Baseball legend headlines law symposium

Former Major League Baseball right fielder Tim “King Fish” Salmon, one of the greatest players in the history of the Anaheim Angels, is the “talent” on an upcoming panel “The Art of Representation,” which will explore the relationship between talent and agency.

The panel, part of the annual Sports & Entertainment Law Symposium, will take place at 10 a.m., Oct. 18, in the Great Hall in Armstrong Hall at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law on ASU’s Tempe campus.

The symposium kicks off at 9:30 a.m. with a keynote address by Mike Kennedy, co-founding partner of Gallagher and Kennedy in Phoenix and chairman of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. Kennedy will give a behind-the-scenes view of preparing for the Super Bowl. An entertainment panel is scheduled for 1 p.m.

“I’ll be giving the perspective from an athlete’s point of view,” Salmon says. “Sometimes what you read in the papers, the amount of money we make, the players come off a little bit on the greedy side. That’s because the public doesn’t have an understanding of the whole process. The way our agent represents us has a big effect on our peers. If you’re the top free agent out there, you’re driving the market.

“It’s like real estate. If you sell your house for less than market value, you’re hurting everyone in your neighborhood.”

The event is sponsored by the Sports and Entertainment Law Students Association, the W. P. Carey Sports Business MBA Program, ASU’s Herberger College School of Theatre and Film, and ASU’s Graduate and Professional Students Assembly.

Scott Seymann, president of the Sports and Entertainment Law Students Association, says the symposium will help people understand the system.

“The goal of this symposium is to give people an opportunity to learn about the realities of sports and entertainment law careers firsthand, from real-world professionals,” Seymann says. “This field is fascinating to many, but it often seems mysterious and elusive. We hope to lift the veil a bit and debunk some of the myths.”

Brian Mueller, a sports and entertainment attorney at Mariscal, Weeks, McIntyre & Friedlander, will moderate the sports panel, which in addition to Salmon and Kennedy will include Jim Kuzmich, vice president and general counsel for Gaames, a Scottsdale company that represents professional baseball players; Pat Murphy, ASU’s head baseball coach; and Nona Lee, vice president and general counsel for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The entertainment panel will be moderated by Brent Roam, a third-year law student, actor and musician. The panel will include Richard Schulenberg, an independent entertainment attorney from Beverly Hills, Calif.; Booker T. Evans, an entertainment attorney at Greenberg Traurig in Phoenix; Gary Goldman, former head of Fox Animation, animator and animated film director and producer with the Bluth Group in Phoenix; Matt Connelly, a licensing executive director for McFarlane Toys in Tempe; and Connie J. Mableson, an entertainment attorney with Dodge, Anderson, Mableson, Steiner, Jones & Horowitz in Phoenix.

The symposium is free, but attorneys can register for up to four hours of CLE credit for $150. Breakfast and lunch will be served.
For more information, contact Seymann at (480) 365-8000, or scott.seymann@asu.edu.