Speaker Series Program Outline – “Legal Issues in Professional and Collegiate Sports”

-Date: April 24, 2012 (D-backs vs. Phillies)

-Gates open: 4:30 p.m.

-Program: 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

-Networking/Social Mixer in the Miller Lite Diamond Club  6:40 p.m. – End of game

-Cost: $20.00 per person (includes $5.00 in D-bucks)

Arizona Diamondbacks Speaker Series panel discussion on Legal Issues in Professional and Collegiate Sports.  The event qualifies for one (1) hour of CLE credit.  Below is an outline.  Please see the flyer for ticket and additional information (note the April 13 RSVP deadline). Click here for the flyer

Who: California Lawyers for the Arts

What: 5th Annual Artistic License Awards

When: Sunday April 29th, 2012

Where: William Turner Gallery in the Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, California

For more information click here

2012 Honorees:

• Senator Curren D. Price, Jr.
• The Law Offices of McDermott Will & Emory
• Samuel Hoi, President of Otis College of Art and Design
• Inner-City Arts
• Ozomatli

Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, California Arts Council Chair, serves as this year’s Honorary Chair, and Val Zavala, award winning anchor for KCET public television, serves as Mistress of Ceremonies.

In 2008, the Board of Directors for California Lawyers for the Arts established the Artistic License Awards to recognize persons and organizations whom have mastered their arts (intended in the broadest possible sense) in extraordinary ways for the communities they serve.  This year’s honorees are examples of those whose acts of generosity and examples of innovation have inspired so many others to stretch beyond their “comfort zones” and take on the challenges of our time.

California Lawyers for the Arts was founded in 1974 as Bay Area Lawyers for the Arts, and joined forces with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Los Angeles, in 1987.  We provide individuals and organizations throughout California with legal assistance, alternative dispute resolution services, educational programs, and job training programs for youth.

Greg Reitman, whose film, Fuel, garnered a Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary, recently described how he benefited from legal services provided by California Lawyers for the Arts. Starting out as a new filmmaker, he was seeking legal help to form his business.  “At first, I had been told that I could start a relationship with an attorney for $20,000 and I said, ‘Where am I going to get that from?!’ Then I filled out an application with California Lawyers for the Arts. I was referred to an attorney who said, ‘Let’s take care of Greg’…and he did.”

In February, 2012, the College Art Association honored California Lawyers for the Arts at its 100^th Annual Conference and Centennial Celebration.  The Centennial Award recognizes extraordinary time and expertise recipients have contributed to the arts across the nation.  California Lawyers for the Arts received a 2012 Centennial Award for Advocacy in the Arts, which was awarded to CLA Board Co-President Maria Seferian and presented by Joseph Lewis III, Dean, Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine.

Senator Curren D. Price Jr.: Curren Price was first elected to the California State Assembly in 2006 to represent the 51st District, and was re-elected by an overwhelming margin to a second term in 2008.  After serving one full term in the California State Assembly, Mr. Price was elected in May 2009 to represent the 26th District in the State Senate.  In addition to his legislative responsibilities, Senator Price was chosen by Senate Leadership to serve on a range of important legislative committees that reflect his priorities and interests.  He currently chairs the Legislative Joint Committee on the Arts.

Through passage of SB 1076 by Senator Price, California taxpayers can now contribute tax-deductible contributions on their personal tax returns on the voluntary contribution portion of their annual tax return.  Through this effort, the California Arts council raised $164, 298.00 in 2011, and is on track to meet its annual goal of $250,000.00 for 2012, having raised $4.944.00 as of January 31^st, 2012; up 55% from 2011.

The Law Offices of McDermott Will & Emory: McDermott Will & Emery is a premier international law firm with a diversified business practice.  “McDermott has a long history of social responsibility and supporting the communities in which our people live and work. We believe it is our obligation to embrace our communities and promote their well-being through pro bono work, community service, charitable giving, environmental stewardship and promoting diversity.”

Samuel Hoi: Samuel Hoi is the President of Otis College of Art and Design, which recently published the 2011 Otis Report on the Creative Economy of the Los Angeles Region.  The report is the first study to capture the monumental economic force of the creative industries in Southern California.  The report includes information on employment, creative industry revenues, and the non-profit sector.  “The time has come for a strategic investment in, and deployment of, creativity as a productive stimulus for our region.” - Samuel Hoi.

Inner-City Arts: Inner-City Arts is a learning oasis in the heart of Los Angeles’ Skid Row where professional artists teach students in a real studio environment. Since its inception, Inner-City Arts has served more than 150,000 of the city’s most at-risk children at no cost to the students.  Founded in 1989, Inner-City Arts works in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District to bring elementary and middle school students to the campus during the school day for instruction in the visual and performing arts. High school students participate in after-school and Saturday programs.

Inner-City Arts welcomes a new President & CEO Joseph Collins, and was just featured in an article titled “Thanks to One Los Angeles Non-Profit, Budget Cuts Haven’t Killed Off Art Class” in Good Magazine, for its efforts in maintaining the arts in the Los Angeles Public School system.

Ozomatli: In their fifteen years together as a band, celebrated Los Angeles culture-mashers Ozomatli have gone from being home-town heroes to being named U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassadors.  Ozomatli has spent 15 years working diligently to spread its message of peace, communication and understanding through music, with a long standing tradition of performing for children all over the world, from the schools of North St. Louis to the orphanages of Southeast Asia.  The band is currently in the studio with acclaimed producer Tony Berg, recording a children’s album for release in 2012, followed by a book, DVD and tour.

2012 Artistic License Awards Honorary Committee: Jay Cooper, Attorney, Greenberg Traurig; Assemblyman Mike Davis; Danny Glover, Actor, Co-Founder, Robey Theatre Company; Bennet Guillory, Actor, Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Robey Theatre Company; Vivian Davidson Hewitt; Bob L. Johnson; L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe; Adolfo Nodal; Ken Novice, Managing Director, Geffen Playhouse; Rene Kathawala, Pro Bono Counsel, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; Debra Pasquerette, Dir. of Community Outreach & Education Programs, Geffen Playhouse; Councilwoman Jan Perry; Elsa Ramo, Partner, Entertainment Law Partners; Avis Ridley-Thomas; L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas; Cathy Segal-Garcia, musician; U.S. Representative Mel Watt; L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yarovslavsky.

The Artistic License Awards will take place on Sunday, April 29th, 2012, at the William Turner Gallery in the Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, from 5:00PM to 7:30PM.  The William Turner Gallery is located at 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404. Tickets can be purchased at www.calawyersforthearts.org.

For additional information, media passes, and interviews, please contact Rob Woodworth at (310) 998-5590, or email: rob.woodworth@calawyersforthearts.org.

What: Michigan State University College of Law presents Behind the Curtains of the NCAA and College Athletics with former NFL agent Josh Luchs. This event is free to students and the public.

When: Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 12PM

Where: Michigan State University College of Law, Room 471. 368 Law College Bldg  East Lansing, MI 48824

Please see the flyer below for more information regarding this event or contact Zak Kurtz at (zakurtz@msu.edu).

The Sports Lawyers Association (SLA) and the National Sports & Entertainment Law Society (NSELS- http://nationalsels.org/) have teamed up with Michigan State College of Law to bring a great networking and entertainment experience to attorneys, agent, and students in the Detroit and surrounding areas.

The event will take place on Friday, March 23, beginning at 4PM where Tom Bennett and other legal and business professionals from the PISTONS will speak to the group. Following the speakers, the Pistons will give stadium tours and will host a networking reception before D-Wade, Lebron James and the Heat take on the Pistons at 7PM.

Please see the attached flyer on how to purchase tickets. If you have any questions please contact Zak Kurtz (zakurtz@msu.edu). We hope to see you all there!!

SLA-NSLES Night @ the Palace Flyer

Guest post from Dr. Anastasios Kaburakis, a professor at the John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University:

After St. Louis’ beloved Cardinals lost Albert Pujols to the L.A. Angels last week, there was quite a discussion on how a small market like St. Louis can compete in intense, financially challenging times, and indeed in a cut-throat industry like sports. St. Louis ranks 18^th in metropolitan area size in the U.S.

What is most interesting for sports law aficionados, however, is that St. Louis is developing into a hub for sports law. It was during the same fateful week of Dec. 5 that one of the two biggest law firms in town, Thompson Coburn, announced a major addition, the immediate past President of the Sports Lawyers Association, Bob Wallace, veteran NFL executive and former St. Louis Rams’ general counsel, who will lead a new sports law practice group. This follows the other major St. Louis firm, Bryan Cave, announcing earlier this summer the commencement of its sports law practice group, led by Ryan Davis. Both firms followed suit along the path of Stinson LLP and Bob Lattinville, who together with Gary Uberstine formed a national partnership, Premier Stinson Sports, specializing in elite coaches’ representation. Of course, when representation is discussed, St. Louis is home to CAA Football, Jim Steiner, Ben Dogra, and Tom Condon, who compete for the top-level football talent with cross-town rival Harold Lewis and the National Sports Agency.

Further, for sports law gurus, one needs to keep in mind that St. Louis-based Harness, Dickey, and Pierce, a top-5 global Intellectual Property firm, has been attending to sports IP issues for years, receiving international attention and fantasy sports fans’ adoration due to the successful CBC v MLBAM case before the Eighth Circuit, led by Super IP litigator Rudy Telscher.

Add to those national players the several pockets of key sport finance consultation in town, as well as a focused sport law research group including international academics and practitioners collaborating with the Saint Louis University John Cook School of Business sports business program, and one observes that the Gateway City may well be the best-kept secret in international sports law.

Here’s hoping that St. Louis’ Law Schools also recognize the tremendous opportunities for young practitioners, as well as the further involvement our fine academic institutions may have through their meaningful contributions to the industry (not to mention the patent prospects for landing external funding through such service and collaborative initiatives with the various key industry players in town). Conceivably, St. Louis may become an international destination for sport law studies, and the promising challenge is there for a law school to be a first entrant in town, joining the 12 or so other law school-housed sport law centers, institutes, clinics, and certificate programs around the U.S. already providing valuable service to law students, faculty, practitioners, and the entire sports industry.

So we haven’t had a post on here since May.  That’s mostly my fault.  I’ve been busy with the practice and haven’t made much time to write anything for this blog.

I practice a good amount of criminal law at my firm.  Sometimes my clients don’t have strong grounds, if any, for a defense.  In other words, my clients are sometimes, allegedly, guilty as sin and there are pictures to prove it.  Once we make that determination, my job becomes more about damage control than testing the State’s case.  For example, in a driving-while-intoxicated case, I might want to get my client into drug and alcohol counseling to show that my client takes the offense seriously, is showing contrition, and taking steps to ensure that the behavior that led to the offense is being addressed in a timely and responsible manner.  This is just common sense.  Sometimes, even if a client has a potentially great defense, I’ll still try to hedge our bets and get my client on what the court is going to see as “the right track.”

Often, getting your client into a rehabilitative program provides a bargaining chip with the State when you don’t have anything else to bargain with (and I know there are times when, tactically, a rehabilitative program could be a bad decision, but that’s not what this post is about).  Even if the State doesn’t want to play ball, the court will tend to look favorably upon a person who takes responsibility and addresses the issues that brought him into court in the first place.  For the most part, contrition is a valuable attribute for the criminal defendant to display.  Simply saying you’re sorry for what you did can carry a lot of weight at sentencing.

You may have heard that rapper T.I. was sent back to jail (do not pass GO, do not collect $200) after arriving at a halfway house in a luxury tour bus.  His lawyer implies that the bus was the reason T.I. was sent back.  I think it’s especially important when your client is a public figure to emphasize the importance of showing remorse.  Showing up in a luxury tour bus to a halfway house just doesn’t embody a humble attitude—quite the opposite, really.

Now, my opinion here is based on an article and some generally applicable principles I apply to my practice of law.  I don’t have all the details of T.I.’s case and his lawyer may have given him the exact advice I suggest here.  Or maybe my advice wasn’t warranted in this particular case.  I’d be interested to hear any thoughts on the general subject.

Looking to network? Interested in Sports or Entertainment Law? This event is just for you. In an effort to spread awareness about the organization’s mission, NSELS will be hosting a networking event in New York City on June 3rd, 2011. More information will be given out in the coming week. The National Sports & Entertainment Law Society was organized with the assistance of Michael McCann from Sports Illustrated. NSELS is a low-p…rofit, limited-liability company created by law students that focuses on organizing and centralizing sports and entertainment societies. Most of our members are affiliated in some capacity with other professional organizations such as the Sports Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association’s Forum on Entertainment and Sports.

To ensure a great event, please RSVP on facebook, so we can have a good idea of reservations and such. Also invite your friends who might be interested. Information about the event will be updated weekly. Due to limited funding, all cost will be at your own expense. Click NYC Event to RSVP or email jon@nationalsels.org.

Date: June 3rd, 2011
Time: 6-8 P.M.
Where:  Tonic Bar, Times Square, 727 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY

Date/Time: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 3:30 pm -5:30 pm

Place: New York Law School 185 W. Broadway New York, NY 10013 Auditorium, A014

Who:  George Atallah, NFLPA Assistant Executive Director of External Affairs, NFL Player TBD, Moderated by New York School Sports Law Society

Representatives from the NFL Players Association and a player from the NFL will hold a session at New York Law School, and is open to students, the public and media. The program titled, “The NFL Lockout: How We Got Here and What Comes Next” is part of a series of appearances held at higher education institutions.

March 12, NFL owners locked out their players, ending more than 20 years of labor peace in America’s most popular sport. April 26, George Atallah and a player from the NFL will host a presentation on the state of football. Topics such as success of the game, the lockout and how the sides reached this point will be discussed. A full question-answer session will follow.

Media availability will be conducted at the conclusion of the event.

For more information or to RSVP:

Jilane Rodgers (NFLPA): Jilane.Rodgers@nflplayers.com / 202.756.9171 (office) / 202.255.5874 (cell)

Alycia Huckabey (New York Law School): alycia.huckabey@law.nyls.edu/ 203.927.2485

Date & Time: April 27, 2011, 12:00 p.m.

Place: Chase Community Center, Vermont Law School

Price: free and open to the public

Bill Neukom will discuss how he has drawn on his legal education to advance his business, management and sports careers, specifically as managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants, general counsel/executive vice president of Microsoft, and president of the American Bar Association. Mr. Neukom will discuss his leadership of the Giants and the emerging role of sports law in legal education. Introductions will be made by Edward C. Mattes, VLS Board of Trustees chair, and E. Miles Prentice, partner at the law firm Eaton & Van Winkle in New York City and owner of minor league baseball teams.
The event is sponsored by the VLS Sports Law Institute.

For the event flier, click here