Fixing Sports Agent Law: Preliminary Thoughts, and My New Article

In February 2012, the Uniform Law Commission announced the creation of a Study Committee on Amending the Uniform Athlete Agents Act ("UAAA"). This announcement will likely lead to renewed debate about the proper role of sports agent law.

Today, I posted on the Social Science Research Network ("SSRN") the first draft of my new law review article: Disarming the Trojan Horse of the UAAA and SPARTA: How America Should Reform Sports Agent Laws to Conform with True Agency Principles.

In this article, I argue that the current version of the UAAA operates like a Trojan Horse. On the outside, it appears to provide athletes with legal protection against their agents. Yet, on the inside, it attacks the very autonomy and financial well-being that traditional agency law is intended to protect. I then argue for a number of reforms to sports agent law, including the following:

• The expansion of the Uniform Athlete Agents Act to govern the relationship between professional athletes and their agents.

• An increased emphasis on preventing conflicts of interest between athletes and their agents, both on the professional and amateur level.

• The implementation of a private cause of action to allow athletes to bring suit directly against their agents under the UAAA.

• The removal of language from the UAAA that grants NCAA member schools with a cause of action to sue their own student-athletes for failing to disclose agency contracts.

A full draft of my article is available for download here. Readers' thoughts and feedback are both welcome and appreciated.