Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s Baseball Arbitration Team defended its competitive reputation at the 8th Annual National Baseball Arbitration Competition at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans from January 28-30.
TJSL’s team competed against Pace, Rutgers, and Oregon Law for the first three rounds. “The competition is a point based system and we had a great first three rounds,” said Coach and Director of the Center for Sports Law & Policy Jeremy Evans ‘11. “Rutgers specifically approached our team after our round against them and said the TJSL team was the best team they faced in the competition,” said Evans. “We did not advance, Ottawa Law won and Rutgers Law came in second, but the coaches and alums involved are very proud of the team and how they represented our law school.”
Alex Corrado 3L, who assisted the TJSL team last year as a traveling assistant coach, and Nate Lenz 2L, who is a member of the TJSL Alternative Dispute Resolution Honor Society, comprised this year’s team. Coach Evans ‘11 and Assistant Coaches Sam Ehrlich ‘14 and Mark Hackmann 3L, traveled to Tulane with the team. Professor Randy Grossman ‘94 is the faculty advisor and has been since TJSL first sent a team to the competition in 2009.
The National Baseball Arbitration Competition, run by the Tulane Sports Law Society, is a simulated salary arbitration competition modeled closely on the procedures used by Major League Baseball (MLB). The Competition website states: “Like most law school moot court competitions, the main goal of the National Baseball Arbitration Competition is to provide participants with the opportunity to sharpen their oral and written advocacy skills. However, the competition is unique in that it allows law students to sharpen these skills within the specialized context of MLB's salary arbitration proceedings.”
Before attending the competition, the TJSL team prepared for over two months with alums who have competed before. The first part of the competition is writing three briefs that the competition team prepares by itself and submits to Tulane to be ranked before arriving in New Orleans.
Evans says he is proud to have competed in the 2009, 2010, and 2011 competitions and is proud to have coached the TJSL team that won the National Championship in 2012. The 2012 team included Justin Heim ‘12, Dan Nguyen ‘12 and Sam Ehrlich ‘14 who currently prepares real life baseball arbitration cases for a local attorney and agent.
Tryouts for the next TJSL team will be in November 2015 for the 2016 Tulane competition.
Evans is the director of the National Sports Law Negotiation Competition (NSLNC) which will be held at Thomas Jefferson School of Law on Friday, September 25 - Sunday, September 27, 2015. Teams from across the nation are already signing up for this competition. The NSLNC is presented and hosted by TJSL’s Center for Sports Law & Policy.