Diversity Spotlight: Demeka Fields (L'16) on navigating the sports industry and evolving goals

Demeka Fields (L ’16), Counsel, Global Sports Marketing/Data Privacy with New Balance and previously team counsel for the Minnesota Vikings, chats with Syndey Williams (L'24) about diversity in the industry, seeking out mentors and embracing changing goals as part of her career.

Fields, a founding member of the Tulane Sports Law Advisory Board, looks back at her time with the Minnesota Vikings and how her goals have changed since leaving law school. She touts the importance of good mentorship and how her law school internships led her to her first job in sports.

Williams is a rising 3L who is from Spring, Texas, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and International Relations from Fairfield University, and was a Division I volleyball athlete. She is pursuing a sports law certificate.

During her time at Tulane Law, Willimas has worked over the summers at law firms as as an extern at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Currently, she is spending the first half of summer working with an agency that assists athletes and entertainers with estate planning and entrepreneurial ventures and the second part of the summer working in a civil litigation firm.  Williams also will be traveling to Berlin to take the Negotiation & Mediation Advocacy course as part of Tulane’s study abroad program. She will return to New Orleans and work as an extern for the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans organizations.

Williams is also a student leader, serving as the President of Tulane’s BLSA chapter and as a Sponsor Liaison for the Tulane Women in Sports Law Symposium. She has worked on the Tulane Sports Law Society's sports negotiation competitions and was a pro bono legal advocate for a clinic that provides legal services for local artists, musicians, and other cultural figures in the Greater New Orleans community. She also will serve on Moot Court's Alternative Dispute Resolution team.

You can view their discussion here: