The Sports and Recreation Law Association (SRLA) will host a virtual annual conference February 23-26 with Kenneth L. Shropshire, CEO of Global Sport Institute and the Adidas Distinguished Professor of Global Sport at Arizona State University, serving as the keynote speaker.
The primary mission of SRLA, which serves academicians and practitioners in private and public sport and recreation settings, is “to further the study and dissemination of information regarding legal aspects of sport and recreation. The Association addresses legal aspects of sport and recreation within both the public and private sectors.”
Each year, SRLA hosts a conference that provides quality peer-reviewed scholarship in the area of sport and recreation law. Given the pandemic, this year’s conference will be virtual. Scholarship is disseminated through 25 or 50-minute presentations, 75-minute symposium sessions, and poster sessions. Conference attendees also have the opportunity to interact with scholars and practitioners from across the country, engage in social activities, and network with industry professionals. The annual conference is beneficial for professionals, academics, and students.
Among the many highlights of the conference is the hot topics panel, which can be explored here: http://www.srlaconference.com/2021-hot-topics-panel/
For more on the agenda, please visit http://www.srlaconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-Virtual-Conference-Schedule_Current.pdf
To register for the conference, visit http://www.srlaconference.com/registration/. Registrants will also have the opportunity to obtain CLE credit for $99.
Prior to the aforementioned positions, Professor Shropshire had a 30-year career as an endowed full professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was also Director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative, Professor of Africana Studies, and Academic Director of Wharton’s sports-focused executive education programs. He now holds the title of Wharton Endowed Professor Emeritus.
His career has been highlighted by leading the launch of several noteworthy ventures in a variety of sectors including: leading the boxing competition during the last profitable Olympic Games, which was also the most televised event of the Games in 1984; founding and leading the Wharton Sports Business Initiative, one of the world’s most respected sports business think tanks in 2004; serving as a founder and board member of the Valley Green Bank, which was sold to Univest Corp. for $76 million in 2014; and guiding the launch of the non-profit Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) in 2016 and serving as one of its board members. As a sports-industry leader he is former President of the Sports Lawyers Association, the largest such organization in the world, and also former Program Chair of the ABA Forum Committee, Sports Law Section.
As an author, his books include: Sport Matters: Leadership, Power, and the Quest for Respect in Sports; Negotiate Like the Pros: A Top Sports Negotiator’s Lessons for Making Deals, Building Relationships and Getting What You Want; and Being Sugar Ray: The Life of America’s Greatest Boxer and First Celebrity Athlete. Additional works include the foundational books In Black and White: Race and Sports in America; The Business of Sports; and The Business of Sports Agents. His twelfth book is The Mis-Education of the Student Athlete: How to Fix College Sports.
Shropshire’s consulting roles have featured a wide variety of projects including work for the NCAA, Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Football League Players Association, the United States Olympic Committee and PGA golfer Rory McIlroy. He serves on the board of directors of Moelis & Company, a global independent investment bank, a Trustee Emeritus for the Women’s Sports Foundation, and as an advisor to the Sixers Innovation Lab. He was formerly on the boards of RISE, the Women’s Sports Foundation and USA Volleyball.
Shropshire earned an undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford University and a law degree from Columbia University, and is an inactive member of the California bar. He joined the law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg, and Tunney in Los Angeles prior to working with the 1984 Olympic Games and beginning his lengthy career at Wharton.
