Sports and the Law: Meet Marc Edelman
(and John Montgomery Ward)
[Ed. note: As you may recall, last month we solicited applications for the position of ATL’s sports columnist. We thank the many fine applicants who threw their hats into the ring.
Today we’re pleased to introduce you to this site’s new sportswriter: Marc Edelman, a sports lawyer and law professor. You can reach him directly by email (click here). And now, without further ado, we turn the floor over to Professor Edelman.]
As a young boy, I remember sitting with my father watching Super Bowl XXI. In that game, New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms completed 22-of-25 passes for 268 yards, leading my hometown G-Men to a 39-20 victory over John Elway’s Denver Broncos. At that moment, I knew that I would one day work in sports.
Flash forward 21 years. The Giants are back in the Super Bowl. Their then-famous center Bart Oates is now a practicing attorney, and I recently was named as a professor of sports law at New York Law School, Seton Hall University, and Manhattanville College. I am also the new sports columnist at Above the Law.
In the coming weeks, my column Sports and the Law will focus on issues involving the legal aspects of sports, including moral issues, labor policy, and antitrust policy (or lack thereof). This column will also discuss how lawyers can find jobs in the sports field.
Read the first column, after the jump.
With this being my first week, I thought I would start by profiling my favorite sports lawyer of all time, John Montgomery Ward (Columbia Law, 1885). I know, you probably never even heard of him.
Monte Ward—as he was more affectionately known—was one of the great men in pro baseball because he was one of the few brave enough to stand up for his colleagues. Ward was a National League baseball player who burst onto the scene in the late 1870s, playing first for the Providence Grays and then the New York Giants. In 1885, which was midway through his playing career, Ward graduated from Columbia Law School. Before retiring as a player in 1894, Ward became the only player in major-league history to win 100 games as a pitcher and collect 2,000 hits as a batter. For this, Ward was elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964.
But it was Ward’s work off the field that really distinguished him. Way back in 1885, before federal law even provided adequate protection for worker organizing, Ward formed the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players (BPBP), an early version of baseball’s players union. In doing so, Ward risked that owners would boycott him from baseball for his conduct. However, Ward always put the greater good above his own plight.
When the BPFP failed to effectuate sufficient change, Ward then shifted gears and formed the Players League— a league owned by professional baseball players themselves, which challenged the National League for market share. Unfortunately, the Players League was unable to raise sufficient capital, and it too folded after just one season. However, again Ward was trying to give players a better opportunity (remember, in those days, player salaries were capped at around $2,000/season).
Even after the Players League’s demise, Ward never stopped advocating for players’ rights. For many years after retiring, Ward continued to represent professional baseball players in their disputes against the National League. Ward then briefly served as an official of the Federal League—an upstart baseball league that briefly attempted to compete against the National League and American League. Unfortunately, all of the Federal League teams were eventually bought out by the existing National and American Leagues, save for one club from Baltimore which eventually brought and lost an antitrust suit against the leagues (Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes found that MLB was not interstate commerce, and therefore was exempt from antitrust laws).
Ward’s willingness to place himself on the line for the betterment of his peers would be rare today, not only in sports, but also in law, as well as in most other professions.
Even if you are not a sports fan, it is worth noting the similarities between junior attorneys in big law and rookie pro athletes. In both professions, salaries today are huge to the outside world, meaning the outside world expects you to be grateful for the paycheck. But workers in both professions also accept tremendous tradeoffs in terms of personal freedom. I learned this the hard way, when as a first-year associate at Skadden, Arps, I was told by a simple phone call (not even an office visit) that my life would be uprooted to Washington, DC, for a six-to-eight week document review. Much like a rookie Major League Baseball player who had just been traded unexpectedly, I simply accepted my reassignment without much thought about the implications on family or personal life.
If Monte Ward had been a Skadden attorney in 2003, he would not have let this kind of treatment happen without pushback. Ward would have suggested that all the junior associates who were uprooted from New York to Washington band together and encourage partners to find a way of running the document review efficiently without wreaking havoc on family or personal lives. Ward would have risked himself for the team, even if he ultimately took the fall for his advocacy.
We all could learn a lot from Monte Ward.
Once again, it is my absolute pleasure to join the Above the Law team. In honor of the great John Montgomery Ward, Esq., I plan to use my column as a pulpit to effectuate change, both in the sports and the legal worlds. I encourage you to use the comments section below to assist with the same.
And, from the voice of the little boy still inside of me 21 years later, Go Giants!
(65) Comments
Comments
That picture is so old school - did you get it from clip art in Word 96?
Awesome.
Guys. I went to law school with this guy at Michigan. He is the best sports law guy out there. If they are anything like my lunch time discussions with him, I guarantee you will enjoy his columns.
I doubt that the gavel was part of the original picture.
Yeah, like real lawyers care about sports, or anything other than money.
Give us NY to 190 or bonus news, dammit! No one cares about this gobbledegook!
nice resume. what I want to really know is whether this guy maybe I should have done sports law.
anyway, could we have more bonus news pleaze???
NY to Unionize!
Thanks for the warning about the loud screeching noise that occurs when you follow the link to this guy's website. Perfect for the office! Off to a good start...
If he is so good, why does he teach at such horrible schools?
Awesome, more sports news! As if ESPN.com isn't already up on every partner's office I walk into.
Sports and the Law? Yea, that's a really popular niche. A San Francisco bathhouse is only slightly less male-oriented than this site. Why don't we just make the logo a penis and get on with it already.
nice first column.
"I thought I would the start by profiling"..
"BPBP" or "BPFP"?
Yeah, 11:28, a 4th-yr associate at Dewey and an adjunct at NYLS is the "best sports law guy out there." Sure. That said, I enjoyed the first column.
Dude, that screed was waayyy too long for ATL. Next time, write about a tangentially sports law-related story that provides a lurid invasion of privacy or ties in some biglaw shop's bonus memo.
What I meant is the "best sports law guy out there" for the readership of this website. Not the best sports law guy in the world. He is someone who can see the world from our level, and for that, he is the best. My apologies for any confusion, or over exuberance.
Where's Marty Silfen when you need him?
Nice column, good addition to the mix of ATL content (which tends to be light on the sports stuff).
11:48 - Bert-mother****ing-Sugar, is what we need. He a lawyer, no?
Just as my great, great, great.....granddaddy was able to make baseball's union the most powerful union in sports, I will band legal associates together in the most powerful union in the labor market. More importantly, I will be sure that you will not be tested for steriods, HGH or other performance enhancing drugs (ritalin anyone?)!
Are you with me!!!!
Is this guy a real jock sniffer or what? I thought the whole point of being in sports law was to get tickets to games and hang out with athletes and eventually become an agent. This guy is an associate at DL - what gives? does he actually care about the law?
Hey Marc,
I think that we may want to use that audio that you have on your web page for our web page too.
We'd be glad to exchange a great contact who can get you your own FANTASTIC theme song in exchange for your information!
Everyones a winner at nixon pea-bo-dy...haaaaaaaa (and the fans go wild!!!)...
GO PATRIOTS!! 19-0
They're ganna kill little bro Manning and the rest of 'em. Prepare to eat crow, Plaxico!
for those in DC, Judge Janice Roberts Brown is presiding over GW's moot court competition today at 1:30pm.
That was a nice debut. Thanks for refraining from the trite and obvious - such as Randy Moss's TRO - and digging deep for something substantive. In my opinion, you have instantly shown yourself to be ATL's best writer.
Bonus news season is over, stop complaining. All good firms have already reported. If a firm hasn't reported by now, it is TTT.
I for one, welcome the new sports guy because sports and the law is as American as apple pie and machine guns.
ATL's best writer is JT. The only other challengers are FRAT STUD and the guy who writes those "I am tired of these $#@%$^ing sports writers writing about $@#%#$%ing dead baseball players who did not use steriods" posts (my apologies to that guy - my attempt at imitation was lame).
Seton Hall? EWWW
also sports? Don't you know everyone at ATL is homo?
Tivo / Echostar CoA Ruling just came down... developing....
I agree with 11:28. Edelman is the man. Gave me his Sports Law outline in law school, which I used to smoke the final.
Check out his CV. This guy is a gunner.
Give me a break on bashing his teaching credentials. He's like 30 and holding down a full time BIGLAW job. What have you chumps done lately? If he's adjuncting at Seton Hall now, in 5-10 years, he'll have a good shot at T14.
10-4 to 12:37. He's building some nice teaching credentials where he can.
This is my last post on this, just trying to give some insight, sorry if I am saying too much. From my experience in law school, he was not a gunner at all. Very laid back dude. Spoke some in class, but did not drown others out, did not pose crazy hypotheticals, etc. Took sports law with him, and he wasn't one of those know-it-alls. So, if you think he is a gunner from his CV, that is not it at all. Just very talented. OK, I am going to finish editing my workproduct, which I hope reads better than my comments.
When I was a summer, I could always count on Edelman to organize a lunch with ribeyes and crab cakes. Great man.
nicely done.
only I find this part a stretch:
Even if you are not a sports fan, it is worth noting the similarities between junior attorneys in big law and rookie pro athletes. In both professions, salaries today are huge to the outside world, meaning the outside world expects you to be grateful for the paycheck. But workers in both professions also accept tremendous tradeoffs in terms of personal freedom. I learned this the hard way, when as a first-year associate at Skadden, Arps, I was told by a simple phone call (not even an office visit) that my life would be uprooted to Washington, DC for a six-to-eight week document review. Much like a rookie Major League Baseball player who had just been traded unexpectedly, I simply accepted my reassignment without much thought about the implications on family or personal life.
I have always thought the comparison between jr. ass.'s and athletes to be apt for another reason. A nickname among players for the NFL is "Not For Long." It's the same in BigLaw - you've got to make your cash early and most are asked to turn in thier playbook by the 3rd or 4th year.
http://www.deweyleboeuf.com/marc_edelman/
I am sure dewey will love to see you waste your time on this drivel.
Love all the positive comments. Did you send an e-mail to your friends to back you up?
Let the writing speak for itself.
BOO HOO!! A first year at Skaden had to spend a couple of months in DC doing document review? The outrage! The injustice! If you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen...oh, wait, he did. Ahh, the cushy life of academia at a TTT.
@1:12PM - I haven't spoke with Marc Edelman in over 4 years.
Thanks.
Finally.
Posts from a graduate of the best law school.
The poster who said that adjuncting at Seton Hall sets you up five to ten years for a jump to full-time at a T14 really isn't paying much attention to the reality today in hiring at law school faculties.
Adjunct with top JD's who adjunct a dime a dozen, and precious few who begin as an adjunct make that leap into full-time. Legal academia cares about two things 1) school background, and 2)publishing. Trust me, ten to fifteen years in full-time practice actually often works against you in legal academia hiring; they question your commitment to academics if you haven't made the leap sooner into full-time teaching.
You'll see that most full-time tenure track professors in recent years have done a clerkship and then only a couple years in private practice before making the jump to full-time. They have to move, to build up personal scholarship.
Not to mention a huge trend now in legal academia to hire Phd's, or others with similar credentials.
This guy Edelman sounds like an exceptionally competent guy, but adjuncting at Seton Hall, NYLS, and Manhattanville (no law school...undergrad business, maybe?) while working full-time in private practice is not going to build his skill set for permanent, tenure-track academia.
Much like many of the commenters on this thread, JT also enjoys the following:
1. Utilizing a consequence-free enviorment to make comments JT would normally get stabbed over.
2. Tom Brady's buttocks. Eli Manning's rump, by comparison, is simply subpar.
3. Scarlett Johansson.
JT apologizes for his misuse of "commenters" (should read: commentators) and his misspelling of environment.
JT requests an editing function. Damn you David Lat!
He is on leave from Dewey. He is not really a part of the firm currently. That being said, Marc is a nice enough guy....
He reminds me of that Grease song, "Summer loving had me a blast..."
I knew Marc at Michigan. We overlapped a couple years, and he was all about sports & sports law even then. He's a good guy. Glad to see that he's found a way to pursue that passion, and look forward to the column.
I can vouch for all of Jason's comments, including at 12:45. I was in Marc's class at UMich and can say he is an all around great guy.
Pats: 30 Giants: 20
Some ATL commenters wouldn't know how to have an opinion on anything in life if there weren't a ranking system established by somebody else that they could slavishly follow. Who cares what school Marc went to, where he works now, or what his career prospects will be in ten years? It might actually be possible to read about baseball without filtering it through the same hierarchy of retarded values that you apply to everything else.
went to penn at same time as this guy. wrote with the dp dorks about sports. glad to see he is still a dork.
I heard Lat's going to employ his own "Edelman-Shift" and force Marc to squeeze his entire column into the lefthand side of the site... kinda like we do to Marc on Saturdays in the Summer when he's at the plate....
UCLA sucks.
Jason, are you gay for the new sports guy? I mean, you sound in love, which is cool. Just call him!!
Which is worse . . . this guy's column or watching Pac 10 sports? Discuss . . .
No, not in love, but maybe I can be the new Loyala2L crazy poster and post gay comments about every story on ATL.
Oh btw, guys in my high school used to post gay comments on ATL all the time. It was no big deal.
Getting Edelman as the ATL Sports Guy is the second-biggest steal of the week (Omar Minaya being the biggest bandit, after he helped Twins Rookie GM Bill Smith "trade" Johan Santana for three rosin bags and some Diamond Dry).
Jason, back off. Marc is Roland's man.
No, not in love, but maybe I can be the new Loyala2L crazy poster and post gay comments about every story on ATL.
Oh btw, guys in my high school used to post gay comments on ATL all the time. It was no big deal.
Jason, are you gay for the new sports guy? I mean, you sound in love, which is cool. Just call him!!
NY to 190K
G-MEN 2 WIN!
Pats: 30 Giants: 20
This guy is a gunner.
GO GIANTS.
Did Marc's entire graduating class at Michigan become lawyers?
i worked with him at our first law firm. super nice guy. very smart. we all wanted to do sports work, and here he is doing it.
stop picking on him.
Professor Edelman is a great professor. He challenges his students and makes them think. I had him for an ethics course and he blew me away. He's got a great sense of humor, speaks exceptionally well and is fair. I look forward to reading his column.