If you love sports and the law, then pursuing a sports law career might be the ideal path for your future.
Sports athletes and leagues require legal representatives to manage disputes and evaluate contracts, so learning more about sports law careers can help you determine if this is the right fit for your goals.
Sports law employees may negotiate, review, and write contracts, agreements, and become involved in union disputes.
The field is highly diverse and ranges from contracts, antitrust, and personal injury to trademarks, criminal defense, labor and employment, and personal property issues.
In many instances, immigration concerns for international athletes arise, especially given the diversity of various sports leagues in the United States.
If this sounds like an exciting and intriguing field that could help shape your professional future, then keep reading to learn more!
List of Jobs for Legal Careers in Sports
1. Contract Compliance Specialist
Also known as a Compliance Officer, a Contract Compliance Specialist ensures teams and athletes comply with all sections of their contract.
They are responsible for reviewing each contract in detail and providing advanced written notice when specific requirements are not being met by the athlete or team.
These professionals also conduct investigations and audits to ensure adherence to ethical standards, league rules, and contract terms.
Throughout the athlete’s career, these Specialists track and monitor compliance, educate teams and individuals on best practices, and ensure continued adherence to league rules.
Other aspects of the position include identifying and assessing potential legal and ethical risks, remaining updated on current law and regulation changes, and preparing compliance reports.
Having an excellent understanding of contract legal requirements is essential when working in this field.
The average salary for a Sports Contract Compliance Specialist is $69,400 per year.
2. Contract Negotiator
A Contract Negotiator is slightly different than a Contract Compliance Specialist in that they primarily focus on negotiating contracts between athletes and sporting teams.
This helps athletes negotiate a contract’s contents to ensure it contains all necessary clauses and detailed information regarding their expectations and different situations that may occur, like injuries.
Contract Negotiators may also work with sports leagues to draft team contracts and ensure that both parties are meeting legal requirements during the signing process.
The purpose of this role is to protect the interests of the client and ensure contracts are beneficial and fair.
These professionals may also be involved in branding and endorsement deals and manage the athlete’s or team’s public image.
Some agents offer financial advice to their clients to help them manage their investments and earnings.
The average salary for a Contract Negotiator is $93,000 per year.
3. Defense Attorney
As a Sports Defense Attorney, you will focus on defending clients against criminal charges.
Defense Attorneys who work with athletes assist with managing legal charges and the potential ruling while representing the sports league.
Sports Defense Attorneys also negotiate lower bail or reduced sentences for their clients.
A sports Defense Attorney may represent clients in disciplinary actions imposed by governing bodies or the sports league, criminal charges to ensure their rights are protected, and contract disputes, such as endorsements, salaries, and other agreements.
Furthermore, these professionals could be involved in intellectual property matters and represent their clients in arbitration and legal proceedings.
Sports Defense Attorneys can expect to make around $98,000 per year.
4. General Counsel
Sports teams are operated like a corporation since their goal is to make money.
As with any corporation, sports law has a General Counsel position, which is a team of legal employees that represents the interests of the entire team.
This includes all management and administrative positions, as well as coaches, trainers, and athletes.
General Counsel can also represent individual team members since they are often on retainer for the entire staff.
Within the General Counsel team are numerous attorneys who hold different legal specializations.
Therefore, joining this team will allow you to put forth your specialization, which could be in sports law, contract negotiation, employment law, immigration law, or other related specialties.
The average salary for a General Counsel team member is $148,000, which can greatly vary based on location, specialization, team size, professional level, and experience.
5. Immigration Attorney
The primary function of a Sports Immigration Attorney is to help coaches, athletes, and support staff navigate the complexities of international work permits and immigration topics, especially for those who train or compete in other countries.
This includes securing work visas, complying with regulations, and understanding immigration laws.
Sports Immigration Attorneys must be familiar with P-1A and O-1 visas for coaches and athletes.
They also must guide clients to permanent residency via a Green Card using the sports path.
These professionals also negotiate with immigration authorities by helping to resolve issues and ensure teams and athletes are compliant with immigration laws, thus minimizing the risk of legal penalties.
Many Immigration Attorneys also offer strategic planning through team immigration strategies, explain legal paths to athletes, coaches, and support staff, and provide general guidance on maintaining a legal status, changing visa status, or extension.
An Immigration Attorney can expect to average a little under $100,000 per year, depending on the location.
6. Paralegal
The primary purpose of a Paralegal across all legal fields is to conduct extensive research and prepare lawyers for negotiations, court dates, arbitration, and other legal proceedings.
Paralegals are the backbone of law, monitoring the collection of evidence required for sports-related laws or contract disputes.
They also document the case, including trial dates and client meetings.
Other important functions of a Sports Paralegal include protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights, drafting, reviewing, and negotiating contracts, assisting with dispute resolution, and preparing various legal documents.
Paralegals must have excellent verbal and written communication skills as they are in constant communication with clients and must be highly organized since they are responsible for managing record-keeping, case files, and ensuring proper documentation.
A Sports Paralegal can expect to average $55,000 per year without bonuses or other financial compensation.
7. Sports Commissioner
Becoming a Sports Commissioner takes years of working in the sports field, and having a sports law background greatly helps with this position.
A Sports Commission oversees the entire sporting league and season, ensuring that the league meets financial and marketing goals while protecting the athletes.
General responsibilities of a Sports Commissioner include creating schedules, assessing staff incidents and arbitration between teams, and issuing fines or disciplinary actions for poor behavior.
Depending on the sporting level, additional responsibilities could include managing relationships between stakeholders, players, and teams, labor negotiations, marketing and media contracts, and league growth into new markets.
At the higher levels, a Sports Commissioner must build public awareness and support for the league, preserve integrity by ensuring fair play, and ensure a positive fan experience to retain fans.
Although the average salary for a Sports Commissioner is $73,300, it can range into the 10s of millions of dollars depending on the prestige of the league.
8. Sports Lawyer
Sports Lawyers differ from General Counsel as they represent individual athletes in legal disputes.
However, Sports Lawyers could still be part of a General Counsel team.
These professionals manage negotiations, immigration topics, discrimination, contract disputes, and employment law issues.
Sports Lawyers are licensed legal representatives who have backgrounds in sports issues and topics.
More specific responsibilities include negotiating contracts for athletes and teams, including sponsorships, endorsements, and employment agreements.
Also, a Sports Lawyer can be involved in arbitrations, lawsuits, and legal proceedings related to the team or employees.
Part of their function is also protecting intellectual property, such as athletes’ images and names, and negotiating and reviewing licensing agreements for athletes’ commercial opportunities, endorsements, and merchandising.
The average salary for a Sports Lawyer is $93,200, but pay ranges greatly based on a variety of factors.
5 Tips for Legal Careers in Sports While Looking for a Job
When looking for a legal career in sports, it’s important to follow these five tips.
Gain Experience from an Internship
Internships with a sports-related firm, league, or company are an excellent way to gain the experience and knowledge needed to enter the sports legal field.
The largest sports leagues, including the MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLS, all offer internships and can be an exceptional learning opportunity as to how these corporations operate.
Complete a Legal Degree
Most positions within sports law require a Juris Doctorate.
However, positions like Paralegal and Contract Compliance only require an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, which allows you to enter the field more quickly.
These degrees all help you demonstrate your legal knowledge and skills, which are required for these positions.
Law school also gives you the foundation of legal knowledge that can be applied within your sports career.
While in school, it’s important to take electives surrounding employment and mediation law, contracts, and immigration law.
These specialties will be highly beneficial once you enter the field.
Network with Other Industry Professionals
Networking is an essential resource that helps you learn about potential jobs and changes to the law.
The best ways to network are attending sports industry conferences, seminars, and lectures, becoming a member of professional organizations, maintaining relationships with previous professors and classmates, and partaking in message boards and online discussions.
Since the sports industry is such a niche and tight-knit community compared to other areas like finance, networking helps you keep your finger on the pulse of the latest information.
Even once you have a position in the field, it’s crucial to foster relationships with other professionals.
Remain Updated on the Latest Legal Information
As part of the networking process, it’s important to remain updated on the latest legal information by attending seminars and learning more online.
Law schools offer continuing education classes to provide you with new skills and knowledge about the industry and changes to laws and regulations.
It is also a great opportunity to learn about a new area of sports law or refresh your skills in an existing field.
A dizzying amount of information is available on the Internet.
Select a Niche
Given the small size of the sporting industry, positions are highly competitive, so assessing your skills to select a niche within the field will help you differentiate yourself from other candidates.
Review the specific position you are interested in pursuing and the sport you are interested in legally representing to help narrow your options.
In larger, multi-sport cities, you have more opportunities than in a town with a single sport, so understanding your opportunities is important.
If you are willing to relocate, then that greatly expands your potential career path.
I’ve been doing research for my thesis, I hope there’s more of this online since this is the most detailed information I found.
Being a sports commissioner might be difficult, but I think this is worth it in the long run. The pay is especially high since my uncle is one. I’m looking into following his steps when I graduate.