Harvard’s Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law, with the leadership of Peter Carfagna, will host its 2011 Sports Law Symposium on Friday, March 25th on the campus of Harvard Law School.
The symposium, free and open to the public, will focus on the legal and business issues surrounding intercollegiate athletics, and the overarching theme of the symposium is “The Changing Face of Intercollegiate Athletics: Amateurs, Academics, and the Athletic Arms Race.”
The symposium will feature five panels, a lunch presentation from the Sports Legacy Institute, and a Keynote Speech from Sonny Vaccaro, “The Godfather of Grassroots Basketball”. Vaccaro is a former sports marketing executive (he signed Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to their first shoe deals) and pioneer on the summer basketball circuit (he founded the ABCD Summer Camp). In his second career, Vaccaro has become an advocate for student-athletes in an effort to change the NCAA’s treatment of student-athletes. Vaccaro currently serves as a consultant for the plaintiffs in O’Bannon v. NCAA, a class action lawsuit with the potential to radically alter the college sports landscape.
The distinguished speakers include five contributors to the Sports Law Blog – Marc Edelman, Gabe Feldman, Nathanial Grow, Michael McCann and Warren Zola. There will be panels on the following topics: amateurism, conference realignment, athlete-agent relationships, litigating against the NCAA, and the legality BCS.
To see the symposium’s website (with a complete list of speakers), click here. To RSVP, click here.