The Sports and Entertainment Risk Management Alliance (SERMA) and Hackney Publications, the nation’s leading publisher of sports law periodicals, has announced a strategic alliance, with a collective goal of building out the community of risk managers in the sports industry, giving them an even more powerful voice.
Founded in 2022, SERMA is the first risk management association devoted entirely to the sports and entertainment industries. It is an organization of risk managers, claims managers, general counsels, outside counsel and other associated professionals who work in the sports and entertainment field.
“We have been watching SERMA for some time as it gained more and more influence in the sports industry,” said Holt Hackney, the publisher of Hackney Publications. “It has played and will continue to play an important role in helping companies, facilities, teams, and leagues operate efficiently and profitably. We are excited to support SERMA in this endeavor.”
Rich Lenkov, founder of SERMA and a sports lawyer, said Hackney Publications adds an important piece to the alliance.
“Since its founding more than 20 years ago, Hackney Publications has become an invaluable, go-to resource for the industry,” Lenkov said. “Sports lawyers, and risk managers, rely on its publications to keep up to date with the latest developments and trends. That makes Hackney Publications the ideal partner as we spread the word about best practices, common solutions and industry trends with the rest of the sports industry.”
Those “best practices, common solutions and industry trend” center on “criminal events at sporting events and concerts, premises liability at large venues, sexual abuse allegations, NIL (name, image and likeness) agreements, cyber risks, intellectual property and licensing issues, business interruption coverage and professional athlete and performer injuries,” added Lenkov.
SERMA also recently announced that it has assembled an Advisory Board that is made up of some of our industries’ most dynamic and engaging leaders. Among them:
- Simon Keshishian, Vice President, Risk Management, Red Bull
- Jessica Mechtly, Associate Director, Risk Management, US Olympic Committee
- Jason Bernstein, Vice President, Assistant General Counsel, AEG Presents
- Sydney Posner, Chief Executive Officer, ClaimsXchange
- Mary Gibson, Vice President, Enterprise Risk Management and Corporate Counsel, Major League Soccer
- David Dwortz, President/Chief Executive Officer, Helmsman Management
- Laurie Kleinman, Vice President Legal & Risk Management, Comcast Spectacor
- Brian Rosenblatt, General Counsel, SERMA, Bryce Downey & Lenkov LLC
- Anshell Boggs, SVP, Chief Risk Management & Insurance Officer, National Basketball Association
- Barrie Wexler, Executive Vice President – Risk Management, Paramount Global
ABOUT HACKNEY PUBLICATIONS
Hackney Publications is the nation’s leading publisher of sports law periodicals. The company was founded by journalist Holt Hackney. Hackney began his career as a sportswriter, before taking on the then-nascent sports business beat at Financial World Magazine in the late 1980s. A few years later, Hackney started writing about the law, managing five legal newsletters for LRP Publications. In 1999, he founded Hackney Publications. Today, Hackney publishes or co-publishes 24 sports law periodicals, including Sports Litigation Alert, which offers a searchable archive of more than 4,000 case summaries and articles. In addition, the Alert is used in more than 100 sports law classrooms any given semester.
