The LL.M. in International and Comparative Sports Law program
faculty comprises authors of several volumes on sports subjects, an
international litigator and a former counsel from the MLB Players
Association― each with years of teaching experience ―augmented by
full-time faculty and top practicing attorneys serving as adjunct
professors and visiting lecturers. The program faculty
includes:
Ettie Ward
Director, International and Comparative Sports Law Program
Professor of Law
St. John’s School of Law
J.D. Columbia University School of Law
Ettie Ward, the Director of the International and Comparative
Law LLM Program, is a Professor at St. John’s University School of
Law in New York City. She teaches and writes primarily in the
areas of federal civil procedure and court process. Professor
Ward also teaches international dispute resolution. She is
the editor and contributing author of a book on legal issues
involving the New York Yankees. Before joining the law
faculty at St. John’s, Professor Ward was a litigator in a major
New York law firm. While in private practice, she litigated
complex securities, labor, fraud, contract, and other commercial
cases in state and federal courts.
Jeffery B. Fannell
Deputy LL.M. Program Director, St. John’s School of Law
J.D. St. John’s School of Law
Jeff Fannell served more than 10 years as Counsel and Assistant
General Counsel to the Major League Baseball Players Association
(MLBPA). At the MLBPA, Fannell handled grievances on behalf of
Major League players, assisted and advised players and certified
player agents in salary arbitration and in individual contract
negotiations, and provided guidance to players and agents on
various issues arising under the collective bargaining agreement,
individual player contracts, and the Major League Rules. In
his current practice, Jeff continues to advise baseball players and
their agents in contract negotiations, salary arbitration, and
other baseball matters. He also handles both grievance and salary
arbitration cases for the National Hockey League Players’
Association (NHLPA). In addition, Jeff represents several leading
sports personalities in the areas of sports media and marketing.
His current plans include expanding the practice to encompass
professional basketball and professional football.
Vered N. Yakovee
Deputy LL.M. Program Director, Instituto Superior de Derecho y
Economia (ISDE)
J.D. University of Southern California School of Law
Vered Yakovee specializes in insurance coverage, risk
management, and negotiating business transactions for the sports
industry. Before starting her own sports and insurance law offices
in January 2008, she co-founded a national law firm’s Sports
Insurance Initiative. At the USC Gould School of Law, she teaches
several Sports Law courses and serves as the founding faculty
advisor to the USC Sports Law Society. Yakovee is a governor
of the ABA Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, is the
editor-in-chief of the Forum’s journal, Entertainment &
Sports Lawyer, and is also the Co-Chair of the ABA’s Sports
Division. She is an active member of the Sports Lawyers Association
and serves on several of its committees. Yakovee’s 12 legal
articles are published in Los Angeles Lawyer, Sports
Litigation Alert, The Hollywood Reporter, Esq., and
Entertainment & Sports Lawyer. She was named one of
Southern California's Super Lawyers Rising Stars by the publishers
of Law & Politics and Los Angeles Magazine in 2008, 2009, 2010,
2011, and 2012.
Efraim Barak
Senior Partner - D. Mirkin & Co. Advocates
Law Degree, Tel-Aviv University
Master in International Sport Law, LL.M. Honoris Causa, Instituto
Superior de Derecho y Economia (ISDE)
Efraim Barak is a Professor and academic Director of the program
for an M.A. Degree in International Sports Law in the High School
of Law and Economics in Madrid.In addition, he is a member of the
CAS Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, and amember of the
Labour Law Committee of the Israel Bar, the Sport Law Committee,
the Israel Bar (Ex Chairman of Sub-Committee on Doping
Matters). Efraim Barak is a Co-Author of the book "Credit
Cards, Legal and Practical Aspects",August 1997.
Walter T. Champion, Jr.
George Foreman Professor of Sports and Entertainment Law - Texas
Southern University Law School
J.D. Temple University
Walter Champion has been Professor of Law at Texas Southern
University, Houston, Texas since 1984 and has been the George
Foreman Professor of Sports and Entertainment Law and the Director
of the George Foreman Sports and Entertainment Law Institute since
2006. He has taught courses in Torts, Contracts, Professional
Responsibility, Remedies, Antitrust, Sports Law, Amateur Sports,
International Sports Law, Boxing Law, NCAA Compliance, Recreational
Injuries, Legal Research, Case Analysis, Appellate Litigation,
Government Contracts, and Entertainment Law. In 1987, he
received the CLSA Co-Professor of the Year Honor and in 1995 he
received the SBA Professor of the Year Honor. He is a member
of the Sports Law Association, American Bar Association, and
American Association of Law Schools. He is author of several
publications: Sports Law in a Nutshell, Fundamentals of Sports Law
, Doing Business in Colombia, Sports Ethics for Sports Management
Professional, Intellectual Property in the Sports and Entertainment
Industries and has written over 200 Review Law Articlesin history,
library science, age discrimination, sports & entertainment
law, disability law, boxing law, etc.
Brian M. Cooper
Senior Associate Athletic Director, Finance - Rice University
J.D. Columbia University
At Rice, Brian Cooper serves as the department’s chief financial
officer, responsible for Athletics’ budget and financial strategy
with administrative oversight and coordination regarding Human
Resources, I.T., and Legal. Prior to joining Rice, Cooper was
President and GM of the NBA Development League Rio Grande Valley
Vipers, the NBA D-League affiliate of the NBA Houston Rockets.
Cooper is also an attorney licensed to practice in New York and
Texas. He has also worked as an attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP in
New York, working on matters for the National Basketball
Association, Major League Soccer and the National Hockey
League. At Haynes and Boone LLP in Houston, Cooper represented
companies in the negotiation of multi-million dollar sponsorship
deals with professional athletes. He is also a former NFLPA
and NBPA certified agent.
Juan de Dios Crespo
Partner, Ruiz Huerta & Crespo Sports Lawyers
Law Degree, The University of Valencia
Master in International Sport Law, LL.M. Honoris Causa, Instituto
Superior de Derecho y Economia (ISDE)
Juan de Dios Crespo P érez is head of Ruiz Huerta & Crespo
Sports Lawyers. He has been involved in sports law since
1981, when he was member of the Board of the Indoor Soccer
Valencian Federation as well as the Single Judge of its
Disciplinary Appeal Body. He is a professor in several
Masters and has lectured at universities around the world, at the
European Clubs Association, the Court of Arbitration for Sport,
European Professional Football Leagues, and the Spanish Olympic
Committee. He has been requested by the European Parliament
to deliver his legal opinion in some of the most important sports
issues and was one of the four lawyers involved in the Independent
Sports Review. He is one of the most active lawyers before
the CAS and he is an arbitrator of the European Court of
Arbitration for Handball. De Dios Crespo works mostly in
football (soccer), where he advises clubs, leagues, athletes, and
agents. He is also the author and co-author of several books in the
sports law field as well as a large number of articles in sports
reviews.
Lucas Ferrer
Partner, Head of Sports Law Department, Pinto Ruiz & Del
Valle
Law Degree, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Master in International Sport Law, LL.M. Honoris Causa, Instituto
Superior de Derecho y Economia (ISDE)
Lucas Ferrer is a Partner and the Head of the Sports Law
Department at Pinto Ruiz & Del Valle in Barcelona, Spain where
he serves as the legal advisor for the Spanish Sports Arbitration
Tribunal, for the candidature of the Shanghai Arbitration Tribunal
CAS Hearing Center, as well as for players, teams, football
leagues, and international federations. He has additionally
served as Legal Counsel at the Court of Arbitration for Sports and
the CAS Ad Hoc Division at Vancouver Olympic Games as well as
teaching international sports law at ISDE for several years.
Jeff Gewirtz
Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer - Brooklyn Nets
and Barclays Center
J.D. Brooklyn Law School
As Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Jeff
Gerwitz oversees all legal affairs for the NBA's Brooklyn Nets as
well as Barclay's Center. Gewirtz has formerly served as the
United States Olympic Committee General Counsel and Chief Legal
& Government Affairs Officer, as well as Counsel - Sports &
Entertainment Transactions, Marketing and Media in the Coca-Cola
Company's Corporate Legal Division, and was the Director of Legal
Affairs for IOC Television & Marketing Services SA, baced in
Lausanne, Switzerland. In addition, Gewirtz was formerly on
the faculty of Brooklyn Law School and New York Law School, serving
as an adjunct professor of sports law at both schools. He is
immediate-past Chair of the Sports Division within the
American Bar association's Forum on the Entertainment and Sports
Industries and he sits on the Board of Directors of the National
Sports Law Institute. In March 2009, Gewirtz was named as
Sports Business Journal FORTY UNDER 40, recognizing the
most influential sports business executives in the United States
under the age of 40.
Elayne Greenberg
Director, Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution - St. John's
School of Law
J.D. Touro College of Law
Elayne E. Greenberg is Director of the Hugh L. Carey Center for
Dispute Resolution at St. John’s University School of Law. She
offers an unmatched breadth and depth of experience in dispute
resolution. She is a mediator and conflict management consultant
who has developed programs, educated, trained, written and lectured
internationally on the subject of negotiations, mediation, hybrid
dispute resolution process, impasse-breaking, dispute resolution
ethics and advocacy in mediation. Professor Greenberg also has
developed and implemented innovative dispute resolution programs
including the American Bankruptcy Institute /St. John’s Bankruptcy
Mediation Training and the Ghana Mediation Training (summer
2011 and 2012). She has helped shape the development of ADR
by serving in a leadership capacity on dispute resolution boards
and in recognition for her accomplishments, she has been recognized
by Best Lawyers in America as among the top New York lawyers in the
field of Alternative Dispute Resolution every year since 2005.
Mark Hovell
Partner, George Davis Solicitors, Manchester
Law Degree, The Manchester Metropolitan University
Mark Hovell assists individual participants and their
associations in professional sport, including providing
representation in a variety of Tribunals and Appeal bodies over the
years. Over the last 10 years Hovell has moved over to sitting on
and chairing such Appeals and Tribunals, mainly at the Court of
Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. Hovell is on their General
Panel and their specific Football Panel. Mark was appointed to the
CAS’s Ad Hoc Panels for both the FIFA 2010 World Cup and the
Commonwealth Games, in Delhi, in both cases as Britain’s sole
representative. Mark is also on Sports Resolution’s Panel of
Arbitrators – Chairpersons List - in the UK. He is a Member of the
Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; an Insolvency Practitioner; and
the legal adviser to The Professional Players Federation and many
of their member associations, in the UK. Sports lawyers require
knowledge of how the rules of sport are interpreted and applied
globally by the increasingly important Court of Arbitration for
Sport. Mark’s insider knowledge of how this body operates makes him
a particularly important attraction for practicing lawyers and
students at the conferences and ISDE respectively.
Howard Jacobs
Partner/Founder - Law Office of Howard Jacobs
J.D. William and Mary Law School
Howard Jacobs's law practice focuses on the representation of
athletes in all types of disputes, with a particular focus on the
defense of athletes charged with doping offenses. He has
represented over 90 professional and Olympic sport athletes,
including numerous world record holders and Olympic gold
medalists. Mr. Jacobs has represented professional athletes,
Olympic athletes and amateur athletes in disputes involving doping,
endorsements, unauthorized use of name and likeness, salary issues,
team selection issues, and other matters. He is at the
forefront of many cutting edge legal issues that affect athletes,
winning cases that have set precedents that have benefited the
athlete community.
Oliver Luck
Director of Athletics, West Virginia University
J.D. University of Texas School of Law
Oliver Luck is a former star college quarterback at West
Virginia University and for the NFL’s Houston Oilers. His
extensive experience in the sports law and management field
includes serving as vice president of business development for the
National Football League, general manager of the Frankfurt Galaxy
of the World League of American Football, general manager of the
Rhein Fire of NFL Europe, CEO of NFL Europe, CEO of the Harrison
County-Houston Sports Authority, and President of the MLS’s Houston
Dynamos. He currently serves as the Athletic Director of his
undergraduate Alma Mater, West Virginia University.
Jeffrey Miller
Senior Counsel, ConocoPhillips
J.D. Cornell University Law School
Jeffrey Miller spent ten years with Foster Pepper PLLC as
outside counsel for the Seattle Supersonics, Seattle Seahawks, and
Portland Trailblazers, where he was substantially involved in a
wide variety of legal and business issues impacting team ownership,
representation of professional teams on multiple litigation
matters, and working with NFL and NBA league offices. He has
taught sports law at Seattle University School of Law and
University of Washington School of Law for nearly ten years and is
currently Senior Counsel at ConocoPhillips.
Marcos Motta
Founding Partner, B&M Law
Contemporary Business Law Degree, The University of Warwick
Master in International Economic Law, LL.M, The University of
Warwick
Master in International Sport Law, LL.M. Honoris Causa, Instituto
Superior de Derecho y Economia (ISDE)
Marcos Motta is a professor of the Masters Degree in
International Sports Law at ISDE and at the Escola Brasileira
Futebol of the Brazilian Football Confederation. He is a REX
Sports Member, a Member of the Board of the European Football
Agents Association-EFAA, and served as the Director and
International Representative for C.R. Flamengo. Marcos is a
founding partner of B&M Law and has served as legal counsel in
over three hundred high-stakes cases and arbitrations before FIFA
and CAS|TASin contractual, disciplinary, regulatory, and doping
related issues. In addition, Marcos has advised several
football clubs, governing bodies, investment funds, media and
marketing agencies, and global football starlets and their agents
on contracts with clubs and sponsors, including image rights
agreements, endorsements and transfer deals. Marcos has also
participated in the working group for the revision of the Brazilian
sports legal system and is a regular contributor to various sports
business conferences, seminars, and publications.
Maidie Oliveau
Counsel - Arent Fox
J.D. Georgetown University Law Center
Maidie Oliveau represents professional sports teams, leagues,
event owners, corporations, sports/entertainment facilities,
Internet video providers, television networks, acquirers of
professional sports events/clubs, and governing bodies in
connection with licensing transactions such as naming rights,
sponsorships, acquisitions/grants of television rights,
talent/service agreements, event-related rights, merchandising
rights, industry specific legal issues, and trademark
protection. In addition, she serves as an arbitrator for CAS,
is on the panel of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and
the London Court of International Arbitration, and has acted as an
arbitrator in international AAA cases as well as cases brought
under the US Anti-Doping Agency protocol and the US Olympic
Committee Code of Conduct. In addition, Oliveau has served as
senior vice president and general counsel to DelWilber + Associates
(DWA), managing director of the Women’s International Professional
Tennis Council and she was part of the team that organized the Los
Angeles Olympic Games in 1984.
Michael Weiner
Executive Director and General Counsel - Major League Baseball
Players Association
J.D. Harvard Law School
Michael Weiner is Executive Director and General Counsel to the
Major League Baseball Players Association. From 1986 to 1988,
Michael served as law clerk to the Hon. H. Lee Sorokin, then United
States District Court Judge, in Newark, New Jersey. Michael joined
the Players Association in September 1988. He has served as
General Counsel since 2004 and was named Executive Director in
December 2009. Michael also has served as counsel to the National
Hockey League Players Association in salary arbitrations.
Visiting Contributors:
Quentin Williams
Chairman and CEO - The Butler Williams firm PC
J.D. St. John's Law School
M. Quentin Williams is the Chairman & CEO of The Butler
Lappert Williams Firm PC. Quentin’s law firm specializes in matters
related to the sports, entertainment and media industries.
Additionally, Quentin is the Chairman & CEO of Williams Media
and Marketing L.L.C., the Founder of Dedication To Community (a
non-profit organization) and has held executive positions with the
National Football League, Jacksonville Jaguars and the National
Basketball Association. Prior to working as a sports executive,
Quentin worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in
Connecticut, Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and a litigator with a New York City law firm.
To learn more about the faculty of the LL.M. in International and
Comparative Sports Law program at St. John’s School of Law, please
contact us.