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Sports Lawyer Will Kava Tabbed as Senior Associate AD/Compliance & Governance at Mizzou

University of Missouri Director of Athletics Desireé Reed-Francois has named Will Kava as the Tigers Senior Associate Athletic Director for Compliance and Governance. Kava, who joins Mizzou from Ole Miss, will serve on Reed-Francois’ senior leadership team and lead the department’s compliance and governance efforts, including overseeing Mizzou’s Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) program, currently…
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Trademark Considerations for the NCAA’s NIL Policy

(Editor’s Note: What follows is an article from Sports Litigation Alert, a subscription-based newsletter published by Hackney Publications.) By Corinne Zucker, of Cozen O’Connor On June 30, 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) Division I, II, and III sports finally adopted a groundbreaking uniform interim policy suspending NCAA name, image and likeness (“NIL”) rules…
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Porter Joins Vela Wood to Lead Firm’s Sports Practice

Kate Porter, who spent almost 12 years at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates, has joined Vela Wood as a partner, heading up the firm’s sports practice. At Skadden, she represented professional sports leagues, international sports federations and sports officials in high-profile disputes and investigations, as well as corporations in international arbitrations.…
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Effort to Classify Student-Athletes as Employees Continues With New Twist to Include Public University Students

By Gregg E. Clifton & Zachary McCormack, of Jackson Lewis Ongoing efforts to urge the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to classify student-athletes as employees continue with the latest unfair labor charge filed by the National College Players Association (NCPA) and their Executive Director Ramogi Huma. The unfair labor practice charge alleges that the NCAA,…
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SFIA’s Topline Report Shows Americans’ Inactivity Rate Declining

As the world slowly began to reopen in 2021, Americans got back on the move, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association’s (SFIA) annual Topline Participation Report. The report tracks participation rates of Americans aged six and older, across 120 different sport, fitness, and outdoor activities, including a section dedicated to the impact of…
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Former Football Player Launches Sports Agency

Trae Smith, a former college football player turned business and career advisor with an undergraduate degree in International Development from UCLA and an MBA from Pepperdine University, has launched the Powerhaus Agency, which will be based in Los Angeles. With an initial focus on football players, Smith believes that the “combination of his personal experience playing the game…
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New CLF/Samford University Poll Finds 71% of Americans Want NFL to Stop Recruiting Children to Tackle Football

A new poll conducted by the Concussion legacy Foundation (CLF) and the Samford University Center for Sports Analytics reveals because of CTE concerns, 71% of the 1,311 Americans polled believe it is inappropriate for the NFL to recruit children to tackle football. According to official funding announcements, the NFL has spent more than $100 million…
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Chief Legal Officer for the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena to Give Keynote at SRLA Conference Later this Month

Scott Wilkinson, the Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer for the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena, will give the keynote address at the Sports and Recreation Law Association’s annual conference in Atlanta on February 24. Wilkinson will make his presentation at the conference hotel, the Renaissance Atlanta Midtown Hotel, starting at noon. Those…
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Sports Law Professor Named Sports Law Expert for Radio Canada

Benoit Girardin, a professor in sports law at McGill, Ottawa and HEC Montréal universities and legal counsel for many sport organizations in Canada, has been named as sport law analyst by Radio Canada for the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games and as ombudsperson by the Canadian Paralympic Committee for the 2022 Paralympic Games Girardin, President and…
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Athletics Integrity Officer to Devote Time to Sports Law, Teaching

Robert Boland, athletics integrity officer at Penn State, announced last week that he will step down from that position, effective March 1, 2022. Boland indicated he plans to return to the practice of sports law and to devote his time to other professional interests, including his teaching position at Penn State Law and the College…
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