NYU Sports Law Association Set to Host Colloquium on April 5, Jeffrey Kessler to Serve as Featured Keynoter
The NYU Sports Law Association will be hosting its 13th Annual Sports Law Colloquium on Friday April 5th.
The event will run from 9:30 AM to 1:15 PM EST on Zoom and will feature three panels and a keynote address, with each panel populated by experts discussing prominent legal issues in the world of sports. The Colloquium will conclude with a keynote discussion and our featured keynote speaker this year is Jeffrey Kessler, co-executive chairman of Winston Strawn and one of the country’s foremost sports attorneys.
The Colloquium will kick off with a discussion on Artificial Intelligence in Sports, exploring the potential of AI to shape the world of sport, as well as examining the changes that are already happening. This panel will be populated by experts in both AI and sports law, combining legal perspectives to create an in-depth discussion of this burgeoning topic, with issues ranging from ethics, to assessing player performance, to how viewers might experience games in the future. Panelists will include Meeka Bondy (senior counsel at Perkins Coie), Samir Patel (innovation and technology attorney at Holland & Knight), and Joe Lemire (senior writer at Sports Business Journal covering technology in sports).
Our second panel will look at sportswashing, the use of sport internationally to acquire soft power and increase a nation’s status. Sportswashing raises questions of international law, including countries and individuals using sports to launder money and avoid sanctions. Given the recent World Cup in Qatar, LIV golf, and more, sportswashing is at the forefront of the international sports world today. Panelists will include Jodi Balsam (professor at Brooklyn Law), Maureen Weston (professor at Pepperdine Law), Elliot Peters (partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters), and Sarath Ganji (founder, The Autocracy and Global Sports Initiative).
The Colloquium’s final panel will be dedicated to NCAA Conference Realignment and its implications for the future of collegiate athletics. Conference movement has existed throughout history but recent shifts raise questions about the future of amateur athletics and whether college sports are on their way to becoming further professionalized. Conference changes implicate far-reaching legal issues such as media deals and conference constitutions, not to mention their impact on student-athletes, from fencers to football players. This panel will feature Benjamin McGovern (partner at Holland & Knight), Michael McCann (Director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire School of Law), and Drew Tulumello (partner and co-head of the commercial complex litigation practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges).
The final event will be our keynote address, to be delivered by Jeffrey Kessler. Mr. Kessler is one of the country’s leading sports attorneys and is the Co-Executive Chairman of Winston & Strawn LLP. He has served as lead counsel in some of the most important sports disputes in the country including representing college athletes in NCAA v. Alston (a landmark case leading to the NIL era, decided in 2021), NFL quarterback Tom Brady in his effort to sue the NFL over the “Deflategate” controversy, and players unions for the MLB, NFL, NMH, and MLS in their collective bargaining efforts. Mr. Kessler’s discussion will focus primarily on collegiate issues following Alston, such as the current state of NIL, NCAA regulatory bills pending in Congress, and college athlete unionization.
If interested in attending the colloquium, please register here to RSVP to the event and receive a link to the Zoom.