After obtaining their degrees from Rice, several students who majored in Sport Management have gone on to law school. Four of these students have received their J.D. and are currently working in the sport industry. They include JJ Polk ’97, John Lukin ’00, Iam Penny ’85, and Matt Baldwin ’00.
Polk is the Executive Director of Basketball Administration for the New Orleans Pelicans of the NBA. Lukin currently holds a position at Adams Golf where he works as a lawyer. Penny serves as a Senior Labor Counsel for the MLB’s Player’s Association, and Matt Baldwin works as a sports agent in Reno, Nevada.
There are also several Rice Alumni recently graduated or currently enrolled in law schools across the country from Stanford to the University of North Carolina. They include:
- Becca Arriaga ’11 (Stanford)
- Tori Bennette ‘12 (Duke)
- Matt Weingast ‘10 (Georgetown)
- Matt McCabe ’08 (Penn)
- Stephen Noh ’12 (Virginia)
- Garrett Roland ’13 (Texas)
- Stuart Pirri ’12 (Loyola)
- Sabrina Tour ’09 (Vanderbilt)
- Robort Burrow ’11 (North Carolina)
Tour pursues her J.D. with the hopes of working at a sports agency or league office in the legal department or player development.
“I went to law school because my mentors told me that having a law degree would give me great insight no matter what area of sports I went into,” Tour said. “I feel that I have an advantage over others because I understand how various issues in sports today look in the eyes of the changing legal landscape.”
Following law school, Weingast also looks forward to working with sports clients.
“The most interesting position within the sports organizations I have encountered was that of legal counsel,” said Weingast. “Rather than focusing upon a single aspect, or even several aspects, of organizational operations, the council is involved in the affairs of the entire organization. This satisfies my desire for broad and meaningful involvement in an organization.”
After graduation from Georgetown Law in 2015, Weingast will join the office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, a firm with a premiere sport law practice.
When asked how their time at Rice has helped them pursue their goals, both Tour and Weingast suggested that the opportunities they experienced in Rice University's Department of Sport Management have had lasting effects on their futures in the sport industry.
“The Sport Management program at Rice provided me with unparalleled access to and opportunities in the professional sports industry,” Weingast said. “The relationships I forged with faculty, fellow students, and colleagues continue to yield benefits; most notably helping me to work as a Legal Associate for The Madison Square Garden Company in 2013, where I performed legal work on behalf of the NY Knicks and NY Rangers.”
“The curriculum gave me a broad taste of all the facets that there are in Sport Management,” said Tour. “The internships helped me hone my skills and realize areas of sports that I enjoyed as well as areas that I did not enjoy. The contacts that the professors have is extensive and has been useful to me to this day.”
LaShay Fontenot is a junior majoring in Statistics and Sport Management with a minor in Financial Computing and Modeling.