Lawyer: Sports Agent
Lawyers, Sports Agents, Speakers, and The Rainmaker
Sports Lawyer
Sports agents job is basically get the best settlement out for their client, just like any other lawyer. How it works is an individual goes to law school, they take studies in sports law, contracts, and all of the other classes soon to be lawyers take. After that they either join a law firm or start on their own. From there, they take on clients one by one. They get bigger reputations by both quantity and quality. The more players you have, the more players you will get, also the higher the profile of the athlete, the more likely you will get more people. Most agents start from the bottom with bottom of the line players and not getting a lot of money. This job by far is not easy. This isn't a 9-5 job and you go home. As a sports agent, you need to travel the country and try to get as many kids, yes kids coming out of high school and college to sign with you. You need to persuade everyone that talks to you that you are the best option and why you will make them the most money and the best life. After you sign the athletes, your job is to do all the legal work for them. Their job is to play and make money, your job is to get them more money and take care of all the 'dirty' work. You negotiate contracts, talk to all the teams, handle player disputes, and also make sure your client is the most taken care of player in the league. You also manage their money so they don't go broke and try to make their money last as long as you can. This job is fun and also very stressful, however the annual salary is 60,000 a year depending on the number and the altitude of the clients. That number could go up to 11 million a year if you become as reputable as famous sports agent, Scott Boras.
Talking with Lawyers
In the two presentation we had in class I learned a lot about the different lawyers and the different people in the judicial side of the law. For example when the district attorney came in she talked about the struggles of the day to day and what are some of the cases she encountered. They both said it is very hard to take personal preferences out of the equation and do not get too attached because some of the cases are hard to work through. She also talked about she would not change her occupation because she loves working with the law and just helping people around her whether that would be someones safety or just making the best of a poor situation. Mr. Fellows also elaborated on why he switched from wanting to become a sports agent to a family law lawyer. He chose family law because he wanted to help people. He said that sports agents don't help people, they just get people more money. I think that family law is interesting and I thought it was very surprising when he said that he supports marriage (which is a great thing) but the fact that he would rather see a successful marriage rather then serving as a divorce lawyer showed me that he really does care more about helping people rather than some lawyers who just want the extra money and push for divorces.
The Rainmaker
In the movie "The Rainmaker", there are many examples of the law and how the law works. 3 things I saw in the movie was ambulance chasing, insurance fraud, spousal abuse. Each of these three things involve a varieties of laws, court involvement, and lawyers. For example, ambulance chasing is when a lawyer basically follows or sees someone going to the hospital, was admitted hours previously or even on the scene of disturbance and then even though they may not be in the best condition or state of mind, they still pursue them and try to get them to be your client. Then insurance fraud is displayed in the movie by when the insurance company sets it up so when someone would file a claim they would just deny until the client would give up on it and then they would not have to pay for any expenses. Basically insurance fraud is so the insurance company lies to either a client or the IRA to get more money in their wallets. Then spousal abuse is shown when Matt Damon's lady is abused by her soon to be ex-husband. She was being hit and abused and in the court, that is bad....real bad.