It wasn’t long ago that the ABA Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries was all about entertainment law. Sports law was an afterthought.
That is clearly changing. Props should go to Vered Yakovee, Vice President and Associate General Counsel for the Miami HEAT and AmericanAirlines Arena, for refusing to accept this perception. Yakovee, who was a Governor of the Forum from 2007 until 2016, recently passed the baton to Casey Schwab, currently the Director of Business and Legal Affairs for FOX Sports and the current chair of the Forum’s Sports Division. Schwab, who was previously the Manager of Business Administration for the NFL, has taken the exchange and not looked back.
The byproduct of this effort will occur October 6-8 at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas when the Forum hosts its annual meeting. The sports-related panels follow:
Sports Gambling, Friday, October 7, 9:30 — 11:00 AM PST Explore the current status of sports betting with a particular emphasis on the New Jersey sports betting case currently pending in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Take a futuristic look at the gambling industry and what role fantasy sports betting will play moving forward.
Moderator: Daniel Werly, Founder/Managing Editor, The White Bronco Sports Law Website; Professor of Arbitration in Sports at Charleston School of Law (Chicago, IL) Panelists:
Daniel Wallach, Partner, Becker & Poliakoff (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
Judge Phil Pro, former US District Judge and current JAMS neutral (Las Vegas, NV)
Robert Caldwell, Shareholder, Kolesar & Leatham (Las Vegas, NV)
Hot Legal Topics in College Sports, Friday, October 7, 11:15 AM — 12:45 PM PST Take a journey into the trenches of college sports with our panelists as they examine the top legal issues, challenges, and up-to-theminute developments in the world of college sports. Discover the inside scoop on the pay-for-play controversy and develop your game plan to effectively maneuver through the ever-changing antitrust, publicity, and employment playing fields. Industry experts will address the red-hot issues affecting NCAA governance and rules and provide their predictions for reforms in college sports moving forward.
Moderator: Laura Warren, Sr. Associate General Counsel, DePaul University (Chicago, IL) Panelists:
Woodie Dixon, Jr., General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Business Affairs, Pac-12 Conference (San Francisco, CA)
Gabe Feldman, Professor of Law, Director of Sports Law Program, Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance, Tulane University (New Orleans, LA)
David Williams, II, Vice Chancellor for Athletics and University Affairs, Athletic Director, and Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
LaKeisha Marsh, Partner, Akerman LLP (Chicago, IL)
Sports Team General Counsels, Saturday, October 8, 10:45 AM — 12:15 PM PST What is a General Counsel in terms of business versus traditional legal skills and roles? Most GCs will tell you they are business people with a legal background. In professional sports, business skills are especially relevant to a GC’s success but exactly what does that mean? Join our panel of legal sports professionals who will help you gain a better understanding of the scope of sports law and uncover the specific unique traits that set a sports General Counsel apart from traditional corporate lawyers.
Moderator: Glenn Ware, Principal, Leader, Threat Management, Anti-Corruption and Corporate Intelligence Practice Groups, Price Waterhouse Cooper (Washington, D.C.) Panelists:
Jason Hillman, Vice President/General Counsel, Cleveland Cavaliers (Cleveland, OH)
Vered Yakovee, Vice President/Associate General Counsel, Miami Heat (Miami, FL)
Ahron Cohen, General Counsel, Arizona Coyotes (Phoenix, AZ)
Caleb Jay, Senior Director, Legal Affairs/Associate General Counsel, Arizona Diamondbacks (Phoenix, AZ)
Streaming, VR and the Role of Sports Content, Saturday, October 8, 12:45 — 2:15 PM PST From free streams of NFL games on Twitter to broadcasts of NBA games in VR, newer platforms are increasingly looking to sports as a distribution source. How does this potential marriage of sports and technology impact early adoption of these mediums, as well as traditional broadcast deals, distribution windows and network relations? Our panel of industry professionals will discuss these developments, growth of the mediums, and the types of deals involved, including related legal concerns, and more.
Moderator: Steve Herz, President, IF Management (New York, NY) Panelists:
Jamie Hemann, VP of Media Administration, National Football League, Media, (Culver City, CA)
Ike Lawrence Epstein, Chief Operating Officer, UFC (Las Vegas, NV)
Jonder Ho, Manager Business Affairs, NBCUniversal Media, LLC (Los Angeles, CA)
Carissa Coze, Partner, Jenner and Block (Los Angeles, CA)
Schwab has had plenty of support with his efforts. Among the members of the Division’s Advisory Committee are:
Ahron Cohen, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the Arizona Coyotes Hockey Club and its related entities.
David Cohen, General Counsel of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Jason Hillman, Vice President and General Counsel of the Cleveland Cavaliers/Quicken Loans Arena.
Ahmad Nassar, President of NFL Players Incorporated, the licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFL Players Association.
Travis T. Tygart, USADA’s Chief Executive Officer.
Yakovee
On the Standing Committee are:
John Driscoll, an attorney based in Madison, Wisconsin at Steinhilber Swanson LLP.
Jamil Gittens, the current Manager of Business Administration for the NFL.
Caleb Jay, the Senior Director, Legal Affairs & Associate General Counsel for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Laura Warren, the primary legal advisor to the DePaul University Athletics Department.
Daniel Werly, Founder and Managing Editor of the sports legal website, The White Bronco, and professor of Arbitration in Sports at Charleston School of Law.
Claire M. Zovko, an attorney and Professor, teaching Globalization of Sport at the University of Miami.
