Students hear how two lawyers broke into sports management
Story by Kalyn Norwood
Photos by Maria Iacobo
A law degree can take your career beyond the traditional courtroom.
USC Gould students had the opportunity to hear from two lawyers who work in sports media at a recent event sponsored by the Sports Law Society.
"I definitely never wanted to work at a law firm,” Jamie Hemann, vice president of media administration and talent at NFL Network, said. “I wanted to work in sports, somehow.”
Hemann is the only in-house counsel at NFL Network and also their chief financial officer and negotiator handling all on-air talent deals. He said he interned and volunteered a lot during his time in college and his first job out of law school was as a water boy at ESPN’s “X Games.” But, Hemann ended up building his own position as a network liaison and, through these relationships, was offered a full-time job.
 |
| Raquel Braun and Jamie Hemann |
Raquel Braun is currently the director of business and legal affairs in international sports and emerging networks group at Fox Cable Networks. She manages negotiations and acquisitions, focusing on Fox Sports International Business.
Braun interned at Fox during her second year of law school. As a recent summer intern, Braun said she was later offered a job with Fox, but it was only guaranteed for five months.
“It is very common to have these opportunities come up that may not be long-term opportunities,” Braun said. “But, it’s totally worth the risk. Just going there and working your butt off, you prove to them what you can do and you [can] negotiate a deal [for yourself].”
It was after her experience interning with two different teams in law school that Braun said she realized “there’s really no such thing as a sports lawyer.”
“The sports part is just understanding [each individual sport],” Braun said. “A lot of [your work] has nothing to do with the sport you’re [working with]; it’s about knowing a lot [about different areas of law].”
Both panelists spoke about what they learned in class while in law school and how it helped them in their careers in the sports media field. And, while courtroom tactics have not been useful to Hemann, other legal skills he learned have been of value.
“Negotiating and mediating is probably 80% of my job,” Human said. “My job is to get the deal done.”
According to Braun and her experience working internationally, “law school helps you deal with difficult conversations because different countries and different territories have different negotiating styles.”
Braun and Hemann both emphasized the importance of networking while in and out of law school. Recent graduate and president of USC Gould’s Sports Law Society, Casey Schwab ’13, came to the event as living proof that successful networking works.
Schwab met Hemann at a Sports Law Association event and now works for him at the NFL Network. Following graduation, Schwab worked as a freelancer for Hemann for seven months before being brought on as a fulltime employee.
Schwab’s advice to current Gould students as they network for their first job out of law school: “don’t be annoying, but be persistent.”
Previous Article
