Navigate the rapidly evolving business of sports with a definitive breakdown of the newest regulations, contract shifts, and landmark rulings defining the industry today.
The sports industry continues to evolve rapidly, with legal frameworks struggling to keep pace with commercial expansion, athlete rights movements, data-driven performance technologies, and the growing influence of collegiate and professional governance bodies. This session provides a clear, up-to-date overview of the most significant legal developments shaping sports law in 2026.
Participants will explore key issues affecting both college and professional sports ecosystems, including athlete compensation models, name-image-likeness (NIL) regulation, labour and employment considerations, competition law challenges, disciplinary frameworks, and emerging risks linked to technology, betting, and integrity in sport.
Designed for practitioners working at the intersection of law, sport, and governance, this session combines current developments with forward-looking analysis of where regulation and litigation are likely to focus next.
Key Topics Discussed:
Professor and Author on Sports Business & Law
Mark Conrad directs the sports business concentration and is a professor of law and ethics at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business. In addition to teaching sports law and the business and ethics of sports, he also has taught courses covering contracts, business organizations, and media law. Professor Conrad’s books and articles have appeared in academic, legal, and general-circulation publications. The third edition of his book The Business of Sports — Off the Field, In the Office, On the News was published by Routledge in 2017. Prior editions have been cited in leading journals as among the most comprehensive texts on the subject. In addition to his full-time responsibilities at Fordham, Professor Conrad has lectured at leading sports business and law programs, including Columbia University’s sports management program and at St. John’s University’s LLM program in international sports practice. He has appeared on panels at Duke, Fordham, Cardozo, and the University of Virginia Law Schools. He was president of the Sport and Recreation Law Association from 2014 to 2015 and is serving as president of the Alliance for Sport Business from 2016 through 2018. He has been asked to advise international programs in sports and communications. Professor Conrad has been quoted in The New York Times, Boston Globe, and Chicago Tribune and has appeared on CNN and Bloomberg TV. He holds a B.A. from City College of New York and a J.D. from New York Law School. He also received an M.S. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He resides in New York City.
