Dean Peter Goplerud and Florida Coastal School of Law Foundation board members Wally Lee, John “Jake” Schickel, and Linsay Warren present Caitlin Milo (shown with husband Joe Milo) the first Martha Sonnenschein Memorial Scholarship at the Martha and Irving Sonnenschein Courtroom Dedication Ceremony.

Out of the dozens of exceptional entries, Caitlin Milo was named the first recipient of the Martha Sonnenschein Memorial Scholarship by the Florida Coastal School of Law Foundation in a ceremony in November.

Milo, a Pennsylvania native and student in the class of 2013, was selected for the $5,000 scholarship award for her outstanding academics and leadership in and outside of the school.

This scholarship was created after Irving Sonnenschein donated a generous endowed scholarship gift of $250,000 to the school in honor of his late wife Martha.

“I had the privilege of working with Caitlin my whole first year,” said Stefano Portigliatti, Student Bar Association president and a friend of Milo. “I can say, from first-hand experience, she embodies professionalism, leadership, diligence, and virtue.”

Outside of school, Milo has worked pro bono both in the Federal District Court with Judge Timothy Corrigan and within an internship program at the Florida Supreme Court with Justice R. Fred Lewis. During her internship, Milo learned how greatly Florida Coastal had helped develop her leadership abilities because no other student in the internship program had the same quality or quantity of experiential opportunities she had.

“I think that this school really cares – as evidenced by this scholarship and the opportunities that I’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Milo. “I think it’s nice; it’s kind of like being a big fish in a small pond, not necessarily size-wise but in terms of how much emphasis they put on the students.”

In addition to her internships, Milo serves as editor-in-chief of the Law Review and has previously served as a teaching assistant as well as a Coastal Ambassador.

“My hope is that people will see the work I do on Law Review and with the ambassadors, and it will encourage them to pursue leadership positions,” said Milo. “I think there is an internal value that you get from leadership.”

Applications for the 2013 Sonnenschein Memorial Scholarship will be reviewed in August 2013. Apply online at alumni.fcsl.edu/Sonnenscheinscholarship.

Illustration by Karen Kurycki

The Florida Coastal School of Law Foundation has launched the Annual Scholarship Fund this year with the goal of raising not only funds for student scholarships but also awareness of the work of the Foundation. With the impressive Sonnenschein courtroom gift as its anchor, the Annual Scholarship Fund looks to inspire alumni to give in support of students seeking their dream of becoming a lawyer. Unlike the school, which is proprietary, the Coastal Law Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) and will be able to focus entirely on benefiting students and attorneys.

“Because of the special corporate nature of the school, we are in a unique position to launch an independent charitable organization to meet the philanthropic goals of the school, its mission, and its people – including alumni,” Board Chair and Jacksonville Regional Chamber President Wally Lee said.

While its charitable activities are broader than the Annual Scholarship Fund, alumni contributions will be the cornerstone for the entire foundation.

“Alumni support is the bellwether for any growing, maturing institution of higher education,” said Dean and Board Member Peter Goplerud.

With nearly 3,700 alumni nationwide, he added the Foundation has set an initial goal that focuses on participation as much as dollars raised.

“As important as the money raised is the depth of the support alumni give to their alma mater. Each gift, no matter how small, is a type of ‘vote’ that says they believe in the institution and want to see it continue to offer others the opportunity they received,” Goplerud said.

In addition to the Annual Scholarship Fund and the Martha Sonnenschein Memorial Scholarship, the Foundation houses scholarship monies from a variety of sources, including the Florida Bar Foundation, Florida Matrimonial Lawyers Association, as well as several privately funded scholarships. The growing number of scholarships and funding will keep Foundation Scholarship Committee Chair Linsay Warren ’07 and her committee busy.

“It’s gratifying to receive the gifts and support but it is even more so to be able to assist students and support programming that benefits them,” she said.

The board of the Foundation meets quarterly and includes, in addition to Lee, Goplerud and Warren, attorney Jake Schickel, public relations and communications consultant Bruce Barcelo, President of the Non-Profit Center of Northeast Florida Rena Coughlin, and Community Foundation President Nina Waters.

But despite those highs, Reel has seen his share of lows in the business of sports, and his perspective is global.

Jeff Reel with sons, Davis and Hayden

“There was definitely a down period when the economy was down,” said Reel, a class of 2000 alumnus and a Coastal Law adjunct professor. “Major companies weren’t doing sports sponsorships anymore. In fact, a lot of them were pulling back from that.”

However, if sports marketing provides any glimmer of consumer confidence, Reel said business is picking up.

In February, Reel and the ATP orchestrated a major sponsorship deal with Corona in Mexico City and, most recently, negotiated a plum sponsorship relationship with FedEx to bring them on as an ATP sponsor.

“This year has been one of the best, if not the best year Iíve seen,” he said. “These are the kinds of things that, as a lawyer in my position, you like working on: getting to work with international companies you want to have your brand associated with. It certainly helps to raise our profile in the sports world — and it’s a lot more fun doing that than working on litigation.”

The growing international flavor of sports flaw is also a trend Joshua Kane is seeing in his line of work. Kane, associate counsel at the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in Daytona Beach and a 2007 graduate, said LPGA is getting into many more markets for sports sponsorships than it has in the past.

“If you look at the LPGA, we’ve exploited opportunities all over the world,” said Kane. “Emerging markets like China, Japan and South Korea offer great business opportunities and an untapped consumer marketplace.”

His expertise has been a boon in emerging markets.

“The business and legal issues are complex, including negotiation of governing law and dispute resolution mechanisms,” Kane said.

Kane also cited the use of new platforms as another emerging trend. Technology has provided many creative and previously untapped outlets for reaching fans. So keeping up with technology, industry standards and communication laws related to marketing and the promotion of sports and athletes has added another layer of growth to the business.

Florida Coastal School of Law helped both Kane and Reel gain a practical perspective of the industry ó a quality both attorneys make a point to share with up-and-coming attorneys, interns and students.

“Before I entered the LPGA as an intern, I was familiar with both legal and business sports issues,” said Kane of his Florida Coastal education. “You receive an insiderís perspective in the school’s sports law program, and I also see it in my interns from the school.”

The school gave Kane an opportunity to pursue two passions ó sports and law. He said he worked as closely as he could with Professor Rick Karcher to find and seize new opportunities to expand his experience. The first summer of his law school career, Kane worked for a corporate legal department and the next summer worked for MPS Group in Jacksonville. Later came Kane’s first big break to intern at LPGA.

“During my LPGA internship, I worked as many hours as I could and tried to involve myself in as many business meetings as I could,” Kane said. “Just before graduation, I received a job offer — a product of hard work, good timing and luck.”

Four years later, Kane continues to pay it forward, routinely recruiting interns from Florida Coastal at LPGA.

Joshua Kane

“Coastal’s interns are more familiar and better prepared to discuss and research sports legal and business issues,” he said. “The school focuses on practical skill-building, and that makes a difference in the workplace.”

As a student, Reel said he was impressed with the professors and training he received at Florida Coastal. Now an adjunct professor, Reel works to help his students focus on practical training. His mid-term and final exams test knowledge of black letter law, but also students’ abilities to draft contracts or interpret memos from business clients.

“I’ve had a lot of students say that was great to do because itís not something other classes always allow for,” Reel said. “I set it up so that my classes are designed for practical experience.”

In the working world, however, Reel is still ecstatic to be working in the field of sports law — and even more delighted to be living in Northeast Florida. Reel, an avid sports fan from the Chicago area, said it did not take long to say yes to the job offer that set his career in motion at ATP Tour and Florida Coastal School of Law.

“It’s a fun area to work, and fun to see our work out there on ESPN and in the news,” Reel said. “There are a lot of really good people in the business, too, which makes it easy to get up in the morning and get to work.”

That sports could provide Coastal Law a vehicle to broadcast its legal expertise nationally makes sense. Coastal Law established the Center for Law and Sports in 2005 in recognition of the growing interest in sports law and the expanding market for specialists in the area. The center, one of only a handful of sports law programs across the country, combines specialized courses taught by faculty with experience in sports as well as law.

Coastal Law professor and the center’s director Rick Karcher said that, in addition to extensive practical experience in the field, the faculty’s expertise is founded on scholarship and research.

“The scholarship aspect is very important to us, because it bolsters our credibility, makes us much more knowledgeable about specific areas within sports law, and provides us with a variety of perspectives and ways in which to analyze the issues,” he said.

Karcher speaks from experience. His numerous articles published in law reviews nationally have led to him being a frequent speaker on sports law topics at conferences and symposia nationwide. He’s testified in front of Congress and contributes to a leading sports law blog. Additionally, Karcher’s research and writing on illegal agent contacts with amateur athletes has made him a sought-after expert witness in those matters.

He served as an expert witness in James Paxton v. the University of Kentucky. In the case, Karcher was asked to give his opinion involving a college baseball player who returned to school his senior year after being drafted in the major leagues. However, his eligibility was threatened when he refused to cooperate with an investigation into alleged improper contact between UK players and agents.

Karcher’s research into the area of agent contacts was prescient. In 2005, he wrote the article: “How to Curb Agent Misconduct in Professional Baseball.” Five years later, illegal agent contact has made front-page news.

Reggie Bush, a former star tailback at the University of Southern California, had his eligibility stripped by the NCAA after an investigation revealed that he had taken improper benefits, including a house, from representatives of agents who hoped to represent him.

Bush probably wishes he had the benefit of Karcher’s research before he met with those would-be agents. The revelation of Bush’s improper agent contacts led to severe NCAA sanctions including a two-year postseason ban, loss of football scholarships, and the vacating of wins in the 2004-05 championship season. Since the NCAA retroactively stripped Bush of his eligibility, the status of the many awards he won in 2005 is in question. He may become the first player ever stripped of the Heisman Trophy, college football’s most prestigious award.

While USC fans may understand the impact of Bush’s actions, they may not understand the underlying NCAA bylaws that led to them. In explaining the interplay between sports and law, Karcher said the sports law expert must often explain an entire body of law separate from United States criminal and civil law.

ìCommentary on sports law can be made even more complex in that sports law is in many respects its own separate body of law with its own unique case precedent and league rules, constitutions and bylaws,î said Karcher.

The Center for Law and Sports continues to help to raise Florida Coastal’s profile nationally, with its faculty – Karcher included – being quoted more than 600 times in print, television and radio news outlets in recent years. Notable highlights since 2007 include mentions in the New York Times, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, The Associated Press, and USA Today. The combined audience: more than 250,000,000.

Sports coverage, once concerned only with on-field exploits, is now likely to include contract negotiations, gender discrimination, legal entanglements and an athlete’s choice of legal representation. ESPN recently devoted an entire hour of its airtime to basketball player LeBron James’ decision to sign a contract with the Miami Heat as a free agent.

Famed baseball pitcher Roger Clemens similarly secured exclusive airtime, albeit in less pleasant circumstances. His testimony before Congress about baseball’s steroid scandal went beyond ESPN and was broadcast by all the major news networks. That testimony led to Clemens being charged with perjury, which once again has him in the national spotlight.

According to Karcher, it seems that those athletes facing legal consequences garner the most interest from the media.

“Unfortunately, the stories that generate lots of interest are when athletes get into trouble off the field, whether it be an amateur athlete suspended or investigated for improper agent activity or an athlete suspended or investigated for taking [performance enhancing drugs] or doing something illegal or immoral,” said Karcher.

But while a fan might be naturally curious about an athlete’s legal challenges, that fan won’t necessarily understand the nature of a legal dispute no matter how hard a sports anchor tries to explain it. Collective bargaining is harder for the average fan to process than a quarterback rating or earned run average. Filling the gap between sports knowledge and legal concepts is where the Florida Coastal sports law faculty can be used to their best advantage.

“The business of sports is a multibillion dollar enterprise with as many facets,” said Peter Goplerud, Coastal Law’s dean and professor of law. “As with any business that comprehensive, a multitude of complex legal issues can arise ñ contract negotiations, labor disputes, government interactions, regulatory issues, or ethnic and gender concerns.”

Goplerud was elected to the Sports Lawyers Association Board of Directors in 1997. He is a frequent lecturer on sports law topics, has written numerous law review articles on sports law, and is co-author of one of the country’s leading sports law textbooks. Goplerud was involved in the representation of professional athletes in team and individual sports during the 1980s and 1990s and, more recently, has served as a consultant to universities, athletes and coaches on contracts, athlete eligibility issues, and collegiate athletic compliance matters.

Like Karcher and Goplerud, the remainder of Florida Coastalís sports law faculty brings substantive, hands-on experience as well as scholarly and research expertise, which allows them to render complex issues more understandable to legal contemporaries, the media, and everyday sports fans alike. Professor and sports law faculty member Nancy Hogshead-Makar knows first-hand the pressures and legal challenges facing modern athletes. She earned her law degree from Georgetown Law after an amateur swimming career that included three gold medals in the 1984 Olympics.

Hogshead-Makar has been one of the school’s highest profile faculty members. In 2007, she was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the 13 most influential people in the history of Title IX, the landmark gender equality legislation requiring colleges to allow women comparable sporting opportunities to men.

There are few people nationally more qualified than Hogshead-Makar to comment on coverage of Title IX issues or on gender equality issues generally facing sports. She has authored numerous articles on the legislation and wrote in 2007 ìEqual Play: Title IX and Social Policy.î

Joining Coastal Law in 2008, Associate Professor of Law Roger Groves has also served as a resource on the national level, penning several books and articles, and also serving as a frequent commentator on stories ranging from contract issues to, most recently, stadium financing with Forbes. Groves was a state and local tax judge for a decade in Michigan, and then a partner in the major Midwest law firm of Howard & Howard, where he represented multi-national corporations, high profile entertainers and coaches. In 2005 he wrote what is considered among the most comprehensive books regarding African-American football coaches, Innocence in the Red Zone, and has been called upon to be a NCAA speaker to coaches, and the Black Coaches Association.

Karcher, not surprisingly, points to the Center of Law and Sports faculty as its strength. He said it’s their commitment to cutting-edge research into emerging sports law issues that makes the center a go-to resource for not only the media on deadline but other sports industry attorneys and professionals. Karcher calls the center’s status as a research center and legal scholarship resource an important part of our mission.

“All of [our faculty] have made significant contributions in the sports industry through their publications, consultant work and expert witness testimony at congressional hearings and in high-profile lawsuits,” said Karcher. “I think media outlets frequently seek our advice because we have established a high level of trust with reporters, and they feel comfortable that our opinions are reliable.”