Winston & Strawn LLP has announced the launch of the firm’s college sports practice group, led by nationally recognized sports lawyers and a former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) lead investigator. The practice group will provide comprehensive legal services to clients involved in all aspects of college and amateur athletics, including the representation of colleges and universities involved in NCAA enforcement investigations and violations of NCAA legislation.
“Our sports law practice is regularly adverse to sports leagues and associations in litigations and arbitrations,” said Jeffrey Kessler, partner and co-chair of Winston & Strawn’s sports litigation practice. “Making a college sports practice a natural extension of that. This practice will fit seamlessly with our experience bringing and defending cases to reign in the unbridled power of sports bodies to ensure fair treatment for clients.”
Winston & Strawn’s attorneys have garnered national attention in the sports industry. They have represented the players associations in the four major professional sports leagues and have litigated some of the most closely watched sports cases in history, including the 2011 antitrust litigations challenging “lockouts” imposed by the NFL and the NBA. Among other significant cases, Winston & Strawn’s sports litigation attorneys represented the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in the antitrust trial against the NCAA, which led to continuing the NIT tournament.
Winston & Strawn’s college sports practice group will be led by Tim Nevius and David Greenspan.
Nevius joins the firm from the NCAA where he was a lead investigator on many NCAA infractions cases.
Greenspan, according to his bio, “has litigated (sports law) cases involving antitrust law, labor law, licensing, agent regulation, active and retired player rights, and workers’ compensation. He regularly represents the NFL Players Association and NFL players and has appeared in numerous NFLPA arbitrations and Special Master proceedings, on behalf of players such as Terrell Owens, Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress, Larry Johnson, Daunte Culpepper, Terrell Suggs, Albert Haynesworth, Deion Branch, Ashley Lelie, and Ricky Williams. Greenspan has also represented NBA players, the NBA Players Association, the MLB Players Association, the NHL Players’ Association, professional poker players, a prospective NHL owner, and professional sports agents.”
The firm is positioning itself as the first college-focused division at a major law firm to represent players, coaches, schools and conferences against … the unbridled power and influence of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Kessler was clearly confident about the firm’s positioning in the marketplace.
“We’re the traditional go-to law firm for people adverse to leagues and associations,” he said in a conference call with the media. “We represent the players, the cities and municipalities, the sponsors and owners who are fighting with their leagues. We’re not the firm that represents the powers.”
Rick Karcher, Professor of Law at Florida Coastal School of Law and an ex-student athlete himself, was not surprised by Winston’s announcement.
“A law firm specializing in the representation of college athletes is certainly not surprising because it is the inevitable result of basic principles of supply and demand,” he told Sports Litigation Alert. “As the revenue generated in big-time college sports continues to grow each year, the demand for the services of the limited supply of elite college athletes who are able to produce that revenue also increases, which gives these athletes more leverage in asserting legal challenges against an unjust system.”
