Sport Law Forum

[Bubba13]

Hello,

I am new to the board and I hope I am posting in the correct place. My undergrad was in Sport Admin. I am interested in Sport Law (I would love to receive a JD with a concentration in Sport Law, like Marquette offers). Besides Marquette, what other schools are similar to this.

Is Villanova a school with Sport Law classes?

Also, now that I took the LSAT, what is the next step? Do you I need to sign up for something else on LSAC to start applying and when should I start to apply if I want to start in August?

thanks for the help

[Ry513]

Read that Tulane University down in New Orleans has a pretty good sports program, don't know anything about Villanova though. I'm also interested in sports law/entertainment law in general, that's why I know about Tulane.

Also, I've just recently taken the LSAT myself. You'll need to purchase the Credential Assembly Service (CAS) on LSAC next, which is what law schools use to pull your credentials once you send in your application. You'll need to send your transcripts and letters of recommendation to the CAS to be processed; after you complete your application to a particular school, CAS does the rest.

By now I think that most schools have already started accepting applications for the fall of 2011. Most deadlines are around late Feb/early Mar of 2011, but the sooner the better. Hope that helps.

[electricfeel]

Hello,

I am new to the board and I hope I am posting in the correct place. My undergrad was in Sport Admin. I am interested in Sport Law (I would love to receive a JD with a concentration in Sport Law, like Marquette offers). Besides Marquette, what other schools are similar to this.

Is Villanova a school with Sport Law classes?

Also, now that I took the LSAT, what is the next step? Do you I need to sign up for something else on LSAC to start applying and when should I start to apply if I want to start in August?

thanks for the help

Sports and Entertainment law is mostly a myth. I would venture to say that less than 1% of all J.D.s can crack the market. Your best bet it to rock the LSAT; get into a great school.

[James Bond]

I don't think Sport Law is a myth, you just aren't a Lawyer when you're in it...you're an agent or an arbitrator. Obviously it's not as common as say, criminal law, but it is what it is. NYU has a good program.

[electricfeel]

I don't think Sport Law is a myth, you just aren't a Lawyer when you're in it...you're an agent or an arbitrator. Obviously it's not as common as say, criminal law, but it is what it is. NYU has a good program.

I'm going by what an NFL president told the Sports and Entertainment Law Assoc at my school. To crack the field (in NFL setting or major sports league for that matter) you generally need a good pedigree and Big Law Experience before you can work for such an entity. Sure, you have your Drew Rosenhaus's of the world, but by and large, your best bet to enter the industry is to go to a good school, go into Big Law, and lateral in. No particular law school sports program can give you that.

[James Bond]

I don't think Sport Law is a myth, you just aren't a Lawyer when you're in it...you're an agent or an arbitrator. Obviously it's not as common as say, criminal law, but it is what it is. NYU has a good program.

I'm going by what an NFL president told the Sports and Entertainment Law Assoc at my school. To crack the field (in NFL setting or major sports league for that matter) you generally need a good pedigree and Big Law Experience before you can work for such an entity. Sure, you have your Drew Rosenhaus's of the world, but by and large, your best bet to enter the industry is to go to a good school, go into Big Law, and lateral in. No particular law school sports program can give you that.

Oh ya definitely. I was just speaking about programs but it's definitely a world of experience and connections. Funny though how though Rosenhaus went to Duke, which is a good school, Scott Boras, the biggest badass in the sports agent world, went to University of the Pacific

[Aqualibrium]

Your best bet is to work in a city where there is a large pro or collegiate sports presence, and at a firm that has a practice area that covers such things. The firm I worked at last summer had a large collegiate sports practice group, and the firm I'll work at next summer represents several pro sports teams in the city.

[Amir N]

I know Marquette is now a T3 school, but nearly everyone I've talked with seems to associate it with an excellent sports law program.

[electricfeel]

I know Marquette is now a T3 school, but nearly everyone I've talked with seems to associate it with an excellent sports law program.

I don't know if you read any of the above, but if you want to enter such a field (one that is very small and extremely hard to crack by any standards), a T3 is not a good idea (or in general).

[Bubba13]

I know Marquette is now a T3 school, but nearly everyone I've talked with seems to associate it with an excellent sports law program.

what is a T3 school?

[Chants]

Sports/entertainment law = more specialized version of intellectual property law.

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... operty-law

At the end of the day, go to the best school you can regardless of specialized rankings.

[Amir N]

I know Marquette is now a T3 school, but nearly everyone I've talked with seems to associate it with an excellent sports law program.

what is a T3 school?

A third tier school based on the annual US News rankings.

[nealric]

Here's the rub:

Specialty programs are usually little more than marketing ploys. Law schools, especially of the lower-ranked variety, need a way to differentiate themselves to attract quality students. By convincing students that going to their school will allow them to pursue their dream field in a way that a top school cannot, the lower ranked school may attract them over that top school.

Employers, however, could usually care less that a students has taken sports law specific classes. No matter what classes you take in law school, you are going to enter practice completely ignorant of how to practice your field of law. Worse, most specialty fields like "sports law" are fields that you can only lateral into- you don't start practicing sports law right out of law school. But taking a large number of classes in fields like sports law telegraphs to future employers that you are going to bolt as soon as you can find a way to practice in that area. By reducing your chances of general employment, taking such classes could actually limit your chances of ever practicing in that field.

Ever see Harvard or Yale or Stanford touting about their great sports/entertainment/legal writing program? Of course not. They know they don't need gimmicks to attract people.

[paratactical]

Gunning for Proskauer Rose's NYC office is probably your best bet. They handle a lot of pro sports stuff.

[electricfeel]

Here's the rub:

Specialty programs are usually little more than marketing ploys. Law schools, especially of the lower-ranked variety, need a way to differentiate themselves to attract quality students. By convincing students that going to their school will allow them to pursue their dream field in a way that a top school cannot, the lower ranked school may attract them over that top school.

Employers, however, could usually care less that a students has taken sports law specific classes. No matter what classes you take in law school, you are going to enter practice completely ignorant of how to practice your field of law. Worse, most specialty fields like "sports law" are fields that you can only lateral into- you don't start practicing sports law right out of law school. But taking a large number of classes in fields like sports law telegraphs to future employers that you are going to bolt as soon as you can find a way to practice in that area. By reducing your chances of general employment, taking such classes could actually limit your chances of ever practicing in that field.

Ever see Harvard or Yale or Stanford touting about their great sports/entertainment/legal writing program? Of course not. They know they don't need gimmicks to attract people.

Couldn't have said it better myself (i tried).

[JG Hall]

In a law firm, "sports law" isn't any different than anything else; only your clients are teams/leagues. The only sports-related work that's unique has to do with stadium building and licensing.

[usuaggie]

Marquette is THE school for sports law. also, you don't have to take the state bar there if you graduate with the right gpa and take the right classes. I am really interested in sports law too, but i picked Oregon (who doesn't have sports law).

[James Bond]

Marquette is THE school for sports law.

QFP

[nealric]

The only sports-related work that's unique has to do with stadium building and licensing.

That's just real estate work (which is basically a subset of corporate). A partner at my firm worked on a stadium, but he's hardly a sports lawyer.

[sgtgrumbles]

Here's the rub:

Specialty programs are usually little more than marketing ploys. Law schools, especially of the lower-ranked variety, need a way to differentiate themselves to attract quality students. By convincing students that going to their school will allow them to pursue their dream field in a way that a top school cannot, the lower ranked school may attract them over that top school.

Employers, however, could usually care less that a students has taken sports law specific classes. No matter what classes you take in law school, you are going to enter practice completely ignorant of how to practice your field of law. Worse, most specialty fields like "sports law" are fields that you can only lateral into- you don't start practicing sports law right out of law school. But taking a large number of classes in fields like sports law telegraphs to future employers that you are going to bolt as soon as you can find a way to practice in that area. By reducing your chances of general employment, taking such classes could actually limit your chances of ever practicing in that field.

Ever see Harvard or Yale or Stanford touting about their great sports/entertainment/legal writing program? Of course not. They know they don't need gimmicks to attract people.

Attention, Bubba13: This is the best advice you have received in this thread. While you sound very enthusiastic about applying to law school, the two comments you've posted show that you have a very lot to learn before you do so. You should start by reading some of the articles in the Law School Admissions tab at the very top of this page. I would also suggest you spend a good deal of time reading topics on these forums, paying particular attention to those that cover post-graduation employment prospects (they are bleak, both the prospects and the topics).

To emphasize what Nealric wrote, specialty programs are mostly marketing ploys. The single most important factor by leaps and bounds in picking a law school is its prestige. This is because the single most important factor by leaps and bounds in finding a job after law school is the prestige of your law school. Of course, affordability and location are important considerations, and if you don't want to take out a lot of loans to pay for law school, or if you have significant family or SO ties to some region/city, it may be better to choose a school other than the best you get into, but you need to aim as high as possible. When you spend more time on this site, you will see that many people think it is a huge gamble to attend any school that is not ranked as one of the top 14 law schools (T14, as these schools are called). Some people believe this is the case for any school not ranked in the top 6. Some people think only the top 3 - Yale, Stanford and Harvard - are safe bets.

I'm not trying to scare you off, just underscoring that law school is an extraordinary financial and time commitment, and that there are thousands of young people each year who matriculate at not-so-great schools who may never find legal employment because the availability of jobs is so poor. Do some research, read the articles on this site, continue posting questions on here and so on.

Best of luck.

[usuaggie]

i object to the marketing ploy argument, as my school has instituted "space law" as of last week, propelling us to be one of the top "space law" universities in the united states.