Introduction
On Thursday, November 6, 2025, the Women’s Leadership Network hosted an alumni panel, “In a League of Their Own: The Sports Lawyers Behind the Game.” The Women’s Leadership Network is comprised of Brooklyn Law School graduates with a primary focus on making meaningful connections and sharing insight into various legal fields.
The panel was moderated by Professor Jodi Balsam, a nationally recognized expert in sports law and former counsel at the National Football League (“NFL”). The panelists featured Brooklyn Law School alumni: Leigh Ann Rossi ’91, Chief Operating Officer of the Sports and Entertainment Group at NFP; Peter Tringali ’13, Senior Counsel at the New York Red Bulls; David Bayer ’13, Senior Counsel at the NFL and Courtney Clark ’21, Counsel at Madison Square Garden Sports Corp (“MSGS”).
The Many Roads to Sports Law
Peter Tringali’s love for sports began at a young age, wanting to be the general manager of the New York Mets. After graduating from Brooklyn Law School, Tringali’s career started in corporate restructuring and bankruptcy at Cadwalader, Wickersham, & Taft LLP. After a while, however, he decided corporate law was not for him and transitioned into transactional work at Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe LLP. At that point, he didn’t think a career in sports law would be feasible, but six years later, he applied to the New York Red Bulls on LinkedIn.
David Bayer gained his interest in labor relations while at The New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. Between semesters, he worked as a summer associate at Proskauer Rose LLP. During law school, Bayer had an internship with the Brooklyn Nets and Major League Baseball (“MLB”) in their respective labor relations departments. Bayer then returned to Proskauer doing labor work for sports industry clients. Six years later, he applied for a position within the NFL’s labor relations department, and he has been there ever since.
Sports Law is More Than Just One Law
Courtney Clark is currently counsel at MSGS, which is a publicly traded company. MSGS is a controlling owner of the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. MSGS not only has to abide by the NBA and NHL’s own policies but also the regulations for publicly traded companies. Clark is on the public company legal team, so she spends a lot of her day working on SEC filings, annual and quarterly reports, and preparing for shareholder meetings. Clark gets direct insight into the big picture of the whole organization and sees how the teams’ seasons have a direct impact on the company’s revenue and operations. Clark mentions that because MSGS is owned by the Dolan Family, who own other companies as well, she also spends a lot of time on related party transaction paperwork, which is also governed by SEC rules.
Leigh Ann Rossi is Chief Operating Officer of the Sports and Entertainment Group at NFP, an insurance brokerage firm specializing in sports insurance. Rossi is an attorney as well as an insurance broker. She spends her day advising various teams, leagues, and athletes. Rossi primarily focuses on managing the various risks for the different aspects of a professional sports league. In her role, she not only must assess potential risks, but also come up with solutions for those risks. Rossi explained that being able to work with various sports leagues and teams has been beneficial in managing risk because it has allowed her to spot recurring issues. For example, she explains that a current legal trend sports organizations are dealing with is music copyright infringement. She says that there have been countless issues relating to background music playing in the back of social media posts. There, she had to determine whether those claims would be covered under policies, like media liability.
Finding Your Niche in The Game
While each panelist had a very different path, they all had a similar message: find your niche and become the best at it. Sports law isn’t one defined area of law, but rather a combination of many. It touches everything from employment law to insurance law.
Bayer’s advice to students is to do what you like the most and what you think you’ll be the best at. Don’t chase something because you think it will be a need in the sports industry, because the needs of the industry change with time.
Clark and Tringali further mentioned the importance of learning what areas of the law you don’t like, insisting that process of elimination is often the best way to find your niche. Whether it be through taking various classes in law school or different types of legal internships, the process of elimination helps narrow down the right practice area for you.
Rossi explained that the sports industry is very much a people’s business, where communication skills are essential. Regardless of your niche, she says it is more important to have a strong work ethic and to be diligent in your work.
Conclusion
The Women’s Leadership Network event not only emphasized the various paths to a legal career in the sports industry but also showed how different careers in sports law could look. Whether it is working for a league, a sports team, an insurance company, or even at a firm, the panelists urged the law students in attendance to focus on finding a specialty that works best for them and to continue to hone the skills that will be relevant in the sports industry.
Written by: Nancy Pham
Nancy is a 2027 J.D. Candidate at Brooklyn Law School.
