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Not that kind of court: Panelists to discuss applying law degrees to sports

April 8, 2014
Christian Spears

Christian Spears

Four attorneys who are putting their law degrees to good use in the world of sports will talk Wednesday, April 16, at NIU about such career choices for lawyers.

Presented by the Entertainment and Sports Law Society and the NIU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, the panel discussion is scheduled for noon in Room 188 of Swen Parson Hall.

Members of the panel include Christian Spears, deputy director of athletics at NIU. Others are Paul Anderson, associate director of the National Sports Law Institute and adjunct professor of law at Marquette University; Matt Jakobsze, associate athletics director at Eastern Michigan University; and Jaime McGaver, director of compliance at Marquette.

“Oftentimes, law students feel that they must use their degree to be litigators. This panel will aim to open the door to students who never even considered using their skill sets from law school in an area outside of the law,” said Niklas Lofgren, a juris doctor candidate in the NIU College of Law Class of 2015.

“Sports and athletic administration is an area that is exponentially growing, and lawyers are often doing a lot of the work behind the scenes. This panel will offer their personal experiences as to how they broke into sports administration as well as field questions for the student body,” Lofgren added. “Thanks to the help of Christian Spears, we feel that we are able to produce a great opportunity for students to hear from NIU alums who have been in the students’ shoes.”

For more information, email niu.entertainment@gmail.com.