Monday Mentors with Fort Worth Sports Lawyer Christian Dennie
Christian Dennie, a sports lawyer, commercial litigator, and partner at Barlow, Garsek, & Simon in Fort Worth, joins us on today's show. Christian talks about understanding the case, demonstrating grit, and how the new name, image, and likeness legislation is playing out thus far.
His firm/practice
- Firm is headquartered in Fort Worth with a Southlake office
- Commercial firm (no criminal)
- He focuses on sports clients but does a number of things under that umbrella including arbitration
- Fort Worth / Tarrant County legal practice
- Small town with over 1M people
- Plenty of large businesses
- Lots of lifers
- More local/Texas based firms
- Collegial and supportive of one another
- New name, image, and likeness NCAA rules and state laws, as well as potential changes to the NCAA constitution are significant issues
Advice to lawyers in practice
- Have someone that will take you under their wing and serve as a mentor to you and help you learn/grow
- You win lawsuits in the library and not the courtroom
- Sometimes the law is not on your side but you need to be creative because things need to change
- Can happen in the courtroom with a decision, OR
- In a settlement or outside of the courtroom...can be just as good as a decision
- Take the case and figure it out
- It's not about sitting in your office 18 hours a day to show that you are committed; but it's not about the hours
- You are a problem solver
- Ideal is to be at a law firm that has enough work that you aren't having to "create time" to meet your billable hour requirements
- Daniel recalls former guest Jim Chester's advice to never leave a partner's office without the DDB (deadline / deliverable / budget).
- Important for the client to understand what they are asking as well
- Formulate a game plan early for how you are going to generate the clients you want
- Put yourself around the clients you want, but with the expertise you have even if that is different than what you ultimately want to do
- Understand the culture/business/environment of the clients you want to serve
Advice to Lawyers On The Lateral Market
- Demonstrate the work you have done
- How does your work history match what the firm needs
- Is there a cultural fit?
- If you played sports in college or beyond that stands out to him because of the grit factor
- Trial experience, judicial clerkships, real estate deals/closings, employment contract experience all looks good
- If you don't have those things, do you have the interest, curiosity, and willingness to transition
Sports Law
- Not a lot of large national deals yet
- 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals / Gatto case
- Lots of local/regional deals
- Just making sure they comply with state law, because if they don't then they won't comply with NCAA rules
- Contract can't extend beyond eligibility and there are multiple places in agreements where perpetual licenses are inserted
- Bonuses based on results are not permissible and some of the early contracts had those in there
- Schools are starting to get a better grasp of it
- Texas' law specifically says you can't use logos/marks which can cause issues
- Some schools are trying to figure out how to permit the use
- Houston Travis Scott concert
- Was there adequate security?
- What does the license on the ticket say and do we have an enforceable arbitration clause?
- What if you are forced to click a link to go out and read the fine print of the license?
- Insurance?
- The NCAA recommendations on constitution/bylaw changes is a major issue in college athletics; especially if we see more power pushed down to the conference level
Rapid Fire Questions
- Name one trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: Ability to roll up the sleeves and get after it; willing to do what it takes; send the fax!
- What habit has been key to your success: understanding the client; establishing trust
- Favorite app/productivity tool: Twitter
- What would be listed first on the interest line of your resume: sports and family; stand-up paddle boarding
- Favorite legal movie: A Time to Kill / My Cousin Vinny
- First date of OU/TX in the SEC: 2023
Thanks again to Christian Dennie for joining us on today's show!