by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
A year has passed since professors at Florida Coastal School of Law began working on a curriculum for the school’s Sports Law Center. And although the center is a work-in-progress, Rick Karcher, the director of the Center and a professor at FCSL, said the Center is progressing as planned.
What may come as a surprise to many, is that FCSL is one of only three law schools in the country that offers a certificate program in sports law. Having said that, the law school saw the Center as an opportunity to set them apart from other law schools in the country. But that wasn’t the only deciding factor, said Karcher.
“There is a very strong interest in sports law,” he said. “The interest in sports law is phenomenal, and not just with the current students, but prospective students who are inquiring about our program.”
Karcher said currently there are approximately 50 students enrolled in the Center and each year the numbers will grow.
“Statistics have shown that sports law is the second most favorite area of law that is chosen when students take the LSATs,” he said.
Now, to set FCSL apart from Tulane and Marquette University who also have sports law centers, there are three full-time faculty members teaching sports law classes at FCSL.
“Out of three schools we have the most full-time faculty members devoted to sports,” said Karcher. “The three faculty members includes the Dean (Peter Goplerud), which is unique, Nancy Hogshead-Makar and myself.”
Karcher said their mission and focus for the Sports Law Center is the curriculum.
“It is pretty comprehensive,” he said.
The courses FCSL offers were designed to provide the students an opportunity to study a variety of areas of law in the sports industry. Karcher explained that students can enroll in the center after they have completed one full year of law school. When a student graduates and they have completed the 15 credit hours, which includes three required classes and electives, the student gets a notation on the transcript that shows they completed all of the requirements in the sports law program.
Another area of the program where students can receive credit towards the required 15, is completing an externship (a term used today to describe internships done off campus).
“That is such a vital area for the program where students can get work experience in the sports industry,” said Karcher.
Current students have externships with the United States Anti-Doping Agency, the athletic departments at Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida, the ATP Tour and the PGA Tour.
“The students are getting great experience and many lawyers are working in university athletic departments now,” he said.
The Center has gone as far as setting up students at college athletic departments during the summer while they are back in their home state.
“We have a student who will be working in Clemson’s athletic department this summer,” said Karcher.
Karcher said he could not be any happier with how helpful the local sports industry has been this past year.
“We are very thankful for the local sports organizations,” he said. “All of the internship programs — they’re great.”
Another way they have helped is by being a part of the Center’s Sports Law Society Symposium, an event the school’s Sports Law Society has arranged for the past two years.
“The main purpose, honestly, is for the students in the program to have some outside experience come in and have a good quality debate on a variety of perspectives,” he said.
When asked why so many people are interested in sports law, Karcher simply said, “It intrigues a lot of people.”
And a reason for that may be that there are so many different areas of law that fall under sports law.
“Sports law is not really an area of law,” he said. “But rather it is made up of a lot of different areas (of law).”
Some examples that fall under sports law are: antitrust law, constitutional law, contract law, tort law, labor law and more.
“Just the interest in sports and the variety of different areas of law; lawyers can get involved in so many different things,” he said. “Just working in sports in a legal area is very intriguing to people.”