Sports & Entertainment Law Institute

Setting The Pace

Led by one of the nation’s foremost authorities in sports law, the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute brings the exploding worlds of sports law and entertainment law to life by hosting events highlighting important and newsworthy cases — recent guests have included former NCAA basketball star Ed O’Bannon, lead plaintiff on a suit against the NCAA alleging violations of both antitrust and right of publicity law, and the band The Slants, whose frontman Simon Tam played a key role in the Supreme Court overturning the bar on federal trademark registration for disparaging trademarks on First Amendment grounds. The real world doesn’t just come to our students, though; we send our students into it — recent legal residency placements have included Sony Music, Under Armour, and the Dallas Cowboys.

The SELI works in collaboration with the faculty of our renowned Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property, a top-10 intellectual property law program in the United States. Discover our globally-recognized faculty in IP law and one of the country’s most extensive selection of IP courses.

Learn From The Experts

The institute is run by Professor Michael McCann, a prolific sports law writer for Sportico, who has gained a reputation as one of the nation’s leading experts in sports law. The SELI is guided by full-time professors with deep contacts in the businesses of sports and entertainment who closely mentor students in the program. Courses are inventive and timely, and the SELI hosts many high-profile conferences and panels. You can also receive on-the-job training and earn academic credit working in our legal residency program with noted sports and entertainment law attorneys.