News and views for the UB community
Published January 25, 2022
UB’s Center for the Advancement of Sport leads a list of like-minded UB groups celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day with “Powerful Women in Sports,” a remote sports law roundtable featuring nationally successful women sports professionals.
The hour-long forum, “Powerful Women in Sports: Achieving Success in a Male-Dominated Industry,” starts at noon on Feb. 1, and is open to the public via Zoom.
Featured speakers/presenters are Lisa Friel, senior vice president for investigations at the National Football League; Tara VanDerveer, longtime coach of the Stanford University women’s basketball team; Caren Cook, ’90, deputy general counsel for legal and business affairs for the Atlanta Hawks basketball team; Jennifer Bullano Ridgley, vice president of communications with the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team; and Cheryl Meyers Buth, Orchard Park attorney and agent for National Basketball Association players.
The seminar is co-sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the Gender Institute, the UB Law Alumni Association, and Buffalo Sports and Entertainment Law Society.
Sports law roundtables are organized by the Center for the Advancement of Sport’s capstone class, according to Helen “Nellie” Drew, professor of practice in sports law and director of the center. The class is made up of students who have taken several sports law courses, Drew explains, and typically are obtaining a concentration in sports law. They spend a semester or two in their 3L year developing expertise in a particular area of sports law.
“The students work together in groups of two or three to develop and host the roundtables, which we are happy to invite the community to join,” she says.
Past roundtables have included a session on the First Amendment rights of professional athletes, featuring then-Buffalo Bill Lorenzo Alexander, prominent Buffalo attorney Paul J. Cambria Jr.; UB sports law alumnus and National Football League Players Association-certified agent Shane Costa; and UB law professor Lucinda Finley.
A roundtable held last summer featured multiple Major League Baseball executives and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz discussing the challenges of bringing the Toronto Blue Jays to play their home games in Buffalo during the pandemic.
“Last year, we partnered with Project Play WNY to bring in Harvard basketball Coach Tommy Amaker,” says Drew. “Each semester we offer at least four events.
“I am so proud of our students, who take the initiative to seek out industry leaders — especially in this case, with two stellar women law students, Marissa Egloff, ’22 and Darby Daly, ’22, leading the charge to bring us this amazing panel of women who have overcome tremendous obstacles and are opening doors for those who follow them.”
Attendance for the roundtable is free, but registration is required. For more details and to register, click here.
National Girls and Women in Sports Day is an annual day of observance held during the first week of February to acknowledge the accomplishments of female athletes, recognize the influence of sports participation for women and girls, and honor the progress and continuing struggle for equality for women in sports.