About the Authors

Matthew J. Mitten

E-mail address: matt.mitten@marquette.edu

Professor Mitten is the Director of the National Sports Law Institute and the LL.M. in Sports Law program for foreign lawyers at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as the Law School's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from July 2002 to June 2004. He currently teaches courses in Amateur Sports Law, Professional Sports Law, and Torts and has also taught Antitrust Law, Comparative Sports Law, International Sports Law, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and a Sports Law seminar.

Professor Mitten earned a B.A. in Economics from The Ohio State University and his JD, magna cum laude, from the University of Toledo College of Law. He is a member of the Order of the Coif and served as a Note & Comment Editor for the University of Toledo Law Review's editorial board. He practiced antitrust and intellectual property law with Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1984-1989. He taught at South Texas College of Law in Houston from 1990-1999 and has been a visiting professor at the University of Toledo College of Law as well as a visiting lecturer in sports medicine at The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine. Matt has been appointed a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School in Australia and is a member of the International Advisory Board for its Graduate Diploma in Sports Law program. He has also taught sports law courses at the University of Barcelona in Spain and the University of Queensland in Australia.

A leading sports law scholar, he has published articles in the Iowa, Maryland, Marquette, New England, Pittsburgh, St. John's, St. Louis, Nebraska, Seton Hall, and South Texas law reviews as well as in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In August 2003 he testified before a Congressional joint subcommittee regarding proposed federal regulation of ephedrine. He has given lectures and presentations about a wide variety of sports law topics at numerous conferences and seminars throughout the United States as well as in Australia and in China.

Professor Mitten is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Lausanne, Switzerland) (serving on the ad hoc Division for the XXI Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia) and the American Arbitration Association’s commercial, consumer, Olympic sports, and United States Anti-doping Agency arbitration panels, and the Ladies Professional Golfers Association’s drug testing arbitration panel. He is the president of the Sports Lawyers Association and serves on its Board of Directors. He formerly chaired the American Association of Law Schools' Section on Law and Sports and the NCAA’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, and served on the inaugural Board of Directors oft he Forum for the Scholarly Study of Intercollegiate Athletics at the invitation of former NCAA president Myles Brand.

Rodney Smith

E-mail address: rodney.smith@svu.edu

Rodney Smith currently serves and the Director of the Sports Law and Business Program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He previously served as a Distinguished Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Academy of Liberal Education, has served on the International Board of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, and recently served as a Visiting Professor at the Washington and Lee College of Law. Professor Smith previously served as dean of the schools of law at Capital University, the University of Montana, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Professor Smith also taught at the University of North Dakota, Widener University, Brigham Young University, and the University of San Diego. Professor Smith held the Herff Chair of Excellence in Law and was serving as interim dean at the University of Memphis immediately prior to his service as President at Southern Virginia University.

Professor Smith is the author or co-author of three scholarly books and more than twenty-five scholarly articles, and he is recognized for his scholarship in the freedom of religion and sports law areas.

N. Jeremi Duru

Professor N. Jeremi Duru is among the nation’s foremost sports law authorities. In addition to being a co-author of Sports Law and Regulation: Cases and Materials (4th edition), he has written numerous articles and book chapters exploring sports law in various respects. Professor Duru has a particular interest in sport’s impact on society, which he explores in much of his work, most notably in his recent book Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL (Oxford University Press).

Professor Duru is active in the national sports law community, serving as a member of the United State Anti-Doping Agency’s Anti-Doping Review Board and the National Sports Law Institute’s Board of Advisors, but he also frequently lectures and consults abroad, most recently as a Fulbright Fellow at Faculdades Integradas Helio Alonso in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and as a Parsons Visitor at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia.

After receiving his undergraduate education at Brown University, Professor Duru completed a joint-degree program at Harvard University, receiving a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Following his graduation, Professor Duru served as a law clerk to the Honorable Damon J. Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was then associated with the law firm of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering where he litigated complex civil actions before both state and federal courts. In 2003, Professor Duru joined Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, where he represented sports industry professionals in employment matters involving teams and leagues, including the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball. In recognition of this work, the National Bar Association honored Professor Duru with its 2005 Sports and Entertainment Lawyer of the Year award. Later in 2005, Professor Duru joined the faculty of Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law where he taught for seven years and won the school’s George P. Williams Memorial Award for the Outstanding Professor of the Year in 2008.

Since entering the academy, Professor Duru has continued to counsel sports industry professionals and organizations, including the Fritz Pollard Alliance of minority coaches, scouts, and front office personnel in the NFL. In addition, he has served as a Legal Analyst and Commentator for Yahoo! Sports’ online magazine, The Post Game, and has provided commentary for a number of media outlets including BBC, NBC, FOX, MSNBC, NPR, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The New York Daily News.

Timothy Davis

E-mail address: davistx@wfu.edu

One the country’s best known sports law scholars, Professor Tim Davis is the John W. & Ruth H. Turnage Professor of Law at Wake Forest School of Law. He has co-authored a casebook on sports law, and co-authored The Business of Sports Agents, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. He frequently presents papers and lectures at academic conferences and continuing legal education seminars. Tim serves on the Review Board for the United States Anti-Doping Agency and is a member of the Board of Advisors for the National Sports Law Institute. In addition, Tim teaches Contracts and Sales, and is a member of the Contracts Drafting Committee of the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Prior to coming to Wake Forest, Tim taught for nine years at Southern Methodist University and practiced commercial litigation in Denver, Colorado. Tim is a tenor and shares a passion for music with his wife and daughter.

Education

BA, 1975, Stanford
JD, 1979, University of California at Berkeley