May 20, 2009

Record attendance, Reinsdorf - Fehr fireworks, highlight 35^th annual SLA conference

The 35th annual Sports Lawyers Association Conference held in Chicago May 14- 16 set an all-time attendance record for the conference with over 600 registrants. With the current recession, that number speaks highly of the central location of Chicago and of the value practitioners place on attending this conference. One other factor could be that lawyers would much rather attend a sports law conference for CLE credit than attend some conference on the past and present of the Uniform Commercial Code.

There were about 90 attendees at the “Breaking Into the Sports Law Industry” session late on the last day of the conference. A panelist asked for a show of hands of those who were 30 years old or less, and just about every hand went up.  The subtopic that saw about the most commentary from the panelists was “Internships”. The panelists were of mixed opinion as to the necessity of getting an internship, but they all were agreed that if you got one, or any other entry position in the field, you had better work hard and exceed expectations in order to secure a solid reference.

Prominent figures who spoke during the conference included renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews of Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Andrews is the team physician to Tampa Bay Rays MLB baseball team, the NFL’S Washington Redskins, both the Alabama and Auburn football teams (not sure if the rivalry creates a conflict of interest?) and several other colleges. The list of all his other positions is too long to go into here. That’s got to be some long workday.

Other notable speakers included DeMaurice Smith, the new head of NFL players union; Billy Hunter, head of the NBA players association; NFL counsel Dennis Curren; and MLB General Counsel Thomas Ostertag.

Without a doubt, one the highlights for many people was, as Jim Rome would say, the smack between Jerry Reinsdorf and Donald Fehr. Reinsdorf was honored on Friday with the SLA 2009 Award of Excellence. During his fifteen minute talk at the SLA luncheon Reinsdorf was not shy about placing the blame on the Players Union for many of baseball’s past and current problems. At one point Reinsdorf quoted President Franklin Roosevelt and said “the only thing we have to fear, is Fehr itself” referring to union director Don Fehr.
Don Fehr was happy to come back on Saturday in response to Reinsdorf and state emphatically that it was his job with the union to protect and represent the players' interests and rights. He particularly noted that, by its very nature, collective bargaining involves a lot of exchanges before an agreement is ultimately reached.