Collegiate & Professional Sports

Headed by Robert Clayton, a former law school dean and an attorney with extensive practical experience in the sports world, our Collegiate and Professional Sports Practice Group serves the diverse needs of collegiate and professional sports entities.

At the collegiate level, our attorneys have conducted investigations into alleged infractions of NCAA rules and represented universities before the NCAA Committee on Infractions and NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee. We advise college and university clients on compliance with the growing number of NCAA and NAIA rules and guide institutions through increasingly complex regulations governing collegiate sports. We have vast experience advising institutions on Title IX and civil rights laws, representing colleges and universities at every stage of the compliance process, including audits, civil rights reviews, government investigations, sports union certification requirements, and NCAA amateurism rules.

At the professional level, our attorneys have represented sports franchises during acquisitions, in times of crisis, and in ordinary course matters. We have also counseled agents and sports agencies on the current regulatory and enforcement environment, including the myriad of state licensing and sports union certification requirements. While we seek to keep our clients out of litigation, where this is not possible (or advisable), our attorneys vigorously defend and prosecute claims on behalf of our clients.  

Recent engagements have included representing a sports league in connection with substantial litigation over media-related proceeds, being engaged by a prospective ownership group to perform personnel and financial due diligence audit for acquisition of an NBA franchise, and representing an official committee of unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy of another sport’s league’s primary sponsor.