The Sport and Recreation Law Association (SRLA), the country’s leading association devoted to the teaching and research of sport and recreation law and risk management, announced last month the following as its 2016 award winners. The awards will be presented at the annual SRLA Conference in New Orleans on February 26.
The winner of the Betty van der Smissen Sport and Recreation Law Association Leadership Award is Adam Epstein, a Professor of Legal Studies in the Department of Finance and Law at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant. He has written three textbooks and has published over 50 peer-reviewed and journal articles. Epstein, who was featured in the 2015 American Bar Association publication “Careers in Sports Law,” is the Editor in Chief of the Rocky Mountain Law Journal.
Dylan Williams is the recipient of the Lori K. Miller Sport and Recreation Law Association Young Professional Award. Williams is an Assistant Professor of Sport Management at the University of Alabama whose sports law interests are highly concentrated in the accounting policies and procedures and taxation implications within collegiate and professional sport. He was also the inaugural recipient of the SRLA Best Paper Award in 2015 for his manuscript discussing the NFL’s decision to relinquish their §501(c)(6) Federal Tax Exemption.
The winner of the Herb Appenzeller Sport and Recreation Law Association Honor Award is Kristi Schoepfer, an Associate Professor of Sport Management and the Director of the Leadership Studies Minor at Winthrop University. Prior to joining the faculty at Winthrop, Dr. Schoepfer was an Assistant Professor of Sport Law for five years at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, WI. Schoepfer, a graduate of the Marquette University Law School, is a member of the Board of Advisors for the National Sport Law Institute and the current webmaster/conference host for the Sport and Recreation Law Association.
