Sports Litigation Alert Current Issue

By Scott White[1] and Noah Kalter[2] On December 24th, 2024, a three-judge panel for the California Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a wrongful death claim against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) filed on behalf of Matthew Gee, a former...

By Gary Chester, Senior Writer Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara has been home to the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers since 2014. Four years into the team’s lease, the adequacy of security at the venue came into question when one fan assaulted another fan in the parking lot....

By Ellen J. Staurowsky, Ed.D., Senior Writer & Professor of Sports Media, Ithaca College, staurows@ithaca.edu On February 12, 2025, two transgender high school girls who attend public schools in New Hampshire challenged an executive order entitled “Keeping Men Out...

Dr. Kyle Conkle John Doe 2, a student athlete at North Carolina State University (NC State) from 2020 to 2021, alleged that while seeking treatment for hip and groin pain that he was sexually abused by the university’s Director of Sports Medicine, Robert Murphy....

By Joseph M. Ricco IV Wisconsin football cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean has sued the NCAA after being denied an extra year of eligibility, arguing that his two seasons at Division II Grand Valley State should not count against his eligibility clock. The lawsuit claims...

A federal judge from the Middle District of Florida has granted the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s (Tribe) motion to intervene in a putative class action brought by a plaintiff, who alleged that Seminole Hard Rock Digital, LLC (SHRD) violated the Florida Deceptive and...

By Professor Robert J Romano, JD, LLM, Senior Writer In March 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Regional Office in Chicago, after receiving a petition from Kain Colter, then a quarterback at Northwestern University, determined that members of the...

By Kaitlyn Kozlowski Overview This document outlines the allegations and settlement of a class action lawsuit against the Chicago Cubs for violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by sending unsolicited marketing text messages and recommends action to...

By Austin Spears A major change could soon be coming to Texas High School sports with the proposal of House Bill 619. This bill, proposed by Texas House State Representative Barbara Gervin-Hawkins from District 120 in San Antonio, would allow high schoolers to...

By Rob Dickson and Joshua D. Nadreau, Fisher & Phillips Another day, another settlement impacting college athletics. The NCAA and the states of Tennessee and Virginia recently announced a settlement that essentially ends the NCAA’s rules prohibiting name, image...

By Prof. Gil Fried, University of West Florida The small number of fans at a University of Massachusetts Women’s Basketball game went crazy when Noah Lee made a lay-up, free throw, three-point shot, and then a half-court shot all in 25 seconds. The celebration was...

Very few of us can manifest our dream job right out of college. Count Jill Ingels one of the lucky ones. While attending Marquette University Law School (MULS), where she graduated cum laude (2017), Ingels knew what she wanted – working the general counsel’s office of...

A federal criminal complaint has been filed charging Alexis Perez Suarez, 43, of Baltimore, Maryland, on federal felony charges related to flying a drone over M&T Bank Stadium during a National Football League Wild Card Game in Baltimore on January 11, 2025. The...

By Charles Keller The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled with Evolv Technologies, a Massachusetts-based company that makes AI-powered security screening systems. The FTC claimed Evolv misled customers about how accurately its Evolv Express scanners could...

The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) has announced that David Kelly has been named Managing Director and General Counsel at the NBPA. In this role, Kelly bolsters the Union’s veteran leadership team with more than a decade of experience at the Golden...

By Matt Schuckman Quincy (Ill.) High School softball coach Darrell Henze was suspended last month without pay pending a termination to be decided by the Quincy School Board at its February meeting for violating the school’s code of conduct for coaches. Henze said he...

Following high demand and the big success of its UK editions, The Health Optimisation Summit (https://usa.healthoptimisation.com) has announced its American debut in Austin, Texas, on April 12-13. Hosted at the iconic Palmer Events Center, the event will unite leading...

A study of 2,610 Wisconsin high school football players found that wearing soft-shell helmet covers, marketed as Guardian Cap helmet devices, during practice had no effect on the rates of sports-related concussions. Results cannot be generalized to college and pro...

Littler has announced the addition of three shareholders to its Washington, D.C. office. Daniel Nash, Stacey Eisenstein, and Nathan Oleson join from Akin Gump, each with a focus on labor and employment issues impacting the professional and collegiate sports industry....

International corporate law firm gunnercooke is launching a specialist sport division, headed up by former Chief Executive of Millwall Football Club and Director of the English Football League, Steve Kavanagh. gunnercookeSport will provide a full-service offering to...

By Prof. Gil Fried, University of West Florida Florida Marlins fan Luann Hahn claims she slipped on dog urine in an area of the stadium, which was not designated for dogs during a game on April 14, 2024.  Hahn's lawsuit could fail as records of the Marlins'...

Kate Letcher, who works out of the Chicago office of Nixon Peabody, has been promoted to Counsel at the firm. Letcher is described as “a skilled litigator who advises clients from a wide range of industries, such as healthcare and medical device...

Hackney Publications (HP) has announced that Michael Viverito, a sports lawyer at Power & Cronin, has been interviewed on the Sports Law Expert Podcast. The segment can be heard here (on 2/25)...