Sports Agency Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone ever work at a sports/entertainment agency (WME, Excel, Boras) before? Or know anyone who has? Any idea how to even break in?

[RaceJudicata]

Good luck, and don't get your hopes up.

[Anonymous User]

I worked at one. I got my agency card and tried to bang a tennis player over at Shelter. Fired the next day.

[Anonymous User]

Good friend from law school who was a D-I football player in undergrad interviewed with CAA/IMG right before our 2L OCI, but (1) he got the interview through family; and (2) he's now an SA in NYC Biglaw, so I suspect even the family connection wasn't enough.

[Anonymous User]

Without a book or a client list or a major connection it will be difficult to break into the agency business. In all honesty, your best bet in terms of pedigree would be a JD/MBA from a T10 program and even then you would need some major luck.

[Anonymous User]

Breaking in is all about connections. Knew a scrub professional athlete at a t10 JD/MBA and they got an interview CAA/IMG but ended up at a V10 firm instead. Also know a Cali lawyer who 2L summered at an agency (I will assume through connects), spent some time there, bounced to a firm and then into a professional sports team (business side). If you chose to go down this path, its connections and luck.


In saying this, you really don't need a JD to become an agent. I have high school classmate who is doing it at a decent sized shop and he got in by being a former player (no JD/MBA needed).

[1styearlateral]

I met someone a couple months ago who worked for one of the big ones but said that it was a horrible place to work and he was trying to get out. He said everyone starts in the mailroom, regardless if you have your JD/MBA. And then, as others have said, it all depends on which agent you get assigned to when the time comes plus a mountain of luck.

Sounds like it would be fun/interesting, but wasn't keen on starting at the bottom after spending three years in law school.

[Anonymous User]

I guess I'll use the Maverick Carter approach.....oh wait, none of my friends are anything like Lebron James. Thanks for the response guys, I'll just shoot for the moon and see what happens.

[Anonymous User]

I met this guy on a chair lift once:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck- ... 56485.html

He was an oddball, didn't blow me away with intelligence, and got his law degree was from Cooley. He was living the life though. He told me he lived in one of the Colorado ski towns and he got lots of ski days in. So I guess you're set as long as your brother is a superstar athlete.

[nsideirish]

Just about every bro at every law school in the country who has a strong interest in sports wants to be an agent. Most are realistic and don't even really try. Of the ones that try, most never even come close to even getting a foot in the door. Those who are even given a shot most likely either (i) have connections or (ii) was an athlete in undergrad (and not intramurals).

Being an agent is an over-glorified job anyways. A bunch of unathletic bros trying to stay cool by hanging off the nutsacks of top athletes. You aren't going to become boys with them. You will be treated like a concierge while having to act like a babysitter.

[Anonymous User]

My brother-in-law does. He got in with a sports agent with one client who grew, and now has a good number. Going to law school would not have helped, but he would have if this didn't pan out. It's not that going to law school helps you become a sports agent. It's that having a degree in sports marketing frequently doesn't produce any kind of half decent job so people go to law school.

[RaceJudicata]

There is probably a better chance of getting in to the Labor/Employment group at Proskauer (or another L/E group that handles collective bargaining) and doing sports related work. Although, I'm sure a ton of bros go to their Proskauer/etc interviews with this exact thought in mind and the firm sees right through it. No back up for that, but just my hunch.

[sprezz]

I worked at one. (. . .) Fired the next day.

180 use of anon function. wp