From the Director: Sports Law Program reaches new heights, turns 30

Dear Tulane Community,

I hope you are all well. The Tulane Sports Law Program is busier than ever and our spring semester was filled with an amazing slate of sports law events on campus.  We’re so thrilled to have so many of our current students and alumni involved in these events.

The Tulane Sports Law Society continues to be one of the most active student organizations on campus.  Its four Sports Law competitions (baseball, football, basketball, and soccer) and its Women in Sports Law Symposium brought an incredible 104 sports industry leaders as judges and speakers, including front-office executives and sports agents, journalists from major media outlets, league cap experts, sports lawyers, and more. This group included representatives from 44 different MLB, NFL, and NBA franchises. We remain grateful to the many of you who make up this incredible group—thanks to you, our students’ opportunities to learn from and network within the sports industry remains unparalleled. 

Our Tulane Entertainment & Sports Law Conference continues to reach new heights. Our 6th annual event in March was a standing-room-only extravaganza at Tulane Law School. The Conference was headlined by Jonathan Banks, star (as “Mike”) of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, who gave a keynote conversation with our friend, Conference organizer, and alum, Jeff Frost (L ’89).  Jeff and fellow alumni Conference organizers Kevin Yorn (L ’90) and Tim Francis (L ’84) helped us secure a banner group of entertainment and sports industry panelists (41 in all!), including top executives from major league teams, renowned lawyers from national sports law practices, Academy Award and Grammy Award-winners, and top executives from major platforms and studios like ESPN, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sony Pictures, and SiriusXM.  This year featured 10 panels on a variety of cutting-edge entertainment and sports topics, including an additional half-day with a lineup of panels focused on students and young alum.  We look forward to seeing you back for next year’s event.

In addition to these events, our students continue to write, edit, and publish weekly and monthly newsletters for the Sports Lawyers’ Association, edit the Sports Lawyers Journal, and gain invaluable connections through our Tulane Sports Law Mentorship Program (with many of you as mentors). Our students also helped host the annual Sports Law Mardi Gras Moot Court Competition, which is still the only sports-focused moot court competition in the country.

This spring also marked the conclusion of the first student cohort of The Starting Block—a first-of-its-kind extracurricular program designed to build impactful relationships between multicultural and multifaith communities in Greater New Orleans through sports-centered education for local high school students.  The Tulane Center for Sport creates the educational programming for The Starting Block and we look forward to continuing this partnership as we lead the second cohort over the next 18 months.

I’m also thrilled to share that Tulane Special Olympics continues to earn accolades, having been recently awarded Student Organization of the Year for Tulane University.  This award recognizes the group’s outstanding contributions; Tulane Special Olympics exemplifies the qualities of inclusion and belonging and enhances our community in so many ways. My thanks go out to the many Tulane students past and present, and the many of you who have invested so much energy in creating this important asset for our Tulane and greater New Orleans community. This latest well-deserved honor is, of course, in addition to ESPN’s recognition of Tulane as a Top 5 Special OIympics program in 2021.

Last but certainly not least, we are planning to host a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Tulane Sports Law Program in late fall 2023!  We’re proud to continue the work started by Professor Gary Roberts in 1993 and look forward to hosting many of you on campus to celebrate our great past and even brighter future. We will provide you with more details as we finalize the date. Thanks so much for being a part of it all.

Best regards,

Gabe Feldman

Sher Garner Professor of Sports Law and Paul and Abram B. Barron Professor of Law

Director, Tulane Sports Law Program

Co-Director, Tulane Center for Sport

Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance