Sports Litigation Alert Current Issue

By Gary Chester, Senior Writer At a time when free speech cases involving school districts present novel legal issues, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire has been presented with a controversy at the intersection of free speech and transgender...

By Dr. Kyle Conkle The case of Arbolida v. NCAA represents a significant consideration in the evolving legal battle over the rights of college athletes to participate in the revenue generated by collegiate sports. The decision by the U.S. District Court for the...

By Gary Chester, Senior Writer When Brian Barrio, a successful athletic director at Central Connecticut State, was recruited for the same position at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in 2019, he was allegedly assured that there were no significant...

By Christopher R. Deubert, Senior Writer On May 30, 2025, a Pennsylvania federal court refused NFL player agent Todd France’s request to vacate a December 2023 arbitration decision which ordered France to pay over $800,000 in damages to rival agent Jason Bernstein and...

A Florida appeals court has affirmed the ruling of the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County in a case where a former professional baseball player and his company alleged claims of invasion of privacy, misappropriation of trade secrets, and aiding and abetting a...

By Sachin Narayanan The Philadelphia Phillies filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on March 14, 2025 against Zelus Analytics and Teamworks Innovations regarding the usage of their analytics software, the Titan...

By John Wendt The one adjective that is associated with soccer, more than any other sport is “passion”.  The athletes play with passion. The fans show their passion, and at times overzealously.  These overzealous fans are totally invested in their teams and...

By Oliver Canning The intricate and often arduous journey of constructing modern sports cathedrals was a focal point of the 50th Annual Sports Lawyers Association Conference. The May 16 session, "Breaking Ground: The Legal Complexities of Building a Modern Sports...

By Joseph Michael Ricco IV A book set to be published in September, American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback, reveals that former University of Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams and his father, Carl Williams, plotted ways to avoid being selected by...

By Jeffrey Levine, JD, PhD – Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Sport Business Esport Business Program Lead, Drexel University As the esports ecosystem continues to scale its business ambitions and global reach, its legal systems are beginning to catch up....

By Christopher R. Deubert, Senior Writer On May 22, 2025, Darin Ruf, a former utility player for the Milwaukee Brewers and several other clubs, sued the Cincinnati Reds in an Ohio state court arising out of an allegedly career-ending knee injury that Ruf suffered at...

By Michael S. Carroll, PhD A former maintenance technician for the Orlando Free Fall ride at Icon Park has brought a state whistleblower lawsuit against his former employer stemming from a tragic incident three years prior that saw the death of a 14-year-old and...

By Christopher R. Deubert, Senior Writer A union’s animating – indeed statutory – purpose is to protect its members.  The unions representing players in the major American professional sports leagues are no different, doing battle with leagues and teams on a...

A woman filed a civil lawsuit in late May against NBA player Zion Williamson, accusing the New Orleans Pelicans superstar of repeated acts of “sexual, physical, emotional and financial” abuse during their five-year relationship. Identified as Jane Doe, the woman is...

As Vice President of Stadium Operations for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Micah J. Day is well aware of how fortunate he is. Only 32 other professionals have been given such a responsibility in the NFL. Thus, Day brings a humble approach to his work with the Bucs and...

By Jack Klingler, Santa Clara University School of Law In May 2018, the Supreme Court paved the way for legalized sports betting by invalidating the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).[1] Since this landmark decision, sports betting’s prevalence...

Hackney Publications (HP), the nation’s leading publisher of sports law publications, has partnered with the Sports and Entertainment Risk Management Alliance (SERMA) to create the organization’s membership newsletter - Risk Management in Sports, A SERMA Membership...

Andrew Brandt, Sports Law Professor and Executive Director of the Jeffrey S. Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law at Villanova Law, has joined the University of Louisville Athletics as a strategic advisor. Brandt, who is also a former vice president of the Green...

Hackney Publications announced today the availability of a recent interview with Sports Lawyer John Tyrrell of Ricci Tyrrell Johnson & Grey on the Sports Law Expert Podcast. The segment can be heard here -...

(What follows is the DOJ's press release): The Justice Department has sent letters of legal notice to California AG Rob Bonta, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, Jurupa Unified School District, and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)...

LaKeisha C. Marsh, chair of Akerman’s Government Strategies Practice Group and Higher Education and Collegiate Athletics Practice, has been elected to serve on the National Association of College and University Attorneys’ (NACUA) board of directors for a three-year...

Main Street Sports Group, owner and operator of FanDuel Sports Network, has announced that Sports and Entertainment Lawyer Chris Brearton, a Partner at AGBO, has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors. Before joining AGBO, Brearton was the Vice President...