiated three Collective Bargaining Agreements, in 2004, 2010 and 2015, each achieved without a work stoppage. It has nearly doubled in size and maintained 100% membership among the player pool in MLS.

These CBAs negotiated by the Union have: (i) established a grievance and arbitration process for players; (ii) implemented a retirement plan with a mandatory league contribution; (iii) more than quadrupled the average player salary; (iv) nearly tripled the minimum salary for senior roster players and more than quadrupled the minimum salary for reserve players; (v) substantially broadened player movement rights, as well as establishing restricted free agency, (vi) increased the group licensing payments due to players more than ten-fold; and (vii) protected players' rights under the workers compensation system.

Robert Fuller
Robinson Bradshaw

Robinson Bradshaw attorney Robert Fuller routinely provides legal counsel to sports entities in both litigation and general business matters. He represented the Southeastern Conference in Marshall v. ESPN, 111 F. Supp. 3d 815 (M.D. Tn. 2015), aff'd, 686 Fed. App'x 155 (6th Cir. 2016), where he served as lead counsel for the Conference Defendants, and has extensive experience in litigation and non-litigation matters concerning rights of publicity. Along with corporate counsel at Robinson Bradshaw, he was counsel for the SEC in connection with the formation and launch of the SEC Network and the negotiation of the Conference's media rights contracts with CBS and ESPN. He has also represented other rights holders in media negotiations.

Daniel Gandert
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

Daniel Gandert is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He received his JD from Northwestern University, and BA in Government and Sociology at Georgetown University. Professor Gandert has a research interest in sports dispute resolution with a focus on Court of Arbitration for Sport ("CAS") doping issues and unethical behaviors in sports.  He has both written articles and presented on these topics, in the U.S. and internationally. In addition to teaching classes on these subjects, Gandert teaches classes on negotiation and dispute resolution and coaches the law school's negotiation teams. Gandert has written articles about how the Court of Arbitration for Sport utilizes the principle of proportionality in doping cases as well as how it has interpreted the limits imposed by the World Anti-Doping Code for recent doping cases.  Professor Gandert is a part of the Committee of Integrity, Security and Safety on Sports Competition for the International Association of Sports Law. Gandert is a certified mediator as well as a member of the Illinois Bar.

Kevin W. Goering
Mintz & Gold LLP

Kevin Goering is a partner in the New York office of Mintz & Gold LLP.  Mr. Goering specializes in litigation and counseling in the areas of intellectual property, libel and privacy, publicity rights, First Amendment, data privacy, and sports law.  Mr. Goering represents content creators including publishers, internet companies, authors, athletes, artists, and actors, as well as their representative associations, agents and entities who disseminate their creative content. Mr. Goering has extensive commercial litigation experience, including pretrial, trial and appellate work in state and federal courts. Mintz & Gold  is a full service firm  comprised of preeminent commercial transactional and litigation lawyers and criminal defense experts.

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.  For 20 years until its demise in 2005, Mr. Goering was a partner and head of litigation in the New York City office of the prestigious international firm of Coudert Brothers. He then became a partner of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton and, later, Norwick Schad & Goering. Mr. Goering has been an active member and leader of many State and Federal Bar Association committees, the Copyright Society of the USA, the Sports Lawyers Association and the Media Law Resource Center.  He has served on the Board of Directors of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts for 17 years. 

Mr. Goering is 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 writer, commentator and CLE speaker on Intellectual Property, Media and Sports Law topics and has advised numerous pro bono organizations and foreign governments on emerging intellectual property issues in the digital age. 

Melissa Goldenberg
Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Mercury and Talking Stick Resort Arena

Melissa Goldenberg oversees all legal aspects of the Phoenix Suns, the Phoenix Mercury and the Talking Stick Resort Arena and is in her fifth season as General Counsel.

Before joining the Suns, Goldenberg spent three years working as Corporate Counsel for Western Alliance Bancorporation, a publicly-traded bank holding company based in Phoenix. Prior to leaving private practice and joining the corporate world, she spent almost 10 years handling complex finance, real estate and business transactions, as well as providing general representation related to business and commercial law.

Goldenberg has a dual degree in Political Science and Communication from the University of Illinois and a law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law. She is the proud mother to two children and likes nothing more than to cheer on the sidelines of their soccer games.

Peter Goplerud
Florida Coastal School of Law

Peter Goplerud is a senior executive at InfiLaw, a firm that is the owner of Florida Coastal School of Law. Goplerud received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Kansas. He began his career as a law clerk for Justice David Prager of the Supreme Court of Kansas and later joined the faculty of the University of Akron School of Law. He has taught at Southern Illinois University School of Law where he was also dean and associate dean, Saint Louis University School of Law and the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he served as dean for three years. In addition, he served as Dean of Drake University Law School from 1997 through June of 2003 and Florida Coastal School of Law from 2004 through May of 2013. His academic specialty is sports law and he has been a frequent lecturer and is widely published in the area, including serving as co-author on one of the leading textbooks on the subject.

In 1997, Goplerud was elected to the Sports Lawyers Association Board of Directors. He has served on numerous committees for the organization and has been the Conference Chair and Co-Chair. He served as member of the Advisory Board of the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University Law School from 1999 to 2005. He has been a consultant in the sports law field and served as Of Counsel to law firms in Denver, Tulsa, St. Louis, and Edmond, Oklahoma, as well as providing service as an expert witness. Goplerud was involved in the representation of professional athletes in team and individual sports during the 1980s and 1990s. He also has experience with coaches' contracts, and NCAA matters, including athlete eligibility issues and compliance matters. And, he hosted a weekly radio show on sports law and business topics. He is currently Of Counsel to Spencer Fane LLP.

Rebecca Gose
Oregon State University

Becca Gose is General Counsel for Oregon State University, Oregon's land grant research university with over 32,000 students. While Becca and her team advise on a wide array of diverse legal issues for the University, its Division I (Pac12) athletics program creates many opportunities for advising in the athletics arena, including issues relating to free speech, student conduct, employment, contracts, litigation, risk management, civil rights and more. Becca's philosophy is to support the University's mission through providing strategic and preventative advising, crafting creative yet pragmatic solutions, and engaging in collaborative problem-solving.

She has served the University for 9 years, starting as Assistant and then Associate General Counsel before serving as General Counsel, a role she has held for the last 4 years. Prior to coming to the University, she was a litigation attorney in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson, where a portion of her practice was dedicated to representing public higher education institutions, in addition to employment, copyright, and general business litigation. She also served as a law clerk to the Honorable David M. Ebel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She received her JD from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) and her BA from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Chris Greeley
Riot Games, Inc

Chris is a Senior Manager at Riot and the Commissioner and head of League Operations for the League of Legends North America League Championship Series. In addition, Chris is the global discipline lead for League Operations, providing guidance, policies and best practices to all of Riot's fourteen regions. Chris has also run League Operations for Riot's international events, including the Mid-Season Invitational and World Championship. Chris is responsible for the day to day operation of the NA LCS, was one of the primary architects of the NA LCS franchise model and led the 2017 application process for participation in the NA LCS.

Prior to joining Riot, Chris was a partner at the New York City law firm Herrick, Feinstein LLP. Chris joined Herrick's litigation group as an associate in 2004 after graduating Fordham Law School, and spent his entire legal career practicing there. During his 12 plus years at Herrick, Chris concentrated in securities and commodities litigation, defending clients in civil lawsuits, investigations and actions conducted by regulatory agencies and exchanges. Chris also worked with Herrick's art law group and sports law group, providing strategic advice on certain matters and litigating others. He helped start Herrick's esports practice before leaving the firm to join Riot.

CDavid Greenspan
Winston & Strawn LLP

David Greenspan is an accomplished antitrust, sports, and commercial litigator. He has represented clients in complex commercial disputes at both trial and appellate courts, as well as before arbitration panels and government agencies. With respect to sports-related litigation, David most recently represented the classes of Division 1 and FBS college basketball and football players in a landmark antitrust suit against the NCAA and various athletic conferences. He regularly represents the NFL Players Association and NFL players, and has appeared in numerous matters involving players such as Tom Brady, Colin Kaepernick, Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Ezekiel Elliott, Eric Reid, Terrell Owens, and Michael Vick, among others. David has also represented NBA players, the NBA Players Association, the MLB Players Association, the NHL Players' Association, professional tennis players, professional poker players, a prospective NHL owner, professional sports agents, and an Olympic gold medalist. David formerly served as the chair of the New York City Bar Association's Sports Law Committee, is a two-time Sports Business Journal 40 Under 40 award winner, and has been ranked in the field of sports law by publications including Chambers, Law360, and Benchmark Litigation.

Richard Haddad
Palace Sports & Entertainment/Detroit Pistons

Richard Haddad is Senior Vice President & General Counsel at Palace Sports & Entertainment and the Detroit Pistons. He oversees corporate and real estate development, human resources, and legal, business and government affairs for PSE, the Detroit Pistons, and related properties and companies, including Pistons Performance, the Palace of Auburn Hills, Pistons GT and the Detroit Pistons Foundation. He also counsels and supports 313 Presents and its venues and properties, including Little Caesar's Arena, the Fox Theatre, DTE Energy Music Theatre, Freedom Hill Amphitheatre, and Meadow Brook Amphitheatre.

Before joining PSE in 2012, Richard practiced law at Proskauer Rose LLP in New York, where he represented a broad base of corporate and individual clients in sports, finance, media, entertainment, aviation, real estate and other sectors and industries; and served as a law clerk to Judge Barbara S. Jones of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Richard grew up in Adrian, Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School.

D. Max Hilsman
Morgan Stanley

Max is currently Morgan Stanley's Atlanta Complex and Southeast Regional Manager for Private Wealth Management in Atlanta GA.

An Atlanta native, Max attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. Upon graduation, he and his wife Ingrid (also a native Atlantan) moved to Germany where they lived for three years. While there, he was twice deployed to the former Yugoslavia in both Bosnia and Kosovo.  Max finished his tour with the US Army at Ft Benning, GA where he served as an instructor at the Officer Candidate School.

For the past 18 years, Max has held many leadership positions across the Southeast for Morgan Stanley & predecessor firms. He began his career as a financial advisor in the Solomon Smith Barney Atlanta Perimeter office.

Outside of work, Max is a passionate supporter of numerous Veteran Support organizations and enjoys the adventures of being a dad to his two teenagers.

Dana L. Hooper
GreenbergTraurig LLP

Dana Hooper's unique practice focuses on employment law, commercial litigation, and sports matters. In representing businesses in employment litigation and consultation she delivers assistance in a variety of areas, including contract preparation and negotiation, employment handbooks and policies, employee accommodations, wrongful termination, retaliation, discrimination, harassment, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and collective and class action defense. Dana's commercial litigation experience, in both federal and state court, runs the gamut of representing businesses in disputes, such as contract claims and business torts in numerous industries of varying sizes and types.

Dana's sports law practice concentrates on representation of both athletes and sports-oriented business. As a certified athlete's agent, Dana provides her clients with support in areas including contract drafting, negotiations, endorsement deals, development, league and team issues, legal advice, and overall counsel throughout their careers. Dana's experience with teams, leagues, and businesses has proven to be an asset to clients in various sports throughout the world.

Howard Jacobs
Law Offices of Howard L. Jacobs

Howard Jacobs is a lawyer in the Los Angeles suburb of Westlake Village, California. His law firm, Law Offices of Howard L. Jacobs, is a sports arbitration and litigation boutique firm that has been representing athletes for nearly 20 years.

Mr. Jacobs has been identified by leading national and international publications as one of the leading sports lawyers in the world. He is an athlete's lawyer and not a sports agent. He represents athletes in all types of disputes, with a particular focus on the defense of athletes charged with doping and other disciplinary offenses. He has represented nearly 300 professional athletes, Olympic athletes and amateur athletes in disputes involving doping, salary issues, team selection issues, SafeSport issues, and other matters. He has been consistently listed by the Chambers Guide as one of the top ranked lawyers in the United States for athletic disputes.  In addition to his law practice, Mr. Jacobs is an Adjunct Professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, where he teaches sports law.

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, and on twitter at @athleteslawyer.

Stephanie Jarvis
Arizona State University College of Law

Stephanie Jarvis currently serves as the Principal of SJarvis Consulting, a sports and events consulting firm. She is also a lecturer with the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

She served as Chief Operating Officer for the Phoenix Final Four Local Organizing Committee, which worked with the NCAA to execute the 2017 Men's Final Four in Phoenix. Prior to that, she served as senior vice president and Chief Operating Officer of the Arizona Organizing Committee, which worked with the College Football Playoff to execute the 2016 CFP National Championship in Glendale.

The former general counsel and chief compliance officer at Fiesta Bowl, Professor Jarvis also worked for Indianapolis-based Horizon League, where she served as associate commissioner and general counsel. She ran the Horizon League's compliance program to help member institutions understand and comply with NCAA regulations, and she oversaw numerous conference championships, along with working with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, television parthers, the Horizon League Network and oustside corporate sponsorship sales teams.

Mathew Jessep
DWF

Mathew Jessep is a commercial lawyer with specialist skills and experience in Sports, Esports, Media and Entertainment Law, operating mainly out of Australia.

In June 2018 Mat joined the Sydney office of global law firm, DWF, as a Supervising Lawyer (Special Counsel equivalent) where he acts for a range of Australian and international clients on commercial, transactional, and governance issues.

As a dedicated Sports lawyer, Mat has a solid record of experience advising sporting organisations, leagues, teams, athletes, sponsors, investors and rights holders. Mat has acted on a range of matters including: intellectual property; commercial agreements; transactions; media rights deals;  player contracts; member protection; disputes; integrity; and governance issues. In relation to sporting disputes, Mat has also sat on tribunals and acted as Judiciary Counsel for sporting bodies, including in relation to: harassment; bullying; child protection; team selection; competition rule violations; and athlete conduct issues.

Since 2016 Mat has developed significant expertise in the high-growth esports sector, having advised players, teams, investors, and event organisers on a broad range of commercial and legal matters. Since that time Mat has become a leading lawyer in esports, where he now acts for investors, teams, and tournament operators on high value cross-border transactions. Mat is also the co-founder of industry body, the Esports Games Association Australia (EGAA) and is now a board member and became Interim CEO in 2018.

Mat regularly speaks on sports law topics at conferences and to the media, and also teaches on sports and esports as a Casual Academic at the University of Technology Sydney Business School and as a Senior Fellow of The University of Melbourne Law School where he is developing a subject on esports as part of the Sports Law Masters.

Kelly Jones
Under Armour

Kelly Jones is currently Senior Counsel, Sports Marketing at Under Armour. Prior to working at Under Armour, Kelly worked for six years in-house at Octagon in its Talent and Properties Division. Kelly received her B.A. from Bucknell University, where she was a four-year member of the women's varsity swim team, and her J.D. from The George Washington University School of Law.

Janet Judge
Holland & Knight

Janet P. Judge is a higher education attorney who focuses her practice in the area of sports and civil rights law and works with public, private, and religiously affiliated institutions. Ms. Judge is well-versed in civil rights law, LGBTQ+ protections, OCR investigations, pay and program equity reviews, strategic program development, and organization, employee and student investigations, including NCAA eligibility and infraction investigations and resolutions. In addition, Ms. Judge collaborates with schools to develop and deliver preventative programming focused on sexual misconduct, gender discrimination, hazing, and social media. She was an appointed member of the NCAA Board of Governors' Commission to Combat Campus Sexual Violence, Tennessee's Special Independent Commission on Title IX Resources and Programs, and the ABA Criminal Justice Section Task Force on College Due Process Rights and Victim Protections. She teaches the NACUA's Title IX coordinator course and has conducted workshops at more than 500 NCAA schools, and conferences.

Ms. Judge was selected as the 2019 Sports Lawyer of the Year for Boston by Best Lawyers in America. In 2017, Ms. Judge was president of Sports Law Associates LLC, ranked among the top-nine sports law firms nationally by U.S. News & World Report.

Josh Kane
Twitter

Josh Kane is Senior Legal Counsel at Twitter, where he partners with the Twitter Global Content Partnerships team to structure, draft, and lead licensing, distribution, and advertising monetization deal negotiations with sports leagues, TV networks, movie studios, entertainers, and esports/gaming content partners. In the sports context, Josh has lead content deal negotiations with the NFL, NBA, MLB, FIFA World Cup, PGA Tour, MLS, ESPN, Fox Sports, Bleacher Report/Turner Sports, and The Players Tribune, amongst others. In the entertainment space, Josh has worked on deals with NBC, Disney, Viacom, Activision/Blizzard, and others. Prior to working at Twitter, Josh worked in various in-house counsel roles over a 10-year span at the LPGA, where he was responsible for managing all commercial deals (tournaments, title/corporate sponsorships, domestic/international media, licensing, etc.), IP management and protection, marketing and communications support, the LPGA's anti-doping program, and risk management. As an avid lifelong athlete and fan, you'll find Josh supporting the Florida Gators, Philadelphia Eagles/Phillies, and, as a new Bay Area resident, the Golden State Warriors. You can catch Josh on Twitter at @KaneSportsLaw.

Roger Kaplan
Roger Kaplan, Esq

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.

John Keenan
AEG

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 (10) and Kaylee (9).

Noah Knight
NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC)

Originally from Olathe, KS, Noah Knight attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) as a business major and member of the UMKC Men's Basketball team. After two playing seasons, Knight was medically disqualified due to injury and transitioned into academic advising while staying involved with the UMKC Men's Basketball team. Knight became heavily involved in the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee post medical disqualification and in January of 2018 became the first Division I SAAC Chair from the Western Athletic Conference, earning a seat on the NCAA Board of Directors and other ad-hoc committees to assist the Commission on College Basketball reform. Knight, one of two Division I SAAC members to serve on the most recent Transfer Working Group, played an integral role in the Notification of Transfer legislation, leading the NCAA Division I SAAC sub-committee credited for creating an educational document specifically for student-athletes. Noah Knight is now part of the UMKC Athletics administrative staff, assisting the department as Development Officer.

Jason R. Krochak
Proskauer Rose LLP

Jason Krochak is an associate in Proskauer's Sports Law Group. He has a broad-based corporate practice with a particular focus on clients in the sports industry.

Jason represents sports leagues and teams, private equity firms, financial institutions and corporate sponsors in a variety of corporate and commercial matters, including acquisitions, joint ventures, league expansions, financings, governance, naming rights agreements, licensing agreements and other commercial transactions.

Abraham Madkour
SportsBusiness Journal/SportsBusiness Daily

Abraham Madkour is Executive Editor of Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal, SportsBusiness Daily and SportsBusiness Daily Global.Mr. Madkour is responsible for determining the editorial content and shaping the editorial direction of the leading publications on the business of sports, while managing the entire editorial staff. In addition, he oversees all the editorial content for the various conferences produced by Street & Smith's Sports Business Group, including the prestigious World Congress of Sports and Forty Under 40 awards dinner. Mr. Madkour serves as the lead moderator and editorial spokesman for all of the company's events. Mr. Madkour joined SportsBusiness Daily as a Senior Staff Writer when the publication launched in August 1994. He was named Editor-in-Chief in September 1996 and became Executive Editor of SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily in 2003.Prior to joining SportsBusiness Daily, Mr. Madkour was a Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. In addition to working with Senator Leahy, Mr. Madkour had stints working for the Washington Bullets and the Baltimore Orioles in 1993 and 1994.He lives in Charlotte, N.C., and is a graduate of the University of Vermont.

John Manly
Manly & Stewart & Finaldi

Named one of California's "Top 100 Attorneys" and one of California's top 30 Plaintiff Lawyers by the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and Orange County's most "Buzzworthy" attorney by Orange Coast Magazine, John C. Manly is California's preeminent attorney representing victims of sexual abuse. Over the past decade, John and his legal team have been heavily involved in the most significant sexual abuse actions litigated across the nation, assisting in the recovery of more than a billion dollars—through trial and settlement—on behalf sexual abuse victims. Additionally, Manly, Stewart & Finaldi's litigation has effectuated significant non-monetary changes to the policies and procedures of youth and charitable organizations, helping to keep kids safe.

Mr. Manly took on his first sexual abuse case in 1997. The case involved a young man victimized by his priest/high school principal. After 5 years of litigation, leaving no stone unturned, Mr. Manly was able to achieve a 5.2 million dollar settlement in the action—still the largest single-victim pre-trial settlement in history for the type of abuse suffered. Since that time, Mr. Manly has devoted his time to assembling a powerful team of attorneys who specialize in litigating sexual abuse civil cases on behalf of children and vulnerable adults, firmly establishing Manly, Stewart & Finaldi as the nation's preeminent law firm in the field. Manly, Stewart & Finaldi specializes in litigation of molestation, sexual harassment and exploitation actions in religious, employment, educational, familial and other settings. View our firm news page for more information. Mr. Manly's work was predominantly featured in the 2005 documentary "Deliver Us From Evil," which centered around the civil prosecution of notorious predator priest Oliver O'Grady and the church officials who protected him. His exploits in this arena have garnered substantial national media attention, cementing his reputation as one of the nation's leading authorities in the arena of sexual abuse litigation.

Despina Mavromati
SPORTlegis

Dr. Despina Mavromati is an attorney practicing in the field of international sports law and arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland.

She teaches International Sports Law and Sports Arbitration at the University of Lausanne and co-authored "The Code of the Court of Arbitration for Sport: Commentary, Cases and Materials" (Wolters Kluwer 2015).

Despina has been appointed as counsel or expert witness in many recent high-profile sports arbitrations.

She also serves as an arbitrator at the tribunals of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF), the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is a Member of the Doping Hearing Panel of the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF).

Despina acted as Managing Counsel and Head of Research and Mediation with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) from 2008 to 2017.

She is a Founder and Board Member of Women In Sports Law (WISLaw); an Advisory Board Member of the National Sports Law Institute (NSLI); a Fellow at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb); and a Senior Vice-Chair of the Sport and Leisure Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA). 

Despina holds a Ph.D. from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), an LL.M. and an M.B.A. from the University of Saarbrücken (Germany) and a LL.B. from the University of Thessaloniki (Greece). She was a Visiting Scholar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (2015-2016). 

Chris McCleary
United States Olympic Committee

Chris McCleary leads a team of legal professionals responsible for all USOC legal, contract, intellectual property, and dispute resolution matters. Additionally, he serves as the organization's ethics officer and works with the USOC Ethics Committee to advance USOC's ethics and conflicts of interest policies and practices, and to resolve ethics questions as they arise. He also leads USOC's governance work and serves as corporate secretary to the USOC board of directors.

McCleary oversees the USOC's partnerships with the World Anti-doping Agency, U.S. Anti-doping Agency and Partnership for Clean Competition. He also serves as a member of the Association of National Olympic Committee's Legal Commission.

McCleary joined the USOC from Visa Inc., where he served eight years as the senior vice president and senior associate general counsel of global brand and client management, in which he led the company's worldwide legal operations in marketing, sponsorships, intellectual property and client licensing.

Previously, McCleary served as senior vice president and deputy general counsel for Visa International Service Association, focusing on the Visa Worldwide Services legal department. In a prior stint with the company, he also served as senior vice president for Visa U.S.A. Inc., where he led the legal department in all marketing and advertising matters.

In addition to his experience with Visa, he served as general counsel for Move.com and practiced law with Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, concentrating on intellectual property matters.

McCleary received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1986, and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Michigan Law in 1991. He and his wife, Kristina Chung, live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with their two children, Chase and Caroline.

Jayma Meyer
Indiana University and Simpson Thacher & Bartlet

Jayma is Counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, where her focus is on antitrust and Title IX litigation, and a Visiting Clinical Professor of Sports Law and Public Policy at Indiana University. Jayma advocates the power of sport to bring about social change, with a special focus on achieving gender equality in sports through education, activism and litigation.

Jayma's recent scholarship includes two in-depth articles on college athletics: "It's on the NCAA: A Playbook for Eliminating Sexual Assault", 67 Syracuse Law Review 358 (2017) and "The Case for a Limited and Conditional Antitrust Exemption for the NCAA", 62 Antitrust Bulletin 31 (2017).

Jayma has negotiated Title IX settlement agreements that contain multi-year monitoring provisions with high schools throughout the US and is currently litigating a class action Title IX case against the largest high school in Hawaii. Jayma has co-counseled with the San Francisco Legal Aid at Work, California Women's Law Center, Hawaii ACLU and the National Women's Law Center on these matters.

Jayma is a Trustee, Chair of the Advocacy Committee, and Member of the Executive Committee of the Women's Sports Foundation and a Board Member and Co-Chair of the Development Committee of the National Women's Law Center. 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.

Jayma was a top 10 ranked butterfly swimmer in the world in the early 1970s.

David Miller
PGA Tour

David Miller is Vice President & Assistant General Counsel for the PGA TOUR. David primarily works on the PGA TOUR's media and gaming businesses. He represents and advises the PGA TOUR with respect to all matters in the gaming industry, including integrity, policy, governmental affairs, social responsibility, data distribution, sponsorship and content."

Matthew Mitten
Marquette University Law School

Matt is a Professor of Law and the Executive 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 Amateur Sports Law, Professional Sports Law, Sports Sponsorship Legal and Business Issues Workshop, Antitrust Law, and Torts.

He has authored Sports Law in the United States (Wolters Kluwer 2011, 2d. ed. 2014, 3d. ed. 2017) 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, 4th ed., 2017), and Sports Law: Governance and Regulation (Wolters Kluwer 2013, 2d. ed. 2016). A leading sports law scholar, he has published articles in several leading law reviews as well as in medical journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, and is a member of the advisory board for The International Sports Law Journal.

He is an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland (serving on the ad hoc Division for the XXI Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia) and the American Arbitration Association's sports, commercial, and consumer arbitration panels as well as the UFC and the Ladies Professional Golfers Association anti-doping panels. He has been appointed/served as the sole arbitrator, chair, or panel member in numerous sports, commercial, and consumer arbitrations. He is a member of the Sports Lawyers Association (SLA) Board of Directors (serving as SLA president from May 2015-May 2017), United States Soccer Federation Independent Ethics Committee, and 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 (receiving its 2019 Award for making a substantial and significant contribution to sports law scholarship, teaching, and/or service) 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.

Matt 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. He practiced antitrust law, intellectual property law, and commercial litigation with Kilpatrick Townsend in Atlanta, Georgia. He previously was a professor of law at South Texas College of Law-Houston. He is a University of Oregon Summer Sports Law Institute faculty member and regularly lectures on various sports law topics at Western Law School in Canada. He has taught U. S. Sports Law as a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School (2006, 2008, 2010, and 2013), International Sports Law at the University of Barcelona (2006), and Comparative Sports Law at the University of Queensland (2002). He was a visiting professor at the University of Toledo College of Law and a visiting lecturer in sports medicine at The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine.

He testified before a U.S. 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, business, and ethics topics at more than 175 conferences and seminars throughout the United States as well as in Australia, Canada, China, England, the Republic of Korea, and Turkey.

Karin Nelsen
Minnesota Vikings

Karin Nelsen joined the Minnesota Vikings as Vice President of Legal & Social Impact in 2016 after 18 years with Cargill. In her current role, Karin oversees the Legal and Social Impact Departments at the Vikings.

Karin supported a broad range of businesses and geographies during her tenure at Cargill. After working in Minneapolis for nine years, she moved to Moscow in 2007 to serve as Lead Lawyer for Russia and then on to Geneva, Switzerland as European Deputy General Counsel. Karin took her expertise to Singapore where she was named Asia Pacific General Counsel. She returned to the United States in 2012 to work as North America General Counsel.

Karin currently sits on the Board of Directors for the University of Iowa Law School Foundation, the Guthrie Theater, the Minnesota Vikings Foundation and St. David's Center. She is also an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Karin received her law degree from the University of Iowa Law School and earned her undergraduate degree in accounting from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Prior to joining Cargill, she worked as a litigator in Seattle and Minneapolis law firms and worked as a CPA at Touche Ross before starting law school.

Clarence A. Nesbitt
National Basketball Players Association

Nesbitt now serves as the General Counsel for the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA).  In his role, he oversees a team of attorneys responsible for all aspects of the NBPA's legal affairs.  Previously, Nesbitt was the General Counsel and an inaugural member of the Board of Directors for THINK450.  THINK450 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NBPA tasked with generating licensing and sponsorship revenues using the group license of the image rights of NBPA members.

Nesbitt joined THINK450 from NIKE, Inc., where he last served as the Director of Global Brand Business Affairs.  In that role, he led the global team responsible for securing key approvals, licensing and safeguarding NIKE's Global Brand Marketing function against potential issues related to advertising and marketing.  He worked in other capacities at NIKE in his 9.5-year career, most notably serving for four years as Sports Marketing Counsel at NIKE's European headquarters in Hilversum, The Netherlands.  In that role, he represented NIKE in its negotiations for sponsorship contracts with top-tier athletes, teams and federations across Europe, Middle East and Africa.  Before Clarence joined NIKE, Inc., he was an associate in Mergers & Acquisitions at elite Manhattan law firm, Shearman & Sterling LLP. 

As an undergraduate, Clarence attended Florida A&M University (FAMU), where he studied Business Administration, graduating magna cum laude.  He remained at FAMU to complete his Master's Degree in Business Administration.  In his time at FAMU, Clarence worked as an intern at four different Fortune 500 companies, Cummins Engine Company, Mead Corporation (now known as MeadWestvaco Corporation), Hewlett-Packard Company (now known as HP Inc.), and Ford Motor Company.  He continued his post-graduate education by matriculating to Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he earned his Juris Doctor degree.  

Brent J. Nowicki
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)

Brent John Nowicki is currently Managing Counsel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He joined the CAS in 2013 after 7 years as an attorney with the law firm of Hodgson Russ in Buffalo, New York. He received his undergraduate degree from Fairfield University, where he was a member of the Division I lacrosse program, and his Juris Doctor, with honours, from the State University of New York, University at Buffalo.

Mr. Nowicki has extensive and unique experience in the field of international sports law. He has represented various parties while in the private practice of law, and served as a consultant for a number of clients in the sports industry. While in private practice, Mr. Nowicki represented various parties in contract negotiations, rights of publicity, as well as legal representations of grievances, hearings, and appeals. On an international level, Mr. Nowicki is active in the anti-doping movement in Olympic sports, handling several major doping cases in his role as counsel to the CAS. His current work at the CAS exposes him to virtually every sporting dispute between the IOC, sporting federations, associations (FIFA and UEFA), leagues, teams, and players. Notably, Mr. Nowicki is the first North American attorney to act as Counsel at the CAS and was the Head of the newly-formed CAS Anti-Doping Division for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (2016) and PyeongChang (2018).

Mr. Nowicki serves on the International Committee of the Sports Lawyers Association, the Board of Directors for the Police Athletic League of Buffalo, New York and is the former Men's Lacrosse Coach for Switzerland's National Lacrosse Team.

Maidie Oliveau
Arent Fox LLP

Maidie's practice focuses on sports-related transactions and arbitration. She has developed a multi-faceted practice including television, new media, naming rights, sponsorships and event-related rights, including single sport and multi-sport international events; acquisitions of sports events and/or clubs; trademark protection; and US and international sports arbitration. Her clients include professional teams and leagues, event and facility owners, sponsor corporations, television and new media distributors, and Olympic sport governing bodies.

Maidie is recognized as a leading sports attorney by Chambers USA and Legal 500. As noted in Chambers USA, "Maidie is praised as a "commercial and practical" attorney with wide-ranging experience in numerous areas of sports law." One client describes her as "absolutely fantastic," explaining that "she understands the industry well, and can educate us on the legal and practical issues," and another notes that "she knows our business inside and out." According to Legal 500, clients call on Maidie for her "deep sports law experience" and note she "instills confidence in decision making."

Since May 1997, she has served as an arbitrator on the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In addition, Maidie is on the panel of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and International Center for Dispute Resolution. She has acted as an arbitrator in international AAA cases as well as numerous cases brought under the US Anti-Doping Agency protocol and the US Olympic Committee Bylaws.

Ben O'Neil
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

A former federal prosecutor, Ben O'Neil is a partner in Quinn Emanuel's Washington, DC office. He is an experienced trial lawyer with a particular focus on white collar and corporate investigations matters and crisis situations. His clients include corporate entities, boards of directors, audit and special committees, and individuals facing difficult and often high-profile legal challenges. His work spans virtually every industry and regularly involves multi-jurisdictional issues throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

Ben has been recognized repeatedly by leading legal periodicals as a standout among his peer group in the white collar defense and government investigations bar. In 2016, Law360 identified Ben as Rising Star, one of only four white collar practitioners under the age of forty to be so honored. And in 2017, Ben was named to the National Law Journal's prestigious 40 Under 40 list for the District of Columbia, one of only two white collar lawyers to receive this recognition.

Prior to joining Quinn Emanuel, Ben was a federal prosecutor with the Fraud Section of the United States Department of Justice's Criminal Division. In that role, he prosecuted foreign bribery, financial, and healthcare fraud throughout the United States. Ben was the lead on several jury trials, and managed large-scale corporate investigations.

Jennifer O'Sullivan
Arent Fox

Jennifer specializes in the representation of professional sports leagues, teams, media and technology companies, investors, promoters, hospitality companies and sports, entertainment, and lifestyle agencies. Jennifer counsels sports and entertainment clients on issues ranging from mergers and acquisitions and other transactions to sponsorships, advertising, media matters, league formations and restructurings, and all forms of commercial agreements, including licensing, merchandising and promotional agreements, venue, vendor, and other special events agreements.

Ian Penny
MLBPA

Ian Penny has worked as an attorney for the MLBPA since 2010 and currently serves as the union's General Counsel. Prior to joining the MLBPA, Ian spent ten years at the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA), including two years as General Counsel, and twelve years at the National Labor Relations Board. During his tenure at the NLRB, Ian served as president of Local 2, NLRBU, the union representing agency staff. Ian holds degrees from Rice University and New York University Law School.

Irwin Raij
O'Melveny & Myers LLP

Irwin Raij is Co-Chair of the Sports Industry Group at O'Melveny & Myers LLP. Irwin counsels clients on a wide range of sports business issues, on both the professional and the collegiate levels. Most recently, he represented David Tepper in his US$2.275 billion acquisition of the NFL Carolina Panthers, as well as Spanish soccer league LaLiga in its joint venture with Relevent Sports to commercialize its media, sponsorship, and licensing rights in North America.

A cornerstone of Irwin's practice is his deep experience with stadium and ancillary development projects. Irwin represents all the primary players for sports facility and ancillary development in connection with construction, financing, public subsidies and/or incentives for public private partnerships. He often gets involved early in the process and assists with site analysis, entitlement, and facility/master planning. 

Variety magazine recognized Irwin as a leading "Dealmaker" in its 2017 and 2018 Dealmakers Elite: New York feature and Law360 named him a 2018 Sports MVP. Irwin has also been recognized nationally for sports law in the 2014-2018 editions of Chambers USA and The Legal 500.

Irwin is an owner of the Oklahoma City Dodgers (MiLB), and the MLS Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC).

Matthieu Reeb
Court of Arbitration for Sport

Matthieu Reeb from Neuchâtel/Switzerland, is an attorney at law, born in 1969, married with 3 children. He obtained his law degree in 1992 (Neuchâtel). The same year he studied international private law at the University of Heidelberg/Germany. One year later, he returned to Neuchâtel where he worked for a law firm specialized in arbitration. He passed his bar exam successfully in 1995.

Matthieu Reeb joined the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in September 1995 where he exercised the function of Counsel to CAS. He was appointed as CAS Secretary General in 2000. In this position, he is responsible for the management of the Court, the public relations, the monitoring of the arbitration and mediation procedures and for the organization of the CAS ad hoc Divisions (established during the Olympic Games and other major sports events).

In 1998, Matthieu Reeb edited the first "Digest of CAS Awards " (Staempfli Editions), which in 1999 won the René Cassin Prize, awarded by the Académie française des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He edited additional CAS Digests in 2001 and in 2004 (Kluwer Law Editions) and in 2015 the Commentary of the Code of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with D. Mavromati (Wolters Kluwer Editions). He is also the author of several articles related to the CAS and its case law.

Until 1995, Matthieu Reeb practised athletics and rugby at national level.

Barbara A. Reeves
JAMS

Barbara A. Reeves, Esq., is a highly regarded and well-respected mediator, arbitrator and special master with JAMS, based in Los Angeles. She specializes in sports and entertainment law, commercial cases, intellectual property matters, health care business disputes, and employment. She has been a full-time neutral since January 2006.

Before becoming a full-time neutral, Barbara Reeves was a litigator with the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, a partner at national law firms and Associate General Counsel and Vice President for Southern California Edison and Edison International.

Barbara Reeves is an arbitrator on the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the College of Commercial Arbitrators, an arbitrator on the U.S. Olympic and Para-Olympic Committee SafeSport panel, and a certified mediator with the International Mediation Institute. She received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Jay K. Reisinger
Farrell Reisinger & Comber, LLC

Jay K. Reisinger is a partner at Farrell Reisinger & Comber, LLC and manages the sports law practice of the firm.

Mr. Reisinger's practice focuses primarily on sports law, white-collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation.

His sports law practice includes representation of professional athletes and certified agents in salary arbitration proceedings, contract analysis and negotiation strategy. Mr. Reisinger has also represented numerous athletes in performance enhancing substance/drug appeals and other disciplinary matters in MLB, the NFL, the NHL, and the NBA.  He has also provided outside counsel services to both the MLBPA and the NHLPA.  Mr. Reisinger also represents coaches in contractual matters in both MLB and the NHL. 

His civil litigation practice includes representation of individuals and companies, including sports-related entities, with respect to mergers and acquisitions, drafting of, enforcement of, and defense of employment agreements in the sports industry, and other civil litigation matters. Mr. Reisinger, along with the other attorneys at Farrell Reisinger & Comber, LLC also provide litigation management services for professional athletes and sports-related entities, utilizing our unique understanding of the sports industry in conjunction with our wide-ranging civil litigation experience.

He received his J.D. from Ohio Northern University School of Law in 1996, where he was a member of the Order of the Barristers and his B.A. from Allegheny College in 1991.

Sam Renaut
Arizona State University

Sam Renaut is the director of Arizona State University College of Law's Sports Law and Business program. He is at the forefront of developing and growing the program, including curriculum, professional development, career services, strategic partnerships, fundraising, and more.

Renaut officially joined the program in 2015, and he was one of the driving forces behind its creation as a student of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law from 2008 to 2011. He works with students as a career advisor, helping to develop and implement independent studies and internships, graduate assistantships, and other experiential opportunities in the sports industry. He further develops the ASU Online MLS in Sports Law and Business degree program, and teaches online courses in Sports Career Planning, Sports Law, Professional Sports Law, and curates the Advanced Topics in Sports Law course. He is also the director of the newly launched Veterans Sports Law and Business distance learning program for active duty and retired/separated military personnel who aspire toward meaningful careers in sports. In 2018, he led the efforts to launch a formal Sports Law and Business concentration for JD students, in addition to a JD/MSLB concurrent degree program.

Renaut has spoken to students and organizations across the United States on the merits of entering the sports industry, the legal and business ramifications of sports decision making, and the complex world of athlete representation.

Prior to taking over as a program director, Renaut served as an NFL Agent, representing NFL players in their careers on and off the field, as well as NFL and collegiate football coaches. He also represented media and TV personalities in their contract negotiations. As an ASU Law student, he was the founding editor-in-chief of the Sports and Entertainment Law Journal. Before law school, Professor Renaut worked in sports information with Virginia Tech Athletics, worked as a stringer for the Capital Gazette covering high school sports, and served as an account manager for DVSport, servicing the ACC, SEC, Big East, Big Ten, and Pac 12 accounts for their football instant replay needs.

Maureen B. Riehl
MultiState Associates Inc

Maureen B. Riehl, is Principal and General Counsel with MultiState Associates, the nation's leading state and local government relations consulting firm. She joined the firm in October 2015, and leads the firm's Strategic Government Relations Practice.

Now as a consultant, Maureen has more than 25 years of state and federal coalition and association management, communications, media, and public affairs experience. Maureen's team supports the state affairs efforts of the NCAA and the NFL, and leads several MultiState managed coalitions, including: the Mobile Workforce Coalition urging Congress to modernize nonresident state personal income tax rules; the Student Sports Protections Alliance (SPAN) urging states to pass laws to protect student sports; the national Professional Services Alliance to stop expansion of business service taxes; the Principled Sports Betting Alliance (PSBA) to coordinate state efforts to maintain integrity of sports and consumer protections in the wake of legalized sports betting; and others. Her work has encompassed both the public and private sector, advising organizations on their strategic planning, public policy, communications, and outreach strategies. Maureen is also an accomplished speaker, state affairs expert, and media commentator. Her passion is mentoring young people interested in the profession of advocacy. Her projects have spanned all fifty states.

Maureen came to MultiState after four years at the Council On State Taxation (COST), where she served as COST's head of federal and state government affairs. She represented COST before federal lawmakers and numerous state policy groups, including the National Governors Association (NGA), the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), the Council of State Governments (CSG), and other advocacy organizations. Maureen is the Vice President of the NCSL Foundation for State Legislatures and remains active in and served in leadership as the past President of the State Government Affairs Council (SGAC). Prior to COST, Maureen spent 12 years at the National Retail Federation, where she was NRF's Vice President, Government and Industry Relations Counsel. She also held positions in state government relations as policy director and counsel for the International Franchise Association, for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and for a coalition of advertising associations.

Maureen began her career in government affairs as a legislative policy and constituent affairs director in the state legislature for members of both the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate. She earned dual undergraduate degrees from Michigan State University (political science and communications), and a J.D. from Thomas Cooley Law School. She is a member of the Virginia State Bar. Maureen resides in Fairfax, VA, with her husband and their two college-aged sons.

Antonio Rigozzi
Levy Kaufman Kohler

Antonio Rigozzi is a founding partner of the Geneva firm Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler, where he heads the sports arbitration team, and a Professor for international arbitration and sports law at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He has extensive experience across all the main areas of sports law and arbitration, including anti-doping, contract, disciplinary, labour, image rights, regulatory, and sponsorship disputes in a wide range of sports. He advises athletes, teams and sports-governing bodies in proceedings before the CAS, the BAT and the Swiss courts, including the Swiss Supreme Court and serves as an arbitrator or mediator in sports-related disputes outside the CAS. He is also the chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal of Swiss Athletics and has repeatedly served as co-opted judge of the FIA's International Court of Appeal. In addition, Antonio Rigozzi serves as counsel, arbitrator and expert in international commercial arbitrations, both ad hoc and under the main institutional rules, including the ICC, ICSID, LCIA, SCAI, CAM and VIAC rules.

Ryan Rodenberg
Florida State University

Ryan Rodenberg is an associate professor of forensic sports law analytics at Florida State University. Prior to academia, he worked at Keller Rohrback LLP, Octagon, Nike, and the ATP Tour. His recent scholarship has been published in a variety of law reviews and peer-reviewed academic journals. During the Supreme Court sports betting case, he filed a cert-stage amicus brief, merits-stage amicus brief, and a Rule 28.7 motion. Ryan's quasi-academic writing has been published in ESPN, New York Times, The Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, Vice Sports, and other outlets. He earned a JD from the University of Washington-Seattle and a PhD from Indiana University-Bloomington.

Felipe Saltz
Fox Sports

Felipe Saltz is a Director of Business & Legal Affairs at Fox Sports. In this capacity, he supports various Fox Sports business units through a variety of areas including negotiating and drafting talent agreements, media rights acquisition/distribution agreements, and marketing/third-party vendor agreements. Prior to Fox Sports, Felipe was a transactional attorney at Foley & Lardner focusing primarily on Energy Project Finance. Felipe graduated from Berkeley Law in 2016. During his time in law school, Felipe was the Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Journal of Entertainment and Sports Law and a legal intern for the Golden State Warriors and Special Olympics. Felipe went to USC for undergrad and obtained a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Law from USC in 2013.

Ari Segal
Immortals, LLC

Ari Segal is CEO of Immortals, LLC, a global esports organization based in Los Angeles. Immortals, founded in 2015, has raised strategic investment from AEG, Lionsgate, the Milken Family, Meg Whitman, and Steve Kaplan. The franchise owns and operates the Los Angeles Valiant, one of two Los Angeles-based franchises in Activision Blizzard's Overwatch League, which launched in January 2018. Immortals competes in Rainbow Six: Siege and mobile esports title Clash Royale, and in 2018 re-launched the Brazilian heritage brand MIBR for its CS:GO team, the most popular and competitively successful team in the world. Segal oversees all of the organization's business operations and is a member of Immortals' Board of Directors.

Segal previously served as COO for the Arizona Coyotes (NHL), where he led the club to its highest ever single-season ticket sales and total revenue. He was also Special Assistant to the CEO of the Anaheim Ducks (NHL) and led the launch of the San Diego Gulls, the Ducks' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, where he served as the Gulls' first President of Business Operations. Following their inaugural season, the Gulls were awarded the first-ever AHL President's Award for Business Excellence. Segal previously worked at McKinsey & Company and on Wall Street at Lehman Brothers and CCMP Capital Advisors. He earned a J.D. and an MBA from Stanford University, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and a B.A. with Distinction from the University of Virginia. He is a licensed attorney and member of the New York State Bar Association.

Bobby Sharma
Electronic Sports Group

Bobby Sharma is Founding Partner of Electronic Sports Group, an industry-leading esports advisory firm; Partner at GACP Sports, a private equity firm investing, operating, and creating value in outstanding sports-related businesses; Chairman of Blue Devil Holdings, LLC, an international sports, media & entertainment investment company; and Special Adviser to the renowned Sports Industry Team at Foley & Lardner LLP.

Sharma was previously SVP, Global Head of Basketball & Strategic Initiatives at IMG, having led the growth of many strategic corporate interests around the world, including the creation, development, and management of basketball, soccer, and cricket properties, with a focus on major emerging markets.

Prior to that, Sharma was VP & General Counsel of the NBA Development League for nearly a decade, helping lead the establishment of the National Basketball Association's first minor league.

Sharma also practiced law with Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. He is a graduate of Duke University, Duke Law School, and the Harvard Business School executive program on the Business of Entertainment, Media & Sports.

Debbie Spander
Wasserman

Debbie Spander joined Wasserman in 2012 and serves as Senior Vice President of Broadcasting and Coaching. In this role, Debbie focuses primarily on representing on-air talent, including former athletes, female sportscasters and multimedia journalists, as well as NBA coaches and front offices executives and NCAA basketball coaches. She specializes in helping athletes transition to post-playing media and coaching careers and secures broadcast, coaching and marketing opportunities for clients, negotiates deals and provides overall career guidance.

Since joining Wasserman, Debbie has grown the Broadcasting and Coaching practice from five clients to 50 and was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2016. Her broadcast and media clients include Jordan Rodgers, Candace Parker, Justin Leonard, Brian Scalabrine, Maggie Gray, Greg Papa, Geoff Blum, Laura Britt, Torry Holt, Meghan McPeak, Frank Isola Jonathan Abrams, Stewart Mandel, Jason Reid, Kevin Clark, and Zach Harper. She also works with NBA coaches and front office executives including Fred Hoiberg, Luke Walton, Jarron Collins, Antawn Jamison and Brent Barry, as well as New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone in both their coaching contracts and marketing partnerships.

Debbie began her career at Fox Sports Net, where, as VP of Business and Legal Affairs, she structured, negotiated and administered telecast licenses, talent deals and marketing agreements for FSN, Fox Sports and FX. Debbie was also VP, Business Affairs at MTV Entertainment, the digital, sports and comedy division of Viacom.

In 2016, Debbie was named to SportsBusiness Journal's Game Changers list and Multichannel News' Women in the Game. She currently serves on the Board of Directors at the Sports Lawyers Association. She also sits on the Board of Directors at Westcoast Sports, a charity which funds after school programs for disadvantaged youth in Southern California and the Board of Directors of West Coast Sports Medicine Foundation which provides medical care, Certified Athletic Trainers and education to allow student athletes to participate and stay in the game. Debbie is also a board member of the Arizona State University Sports Law and Business Program and is a frequent speaker at sports business conferences.

She is a graduate of Stanford University and the UCLA School of Law and lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband and daughter.

Dan Spillane
National Basketball Association

Dan Spillane joined the NBA in 2007 and currently serves in the position of Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, League Governance & Policy.

Spillane is responsible for a wide range of NBA legal and policy matters, including areas relating to gambling and sports betting as well as management of the league's revenue sharing plan, team relocations, investigations, and litigation. Spillane also handles other projects for the NBA Board of Governors and its committees. Spillane was listed as one of the SportsBusiness Journal's "40 Under 40" in 2013.

Before joining the NBA, Spillane was an attorney at the New York law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. He also served as a law clerk for United States District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum in New York. Spillane graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Law School. He is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Naima Stevenson Starks
NCAA

Naima is the Managing Director of Academic & Membership Affairs / Deputy General Counsel for the NCAA and has been with the NCAA since May of 2006. Her responsibilities include management of litigation activities and providing counsel to various areas of the National Office and NCAA governance committees.

Prior to joining the NCAA, Naima was a Corporate and Securities Associate with the law firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington DC. While at Arnold & Porter, Naima advised a variety of corporations on the ever changing landscape in Securities regulations, assisted clients with raising equity in private equity transactions, and advised clients in various merger and acquisition transactions.

An experienced speaker and panelist, Naima has served as a panelist for the Sports Lawyers Association, National Association of College and University Attorneys, the Indiana Bar Association, and many colleges and universities.

Originally from Brooklyn New York, Naima is a graduate of the University of Maryland College Park, and received her law degree from Harvard Law School. Naima and her husband, Stephen Starks, are the proud parents of Aubrey Clinton and Ellery Grace Starks.

Maurice M. Suh
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Maurice M. Suh is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is Co-Chair of the firm's Sports Law Practice Group and is a member of the Litigation Department and its White Collar Defense and Investigations and Crisis Management Practice Groups. He focuses his practice on complex business litigation and the representation of clients in conjunction with governmental compliance and enforcement actions and high profile sports matters. Mr. Suh has been selected for the Los Angeles Business Journal's "Best of the Bar" for Litigation list and the Daily Journal's "Top 100 – California's Leading Lawyers" list. He was named among the nation's leading attorneys for the Criminal Defense: White Collar category from 2010 to the present.

Mr. Suh has appeared before numerous state and federal courts in conjunction with pretrial, trial and appellate proceedings, as well as commercial arbitration matters. With respect to his sports practice, Mr. Suh has represented elite athletes in landmark cases involving the use of anabolic steroids and related issues before arbitration panels in both the United States arbitral system for Olympic movement sport and the International Court for Arbitration of Sport (CAS). Mr. Suh has further advised top sports teams, agents and race organizers in matters related to sponsorship and employment issues, as well as strategic planning.

Mr. Suh has previously served as Deputy Mayor of Homeland Security and Public Safety for the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. In that capacity, Mr. Suh had oversight over all homeland security and public safety issues for the City of Los Angeles, including the Port of Los Angeles and Los Angeles World Airports. As Deputy Mayor, Mr. Suh developed the Office of Homeland Security and Public Safety, which has responsibility over the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department and the Emergency Preparedness Department and their combined 17,500 employees and $1.7B budget.

In addition, Mr. Suh has served as a Deputy Chief of the Public Corruption and Government Fraud Section of the United States Attorney's Office of the Central District of California. While there, he prosecuted and supervised a number of public corruption and official misconduct cases against federal and state law enforcement officials, as well as a wide variety of fraud and environmental crimes cases. In that capacity, Mr. Suh has received the Prosecutor of the Year Award (2001, International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators, S.C.), as well as the Director's Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney, and numerous other awards from federal law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Suh has lectured widely on legal and professional issues for the ABA, CEB, National Advocacy Center and federal law enforcement agencies on the subjects of government enforcement, trial advocacy, successful arbitration and mediation, internal investigations and matters involving corporate responsibility. In addition, Mr. Suh has lectured on numerous subjects related to homeland security, emergency preparedness and policing for universities, agencies and the business community. He has served as Adjunct Professor of Law at both Loyola Law School and The George Washington University National Law Center.

Mr. Suh graduated from Columbia University in 1986 (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and Columbia Law School of Columbia University in 1989.

Mr. Suh has served as Co-Chair of the Criminal Law Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation as well as a Co-Chair of the Securities Litigation Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation.

Lance K. Tanaka
American Arbitration Association (AAA)

As Vice President, he handles and oversees the administration of cases filed with the Association. Additionally, he is responsible for market development of the AAA's ADR services in an 11-state region which includes: Arizona, Colorado, Hawai'i, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Mr. Tanaka is also responsible for the recruitment and training of arbitrators and mediators for the Association's Panel of Neutrals.

Mr. Tanaka is a trained mediator. He received his mediation training from the Neighborhood Justice Center (NJC) in Honolulu where he mediated disputes between landlord and tenants, neighbors, parents and children, domestic relations, and commercial business disputes. He also served as a mediator for the Hawaii State Bar Association's Attorney-Fee Dispute program. He served as an Adjunct Professor at the University Of Denver College Of Law. Mr. Tanaka served as a volunteer to assist the Colorado Bar Association's Legal Fee Disputes program as an arbitrator, and has conducted mediations and arbitration programs for the NJC and the AAA.

Jonathan Taylor
Bird & Bird LLP

Jonathan is one of the world's leading sports lawyers, advising nationally and internationally on cutting-edge commercial, regulatory and contentious issues across all major sports.

Jonathan is co-head of our Sport Group, based in London.

He advises a wide range of sports bodies (including international and national governing bodies, public agencies, event organisers, leagues, clubs, and their commercial partners and agents) on commercial matters such as the exploitation of broadcasting and sponsorship rights, contentious matters including challenges to regulatory decisions, commercial disputes, and regulatory and disciplinary issues (including in particular match-sanctioning, match-fixing and doping issues).

Jonathan is an experienced advocate, appearing regularly before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, as well as a range of internal sports tribunals. In recognition of his skills as an advocate, he was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2017.

In 2016, Jonathan chaired the WADA Independent Observer team that served at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and in December 2016 he was appointed chair of WADA's Compliance Review Committee, an independent Standing Committee that reports to WADA's Executive Committee and Foundation Board on issues relating to Code compliance by Signatories.

Holding both UK and US law degrees, Jonathan originally qualified and practised as a commercial litigator in New York, before moving back to the UK in 1997, since when he has focused exclusively on advising sports sector clients.

Alongside his practice, Jonathan is co-editor (with Adam Lewis QC) of the leading UK sports law text, Sport: Law and Practice (3rd Edn 2014). He was a tutor at University College, Oxford (Tort Law and Administrative Law) in 1992/93 and Director of Studies in Sports Law at King's College, London from 2000 to 2007.

Stephanie Vardavas
Law Office of Stephanie J. Vardavas
University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business

Stephanie Vardavas has enjoyed a varied career spanning more than 35 years in the sports business, and is one of a very small number of attorneys who have represented a major sports league, athletes and an athlete representation agency, major sports events, and a major sponsor.

In 1979, she was one of the first two trainees hired into the Major League Baseball Executive Development Program in New York City. After a year in that program she joined the American League as Manager of Waivers and Player Records. In that role she administered and enforced the Major League Rules as they related to contract signings and roster transactions such as waiver requests, assignments, and disabled list placements. While working full-time for the American League, she enrolled in Fordham Law School's evening division and graduated in 1985.

After passing the New York bar exam she moved to the Commissioner's Office legal staff, where she remained until 1989, advising the Major League Clubs on player transactions, stadium leases, and other matters, and working on leaguewide sponsorship, television, and licensing agreements. In 1989 she joined the sports agency ProServ, first in its New York office and then in its headquarters in suburban Washington, DC.

At ProServ she led the endorsement, sponsorship, and television rights contracting process for ProServ's athlete clients and event properties, rising to the level of Vice President for Legal and Business Affairs.

ProServ later became a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications. In 1997 Nike recruited Stephanie to its headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon to take up a position in the legal department dealing with endorsements and sponsorships. During her years in Beaverton, Stephanie negotiated and drafted agreements with many of Nike's highest profile athletes and properties in tennis, golf, baseball, cycling, basketball, track and field, and other sports. While continuing her work in sports marketing, for more than ten years she devoted more than half of her practice to issues relating to product safety, compliance, and sustainability issues affecting Nike's footwear, apparel, and equipment product divisions, as well as Nike's licensees and subsidiary brands including Cole Haan, Converse, Umbro, and Hurley. From 2009-2011 her practice was devoted to Nike's and its subsidiaries' brand communication, product advertising, and trademarks.

She retired from Nike in 2011 and opened her own law practice. Today she advises her clients with regard to issues in sports marketing, licensing, product safety and regulatory compliance, competition law, and intellectual property.

Since 2013 she has led legal workshops and taught in the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business. Her course is called "Legal and Ethical Issues in Sports and Outdoor Product Management." She is a frequent guest speaker and panelist on sports law and business issues and regularly acts as an instructor for continuing legal education programs in related subject areas. She was elected to the Board of Directors of the Sports Lawyers Association since 1995, and after serving seven three-year terms became an Emeritus board member in 2016.

Stephanie is also an active volunteer in the Portland community and served two terms as President of the Friends of the Multnomah County Library. She was an elected Obama delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention and served as a founding board member of EMERGE Oregon, an organization that provides training for Democratic women who are interested in running for public office. She was appointed by then-Governor John Kitzhaber to the Oregon Commission for Women in 2011, reappointed by Governor Kate Brown in 2014, and served as Chairwoman from 2012 to 2015.

Her interests include reading, writing, traveling, photography, the arts, architecture, and other urban pursuits. She is a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She owns more than 400 pairs of shoes, none of which are brown.

Jon Velie
Velie Law Firm PLLC

Jon Velie has practiced law for twenty-one years and is internationally renowned in Immigration Law, Corporate Law and Litigation.

Jon has represented a World Series MVP, Super Bowl participant, 3 Wimbledon Champions, an NHL All-Star, a first round NBA draft-pick, many Olympic Gold Medallists an, Oscar Winner, and numerous World Champions and National Champions in a wide spectrum of sports and entertainment. In addition to helping many individuals, Jon has assisted major corporations, such as Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Lions, Edmonton Oilers, USA Rugby, Oklahoma University, HID Global, WTA Tour, Aspen Ski Company, Telluride Ski and Golf, Tyson Foods, Lucent's Bell Laboratories and many others. Jon secured the first "greencard" for a professional rugby player.

Jon has testified in court as an expert in immigration law and has authored expert letters and testified on immigration issues.

Jon has spoken at immigration seminars for the US Open (Tennis), Girl 2.0 Expo in Shanghai, China 2010, Sports Law Association Annual Conference, Aspen Ski Company, Telluride Ski Company and Lucent's Bell Laboratories.

Jon is the President of Velie Law Firm, winner of the 2014 International Business Award (The Gold Stevie) for Company of the Year-Legal, the 2014 American Business Award (Bronze Stevie) for Company of the Year-Legal and Accounting and the 2012 Business Excellence Award, Best Overall Small Business in the Americas.

Jon launched www.OnlineVisas.com, and awarded the American Bar Association's Louis M. Brown Legal Access to Justice Award and was declared an innovator in the legal industry. Jon is editor of www.ImmigrationMagazine.com.

Jon has briefed three cases to the US Supreme Court, has been featured in numerous publications including the New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Le Monde, and London Times and featured on a segment of CBS 60 Minutes II. Jon has been a regular guest speaker on US Immigration law on Dublin Ireland's afternoon radio show and spoken at US Congressional and agency panels.

Jon received his JD from the University of Oklahoma and BA from the University of California at Berkeley. He was also a three time collegiate All-American and National Champion in rugby and was inducted into the Oklahoma Rugby Hall of Fame and is the Director of Oklahoma University Rugby. Jon operates the Velie Law Firm and works and lives in Norman, Oklahoma with his four children, Gabriella, John, Chloe and Samantha.

Alex Vermeychuk
NBA

Alex Vermeychuk is a Vice President and Assistant General Counsel in the NBA's legal department, focusing on the global content and media business. His practice covers the NBA's and affiliated leagues' (WNBA, G League, 2K League) licensing relationships with a wide array of multimedia outlets, ranging from traditional cable and broadcast television to digital, social, VR and AR platforms. Prior to the NBA, Alex worked at Time Warner Cable (later Charter Communications), first focusing on the company's cable and digital distribution relationships with major content providers, including many regional sports network (RSN) groups, and later serving as head counsel for the company's owned and operated networks, including the Los Angeles-based SportsNet, Deportes (both Lakers) and SportsNet LA (Dodgers) RSNs. Alex began his legal career as a corporate associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. He studied at the NYU School of Law and Princeton University.

Ricky Volante
Historical Basketball League Enterprises, Inc.

Ricky Volante is a Co-Founder of the HBL and serves as the Chief Executive Officer, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the League, while focusing on business and operational growth and the benefits created for the athletes.

Additionally, Ricky is an attorney at The Volante Law Firm LLC. He primarily focuses on legal issues related to professional and amateur sports, film and television, music, business formation and regulation, intellectual property, digital media, and the Internet. Ricky also co-founded Sixth City Sports & Entertainment, a sport and film consultancy based in Cleveland, OH.

Ricky is an Adjunct Professor at the Harvard Extension School and Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He teaches Representing the Professional Athlete, Negotiating and Drafting Sports Venue Agreements, Introduction to Sports Law for Non-Lawyers, and The Legal Evolution of America's Three Major Leagues. 

Ricky graduated summa cum laude from Lake Erie College with a B.S. in Sports Management, and received the Class of 2012 Academic Excellence Award for the School of Business. Ricky completed his Juris Doctorate (J.D.) at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. 

Richard Wagenheim
Wagenheim & Wagner P.A.

Richard Wagenheim has been practicing workers' compensation law since 1972, the same year in which he graduated from the Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University with a Juris Doctor degree. He previously obtained his undergraduate degree from Michigan State in 1968.

Rich achieved the distinction of Board Certification* in Workers' Compensation from the Florida Bar in 1989. In addition to being licensed to practice law in Florida, Rich is also licensed in Michigan and Washington, D.C . He is also licensed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Mr. Wagenheim is a partner in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida law firm, Wagenheim & Wagner, P.A. where he has represented, consulted and advised injured workers from all walks of life, including professional football, baseball, hockey, basketball and soccer players. Additionally, he is a member of the National Football League Players' Association and Professional Hockey Players' Association Workers' Compensation Panels.

In 1998, Rich was named ATTORNEY OF THE YEAR by the NFLPA Workers' Compensation Panel.

Rich is a member of numerous legal organizations. He is on the Board of Directors of Florida Workers' Advocates and is a lobbyist during legislative sessions on behalf of the rights of injured workers. He also serves on the board of the Sports Lawyers Association. Additionally, he is a member of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, the Broward County Bar Association and the Florida Bar Workers' Compensation Section.

Rich also gives back to the community and makes a positive impact on youth. He is a board member of the Urban League of Broward County and the Coast to Coast Basketball Club. He is a national board member and Florida State Director of Biddy Basketball, a national boys and girls basketball program which Rich brought to South Florida.

Mr. Wagenheim is also a frequent lecturer on workers' compensation topics. He has lectured at the Florida Workers' Compensation Educational Conference, the Sports Lawyers' Association Annual Conference, Continuing Legal Education seminars, and at the University of Miami. He has also been quoted in numerous publications, including The Sun-Sentinel and Florida Lawyer, regarding workers' compensation issues.

Norman Wain
USA Track & Field

General Counsel, Chief of Business Affairs Norman Wain arrived at USA Track & Field in July of 2010. Wain oversees the USATF legal department (negotiating all contracts, managing corporate governance, handling anti-doping matters, overseeing litigation and intellectual property, managing the Agent program, etc). The legal department works with USATF staff and Board of Directors, the Law and Legislation Committee, the Ethics Committee and various other committees and constituencies to advance the goals and initiatives of the organization and protect its general legal interests.

Before arriving at USATF, Wain worked as the Vice President - Corporate Legal Affairs at The Finish Line, Inc., a publicly traded, billion dollar, mall-based specialty retailer operating nearly 700 stores in 47 states across the country and online. Prior to Finish Line, he spent time in the business and legal affairs department at Writers & Artists Agency, Inc., a Los Angeles talent agency (subsequently acquired by Paradigm), and held stints at Fox Sports World and BigShot Films International. He also worked in private practice as a litigator in Santa Monica, Calif.

Wain has been an expert presenter at many national and international conferences and symposiums and serves on the board of directors of the Sports Lawyers Association and Law In Sport (a UK-based international sports law publication). He recently served two terms on the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) national board of directors. ACC is an international professional organization for in-house attorneys with 30,000+ members employed by over 10,000 organizations in more than 75 countries. Wain co-founded and served as the inaugural chair for the newly-formed ACC Sports & Entertainment Committee.

He also works as an adjunct professor teaching sports law at Indiana University, and he has been published on various sports law and corporate law topics. Wain graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California-Berkeley in 1992 and received his J.D. degree from the Pepperdine University School of Law in 1996.

Maureen Weston
Pepperdine University School of Law

Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, Academic Co-Director of the University's Institute for Entertainment Media & Culture, and Director of the Entertainment, Media & Sports Law Project. Professor Weston teaches courses on arbitration, negotiation, international dispute resolution, legal ethics, and sports law. She serves as Faculty Advisor to the Sports & Entertainment Law Society and Dispute Resolution Journal, and coaches several student teams in International Mediation and Sports & Entertainment Law advocacy competitions. Weston has taught at the University of Oklahoma, University of Colorado, and in Oxford, England. Prior to teaching, Weston practiced law with Holme Roberts & Owen, and Faegre & Benson in Colorado. Weston received her law degree from the University of Colorado and B.A. in Economics & Political Science at University of Denver.

Weston is actively involved in programs furthering opportunities for students to gain experience in dispute resolution. Her committee service includes the ABA, Law School Division, Arbitration Competition, AALS Sports Law Executive Committee, and former chair for the ABA Dispute Resolution Education Committee and Mediation Competition. Board memberships include University of Colorado School of Law Alumni Board, CU Center for Sports Governance, National Sports Law Institute at Marquette School of Law, and Editorial Board of LawInSport. Weston is co-author of casebooks on sports law, arbitration, ADR, and has written numerous articles in the areas of Olympic and international sports arbitration, disability law, sports law, and dispute resolution.

Brian White
University of Kansas

Brian White is the General Counsel and Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs at the University of Kansas. Prior to joining KU, Brian served as the first Chief Counsel for UConn Health and as Associate General Counsel at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics. Brian maintains an Adjunct Associate Professor appointment at the University Iowa, where he has served/taught for the past eleven years.

Robert Wisniewski
Robert E Wisniewski Law Office

Bob Wisniewski has one mission, "justice for the injured worker." For over 43 years, Bob has devoted his practice to representing Arizona injured workers in more than 12,000 Industrial Commission hearings state-wide.

By concentrating his law practice solely on workers' compensation, Bob and his team of dedicated professional attorneys and staff can provide the highest level of service and the best possible results for their clients. Sensitive to the needs of his cross-cultural community of injured worker clients, almost all the attorneys and staff are bi-lingual in Spanish. Breaking down communication barriers allows clients to be more at ease when working with the legal system.

Emily Wisnosky
International Basketball Federation

An attorney admitted to the California bar, Emily currently serves as legal affairs manager at the International Basketball Federation in Switzerland and is a Judge on the UCI's anti-doping tribunal. She also participates in a research project at the University of Neuchâtel to produce the first article-by-article legal commentary of the World Anti-Doping Code and pursues doctoral research international arbitration in the context of anti-doping regulation. She manages and regularly contributes to a blog discussing recent anti-doping cases from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (www.wadc-commentary.com/antidopingblog).

Glenn Wong
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University

Glenn M. Wong is the Executive Director of the Sports Law & Business Program at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University (ASU). Professor Wong joined ASU Law in October 2015 as Distinguished Professor of Practice - Sports Law.

Wong has been on the Board of Directors of the Sports La wyers Association (SLA) since 1998 and has also been President of the organization. He is currently a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Trustees. He was formerly a committee member with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) on its Diversity and Inclusion Committee (2015-16), Audit Committee (2013-14), and Constitution and Rules Committee (2009-12). Wong also served on the Board of Directors of the Phoenix Local Organizing Committee (2017 NCAA Final Four).

Wong is an arbitrator for the National Football League and the National Football League Players Association, the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and the American Arbitration Association. He works with Major League Baseball clubs on salary arbitration matters. He has also worked with other sports entities, including Sports Illustrated, Reebok, the National Collegiate Athlete Association, the United States Olympic Committee, U.S. Triathlon, U.S. Biathlon, and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Wong was a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts from 1979-2015, and is now a Professor Emeritus. He was Department Head (1986-1997) of the nation's second oldest and most academically diverse Sport Management program. Wong was honored with awards at UMass for his exemplary service, including two Chancellor's Medals. He received the University's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003, and also the Distinguished Teaching Award at the Isenberg School of Management (2013). Wong served as Interim Director of Athletics and then Acting Dean of the School of Physical Education at UMass in 1992-93. He was the UMass Faculty Athletics Representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association from 1993-2013.

Wong was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University Law School in the spring of 2014, and visiting faculty member in 2015, where he taught Sports Law. He is one of the original faculty members of the Sports Management Institute (1990-present). 

Wong has authored several books and over 100 sport law articles and books, including the first sports law casebook. He is the author of Essentials of Sports Law, 4th Edition (2010) and The Comprehensive Guide to Careers in Sports, 2nd Edition (2012). His articles have appeared in various law review journals and other industry publications, including the Sports Business Journal, USA Today, the New York Times, and Law in Sport. Wong's most recent publication, General Counsels in Sports: An Analysis of the Responsibilities, Demographics, and Qualifications (2017), was published in the Arizona State University Sports and Entertainment Law Journal.

Wong is a frequent speaker, panelist, and moderator at professional organization meetings, sports law and business conferences, and law schools. He has spoken or moderated at, among others, the National Association of Collegiate Athletics Directors Convention, the Sports Lawyers Association Conference, the Stanford Graduate School of Business' Sports Innovation Conference, Stanford Law School's Law and Policy Review Symposium, Harvard Law School's Sports Law Symposium, and the Sports Business Journal's Intercollegiate Athletics Forum.

Wong received Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics and Sociology at Brandeis University, where he co-captained the basketball team, and a Juris Doctorate degree from Boston College Law School. He has received a distinguished alumnus award from Brandeis University, and is a member of the Massachusetts Bar.

Alfred Yen
Boston College Law School

Alfred C. Yen is Professor of Law and Dean's Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law School, where he was Associate Dean of Faculty from 2015-2018. Professor Yen has also served as Visiting Scholar at the University of Arizona since 2012 and as an Invited Professor at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne in 2018. Professor Yen's works include articles about trademark and copyright law in numerous leading law reviews, as well as the casebook Copyright: Essential Cases and Materials, Third Edition (2016, West Publishing), co-authored with Joseph Liu. Professor Yen also has interests in sports law, torts, and the training of business lawyers. He helped found the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty and served as Chair of the AALS Section on Minority Groups. Professor Yen holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Law School.