Akron Law Review presents sports & entertainment law symposium

03/26/2023

Akron Law

The symposium will be held at the David and Ann Amer Brennan Courtroom at the Law School.

The Akron Law Review will present Game Changers: Rewriting the Playbook: A Sports and Entertainment Law Symposium on April 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The event will be held in-person in the David and Ann Amer Brennan Courtroom at The University of Akron School of Law. Virtual attendance will be available for those unable to attend in person. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for in-person attendees. 1.75 hours of Ohio CLE Credit has been approved.

Topics to be covered include:

  • The interplay of ethics and sports agency
  • Contract negotiating
  • Name, image, likeness (NIL)

Presenters include:

  • Luke Fedlam, partner and sports attorney, Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP
  • Steven Roth, principal and founder, The Roth Firm
  • Brandon Posivak, student at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law

The original idea for the symposium came from the faculty, but the Law Review student team quickly took on the project.

“Professor Brant Lee mentioned the idea to Dean Emily Janoski-Haehlen, and that got passed along to me,” said Demetria Kimble, managing editor of the Akron Law Review symposium edition. “I took the idea and ran with it.”

She first reached out to RJ Nemer ’90, ’95 , dean of the College of Business and an Akron Law alumnus, because he had been a sports agent for most of his career.

Akron Law Review students

Akron Law Review Managing Editor Demetria Kimble (left) with Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Cranmer.

“He really helped us figure out the direction for the symposium,” she said. “He thought the timing was great with so much changing in the sports industry right now—especially with the NIL (name, image, and likeness) policies—and lots of collective bargaining agreements being negotiated.”

She found one of the experts through a referral from another lawyer and identified the other one through her own research. Law Review faculty advisor Professor Stefan Padfield recommended Brandon Posivak, the law student, after coming across an article he wrote.

The article, “The Demise of the Hub-and-Spoke Cartel and the Rise of the Student Athlete: A Significant Step Toward a New Era of Conferences in NCAA v. Alston,” was published in the University of Miami Business Law Review in January. It considers the Supreme Court decision in Alston that student athletes may obtain education-related benefits from their NIL.

Posivak is a former Division I college baseball player who worked as a legal extern at Major League Soccer team Austin FC and, prior to law school, as an intern at an entertainment agency in West Hollywood, Calif., and as an executive assistant at a Los Angeles law firm.

The Akron Law Review symposium edition will publish transcriptions of the three presentations and the moderated panel discussion that will conclude the event.


Related:

  • Akron Law Review online.