Name, image, and likeness (NIL) are the essential components to the right of publicity. The legal landscape for rights of publicity in college sports is rapidly evolving as many states have passed and introduced NIL laws and the federal government has made efforts to develop the structure for what national NIL legislation will look like. We have collected essays from a variety of experts on special topics regarding NIL.
Read below to see what former and current college athletes, law professors, professional sports agents, law students, and sports attorneys see as the hottest issues surrounding NIL.
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The False Dichotomy in Name, Image, and Likeness Legislation
Steven Bank is the Vice Dean for Curricular and Academic Affairs and Paul Hastings Professor of Business Law at UCLA School of Law. Professor Bank, who received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from the University of Chicago, is a frequent commentator on sports law issues, particularly in the context of soccer, applying his business and tax expertise in his writing and speaking for both scholarly and popular outlets. He explores these issues in more depth in his course on International and Comparative Sports Law as well as in his Perspectives seminar on Law, Lawyering, and the Beautiful Game. [su_divider top=”no” […]
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It is Time to Share Revenue with Collegiate Athletes
Charles Grantham is Director and Faculty Associate Professor, Center for Sport Management, at Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business. He has also served as a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor in New York University’s School of Professional Studies, Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media and Business. He was the first Executive Vice President of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) from 1978 to 1988 and the NBPA’s first Executive Director from 1988 to 1995, where he was one of the architects of the NBA/NBPA revenue-sharing business model, the first in professional sports. Mr. Grantham earned a B.S. from Cheyney University of […]
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Rethinking Regulation: The Case for a New Agency to Regulate Sport
Darren Adam Heitner, Esq. is the Founder of Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules. Darren can be contacted at [email protected]. [su_divider top=”no” divider_color=”#aaaaaa” size=”6″] Did you know that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been tasked with regulating the athlete agent industry since 2004? In […]
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Fool Me Once, Shame On You; Fool Me Twice, Shame On Me: Why Congress Must Grant NCAA Athletes Group Licensing And Organization Rights in Name, Image and Likeness Legislation
Alicia Jessop, Esq. ([email protected]) is a tenure-track Associate Professor of Sport Law at Pepperdine University. An attorney licensed to practice in California and Colorado, Alicia is the president-elect of the Sport and Recreation Law Association and serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport and Sport Innovation Journal. A regular contributor to the Washington Post, The Athletic, Forbes and other national media outlets, Alicia’s research focuses on legal issues related to athlete and sport consumer well-being. She has consulted with the National Basketball Players Association and Alliance of American Football to develop policies and practices aimed […]
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The NIL in Amateurism’s Coffin: How the NCAA’s Policy Reversal Shows Once Again That Compensating Student-Athletes Won’t Hurt College Sports
Jeffrey L. Kessler and David L. Greenspan Jeffrey L. Kessler is Co-Executive Chairman of Winston & Strawn LLP and Co-Chair of the firm’s sports law practice. One of the world’s leading antitrust, sports law, and trial lawyers, Jeffrey has litigated some of the most famous sports-antitrust cases in history, including McNeil v. NFL, the landmark antitrust jury trial which led to the establishment of free agency in the National Football League, and Brady v. NFL, which led to the end of the 2011 NFL lockout. Jeffrey is co-lead class counsel in the landmark NCAA Grant-in-Aid Cap Antitrust Litigation in which the Ninth Circuit […]
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Full Court Press: Highlights from the State Legislation Forcing the Issue on NIL
Nic Mayne (HLS ’18) is an attorney in the Portland, Oregon office of Miller Nash Graham & Dunn. A graduate of Harvard Law School and former member of the Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, Nic’s practice is now focused on representing educational institutions, businesses, and individuals, including those in the sports and entertainment industries. As an agent certified by the National Hockey League Players’ Association, Nic has prior experience representing professional athletes in endorsement and licensing deals as well as negotiations with NHL teams, in addition to advising younger athletes on NCAA regulatory compliance. Nic can be reached at 503.205.2336 […]
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Student v. Student Athlete: How the New NIL Legislation Could Change the Game
Tom O’Connell is an MLB Certified Agent and Founder and President of O’Connell Sports Management, located in Tampa, FL. In this role, he has negotiated over $275 million in contracts and nearly $15 million in draftee bonuses. Tom has represented professional baseball players since 1997 and currently sits on the MLBPA Agent Advisory Board. Tom can be reached at [email protected]. [su_divider top=”no” divider_color=”#aaaaaa” size=”6″] The average social media influencer can take home anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 per year promoting products like clothing, shoes, or other retail goods on their pages. Some, with one million or more followers, can make upwards […]
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Interview: A Proposal for Group Licensing of College Athlete NILs
Jeffrey F. Brown, James Bo Pearl, Jeremy Salinger, and Annie Alvarado are all authors of a forthcoming piece for JSEL’s Fall 2020 Edition on the topic of group licensing in NIL. Their interview covers topics explored in-depth in their journal article, the executive summary of which is excerpted below as a preview for their exciting scholarship to come. [su_divider top=”no” divider_color=”#aaaaaa” size=”6″] [su_divider top=”no” divider_color=”#aaaaaa” size=”6″] Athletes and other celebrities often assert a right of publicity to use their NIL in a variety of commercial activities. Their right to publicity is governed by state law, which typically prevents unauthorized use of […]
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Sharing the Wealth: Considerations for Crafting Effective NIL Legislation
Michael Feblowitz is a 2020 graduate of Boston College Law School, cum laude, and an experienced author on the topic of NIL. Feblowitz was awarded First Place in the 2020 Sports Lawyers Association Student Writing Competition for his article, “One NIL: The Impact and Constitutionality of the Fair Pay to Play Act.” Prior to law school, Feblowitz graduated magna cum laude from Wharton’s undergraduate program in business. Feblowitz can be reached at [email protected]. [su_divider top=”no” divider_color=”#aaaaaa” size=”6″] California State Senator Nancy Skinner was clear about the purposes of the Fair Play to Pay act when she first unveiled the proposed legislation: […]
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Shifting Lenses: How NIL Legislation Is Much Needed From Multiple Perspectives
Marvellous Iheukwumere is a rising 3L at Harvard Law School and an incoming online content chair for Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law. Prior to attending law school, Marvellous was a track & field student athlete at Columbia University. After college, Marvellous joined the NBA’s front office where she assisted with compliance and business affairs in the league’s Legal Department. She also competed professionally and ended her track career as a 2016 Nigerian Olympic Trials Finalist. Marvellous can be reached at [email protected]. [su_divider top=”no” divider_color=”#aaaaaa” size=”6″] In this year which has been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, police brutality, and […]
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NCAA and an Antitrust Exemption: The Death of College Athletes’ Rights
Thaddeus Kennedy is from Dedham, MA. He is a rising senior at Harvard College, where he concentrates in History. Kennedy serves as the president of the Harvard Undergraduate Constitutional Law Society. He is an avid Boston sports fan and plays lacrosse. Recently, Kennedy gained admission to Harvard Law School through the Junior Deferral Program and will join the class of 2027. This summer, he served as a research assistant for Professor Peter Carfagna, Owner of Magis LLC and former General Counsel of International Management Company. Kennedy strongly desires to advance both student and professional athletes’ rights and would love to do […]
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Navigating the Separation of Powers Labyrinth in Creating an Independent Oversight Body for the NCAA
Eli Nachmany is a second-year law student at Harvard Law School and the Managing Editor (Print) of the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law. Prior to law school, Nachmany worked in the White House Office of American Innovation as a domestic policy aide and as the Speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. He is a 2017 graduate of New York University, where he earned a B.S. in Sports Management, summa cum laude. [su_divider top=”no” divider_color=”#aaaaaa” size=”6″] It appears likely that Congress will enact federal legislation on the subject of student-athletes earning compensation for their names, images, and likenesses. […]