Yesterday, I spoke to the Union Internationale des Avocats’ (UIA – International Association of Lawyers) 55th Congress on the current issues in Sports Law, with a specific focus on what is going on in the world of athlete agent regulation and discipline.  More than 1,200 lawyers from more than 70 countries around the world have attended the entire event.  Luckily for me, the Congress was held in Miami, Florida.  However, today I am doing quite the traveling.  I am in New York for the New York Law School Sports Law Symposium, and I am flying out of New York tonight to go to Arizona, where I will be speaking at Arizona State University’s 2nd Annual Conference on Sports and Entertainment Law.  Here are some stories I’ve missed over the past week:

Basketball

• Let “the hurt” commence [Why Is NBA Labor Deal Closer? Players Get Last Check On Monday].
• Mark Bartelstein sheds some light on the fact that owners are not asking for a true 50/50 BRI split [Analysis: Sides get closer, but NBA lockout keeps rolling on].
• Amazing how the labor battle has recently focused on Billy Hunter vs. Derek Fisher [Hunter’s actions in NBA labor talks weaken union].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (11/4/2011) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Cuba is known for producing remarkable talent on the diamond.  Its players are followed by every single MLB organization, and many agents dream about getting their hands on the next Cuban-born prospect.  Recently, the baseball world has been caught up with what team Cuba’s most recent defector, Aroldis Chapman, will sign with.  Chapman is just the newest Cuban player to clog the headlines, but in the past, many others have been in the spotlight, and unfortunately, so have their agents.

Representing Cuban defectors is risky business.  Gustavo “Gus” Dominguez, co-founder of California-based Total Sports International Inc., was handed a five-year prison term in April 2008 for smuggling prospects out of Cuba.  Juan Ignacio Hernández Nodar, was a Miami-based sports agent who received a fifteen-year sentence for the same thing: helping Cuban players defect from the island.  Nodar was recently released one-and-a half -years earlier than the full length of the sentence.  You can thank Nodar for being able to watch Orlando “El Duque” Hernández over the years.

The U.S. and Cuban governments tried to make examples out of Gus and Nodar, and for a long time, we have heard little about Cuban baseball defections.  It makes me wonder how closely government officials have been monitoring Aroldis Chapman’s defection.  I assume that his agents were especially careful in the way they managed his affairs.  One would hope so based on the penalties handed down to guys like Dominguez and Nodar.

Cuban Defectors Affect Their Agents from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules