Creating Your Own Opportunities While in Law School: Tony Iliakostas

Interview with Tony Iliakostas — Founder of Law and Batting Order

With law schools reporting lower enrollment numbers and the legal job market remaining tight for recent law graduates, law students are being encouraged to think outside of the box and create their own opportunities. This shouldn’t be a problem since many law students aspire to be leaders in their respective field. According to the Harvard Law Bulletin, “In law school, we learn to see the people we hope to lead as individuals, with minds and spirits, independence and desires: people who experiment, argue and challenge.” After reading this, one person came to mind: Tony Iliakostas.

Mr. Iliakostas is a third year law student at New York Law School who is making waves in the Sports Law field. Through his online broadcast, Mr. Iliakostas discusses the legal implications in some of the biggest sports headlines. Also, Mr. Iliakostas published an article in the Pace I.P. Sports & Entertainment Law Forum regarding Major League Baseball titled Separation of Sport and State: The Federal Government’s Involvement in Major League Baseball’s Drug Testing Program. I have had the pleasure of interacting with Mr. Iliakostas during many Sports Law Chats covering an array of legal issues in sports. I hope this interview with Tony Iliakostas provides more insight to current and prospective law students on how valuable their three years in law school are.

Tell us about yourself.

Tony Iliakostas: I was born and raised in New York City. I attended undergrad at Fordham University (class of 2011), where I majored in communications and media studies. During undergrad, I interned at a sports public relations firm and I was a news intern at CBS News. In August of 2011, I began attending New York Law School (“NYLS”) with a focus in studying sports law. Currently as a 3L at NYLS, my passion for sports law still exists, as I serve as Vice President of the NYLS Sports Law Society and am in the process of planning our society’s 5th Annual Sports Law Symposium.

How did you start Law and Batting Order (“LABO”)?

Iliakostas: It all started at NYLS. I knew that I wanted to work in sports law, but I didn’t know how to get involved in a highly niche and competitive area of law. Furthermore, I had no connections to anyone in the industry. None of my lawyer friends worked in the field. My only knowledge of sports law came after watching Jerry Maguire and seeing athletes sign huge deals with their agent by their side. Nevertheless, I was ambitious and I knew that it would take hard work and perseverance to get involved in sports law. In November of 2011, I attended New York Law School’s 3rd Annual Sports Law Symposium. I listened intently to a panel called “Breaking into the Sports Law Industry.” It was there that the idea of LABO was born. I credit sports and entertainment lawyer, Darren Heitner, as the inspiration to start LABO because during that panel discussion, he said to every law school student that if you want to succeed in the sports law industry, you had to start immediately building your brand. Building your brand can include starting a sports law blog and sharing it with sports lawyers. In his case, Darren had enormous success when he started SportsAgentBlog.com, so what was stopping me?

Later that night, I went to Google and typed “sports law blogs” in the search bar to see who I would be competing against if I were to create a written blog. I was so disappointed because hit after hit were these sports law blogs with text blocks the size of the Empire State Building. In my mind, I knew that if I had a sports law blog with written posts, it would not succeed. Not to mention that my goal was to reach out to those in the legal community as well as everyday sports fans whose interests were piqued when they read about a legal issue in sport’s news. Then, I had the ingenious idea of doing a VIDEO blog instead. As far as my research showed there were no sports law video blogs in existence. LABO would be the very first exclusive sports law video blog. In November, I created a concept logo which was professionally designed, created a website for the show, and began marketing the show on Facebook and Twitter. In December, I took out my Kodak Zi6, mounted it on my tripod, and used my iPad as a teleprompter. On December 23, 2011, LABO was born.

It’s also worth noting that LABO has been, and still is, a one-man show. I conduct all the legal research, script writing, filming, editing, uploading to YouTube, and social media marketing for LABO. To date, LABO has amassed nearly 14,000 views on YouTube since the show started one year and nine months ago.

The one question that every law student is asked: Why did you decide to attend law school?

Iliakostas: I knew that law school would be the best place for me to succeed in my career. It was my choice to attend law school and I knew I would enjoy the experience. I am a very talkative person, but at the same time, I’m inquisitive, curious, and vivacious and I always yearn to help others. I think law school provided that avenue for me to mesh all those principles together. It was either law school or going for my masters in communications and pursuing the journalism route. Thankfully, law school was in my plans and I have been successful in honing many of those skills I mentioned.

For those unfamiliar with sports law, can you tell us what sports law is about?

Iliakostas: Simply put, sports law is any area of law (criminal, tort, intellectual property, contract, anti-trust, etc.) that occurs in the context of sports, whether it involves an individual athlete or an entire league. There is a misconception that sports law strictly involves a player signing a contract according to his or her agent’s instructions. Sports law encompasses all areas of law and there are so many ways that one can work in sports law.

What are some of the more popular sports law issues and/or cases being discussed today?

Iliakostas:

• One of the biggest events has to be the first-degree murder charges against Aaron Hernandez. Here’s an athlete who was so successful on the field, had endorsement deals left and right, and fell from grace after being charged with the murder of his friend. He hasn’t been found guilty, but this case constantly has new details emerging, including his thuggish behavior when he was in the University of Florida and a potential link to him and a double homicide that occurred in the summer of 2012.
• The recent settlement in the NFL concussion litigation. $765 million, pending a judge’s approval, will be awarded to 4,500 ex-NFL players or their families. That’s about $170,000 per player. The legal questions being discussed are 1) is that enough money per plaintiff, and 2) will the settlement amount will be challenged. I think the long-term question is how will other leagues respond to concussions, or better yet, will other leagues fall victim to their own concussion litigation. My hunch tells me that the National Hockey League (“NHL”) is next, but some say that Major League Soccer (“MLS”) is on the brink of some type of concussion litigation.
• The Biogenesis scandal in Major League Baseball (“MLB”) has been one of the biggest sports law headlines as of late. Tony Bosch, the founder of the Biogenesis clinic in Miami, worked with MLB to provide the names of current athletes who bought performance-enhancing drugs from his clinic. MLB sanctioned Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun for 65 games after coming clean about using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) that he bought from Biogenesis, 12 players throughout the major league and minor league level were suspended 50 games for their use of PEDs, and last but not least, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was given the heftiest penalty of 211 games. That suspension includes use or possession of PEDs while also obstructing the MLB commissioner’s office from properly performing their investigation. A-Rod is appealing his suspension. Regardless of what happens with A-Rod and his appeal, the bigger sports law issue is how MLB will handle drug-testing going forward. This also sends a message loud and clear to other leagues, including the NFL, on how they carry out drug-testing procedures in the future.

How did you gain exposure to Sports Law outside of the classroom?

Iliakostas: I credit social media and the Internet. It was both those platforms that allowed me to get the latest on what happened currently in the sports law world. Reading Darren Heitner’s SportsAgentBlog.com, Paul Anderson’s NFLConcussionLitigation.com, and other notable sports law blogs gave me some perspective on what I needed to know about the current events of sports law. Likewise, following the great sports law minds of Darren Heitner, Paul Anderson, Scott Andresen, Claire Zovko, Laura Jeffords, and more through social media kept me connected to sports law news while also interacting with these attorneys on a personal level.

How has social media played a role in creating opportunities for yourself and the expansion of LABO?

Iliakostas: Being a communications major, I can easily tell you that social media is the best thing to ever happen to our society. We can communicate with one another instantaneously. Social media has allowed me to meet many people in the legal community (including yourself). Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, I have developed both professional relationships and actual friendships with sports lawyers and law school students. My social media presence has also helped me build my brand as a law school student and show that I’m not just an ordinary student saying, “I want to practice sports law”. I actively engage in distributing content. By doing that, I can reach out to some big names to show my talents as a professional in the industry.

What can we expect from LABO and yourself in the future?

Iliakostas: My goal since starting law school has remained the same: to graduate and to pass the bar exam. That is my number one priority and I’m not changing that one bit.

I still don’t know what the future holds in store regarding my career. I have no idea if I’ll be a legal analyst for FOX Sports 1, ESPN, or some other news channel breaking down sports law issues. I don’t know if I’ll be a transactional attorney in-house for a team or a league. Although my end goal is to work in the sports law industry, I am willing to expand to entertainment and media law, as I have had experience in those fields during law school.

LABO will continue to be a resource to those in the sports law community. I will continue talking about sports law topics. I hope to have many more guests on the show in the future and I look forward to building the brand of the show in the months and years ahead. I am really looking forward to the opportunities ahead of me regarding my individual career and LABO.

Lastly, a fun fact about Tony is that he was once a contestant on the popular game show: Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Tell us about that experience?

Iliakostas: That was so much fun! I watched ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’ since I was a kid and it was always something I wanted to cross off my bucket list. I decided to audition for the show in May 2010. To this day, I don’t know how I even made it past the multiple-choice exam during the audition process. The thrill of being on the show and meeting Meredith Vieira was truly unforgettable. While I lost $23,000 on the most bogus question ever, I still received $1,000 as a consolation prize, but the experience was priceless. To this day, that is one of the highlights of my life!

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Thank you, Tony, for this insightful interview!

With three years of law school, students can no longer wait until they pass a state bar exam to begin building their professional reputation and taking a proactive role in their respective careers. Law school not only educates students in law, it also educates students on the role and responsibilities of becoming leaders. There may not be a shortage of lawyers in the job market, but there is always a need for more leaders in the world. Tony has used his three years in law school to take advantage of opportunities presented to him and create his own. No matter what career you pursue it is never ‘too early’ to begin building your professional reputation and leadership qualities.

For more information about Tony Iliakostas & Law and Batting Order, follow their twitter feeds (@LawAndBO / @Ailiakostas), youtube channel (LawAndBattingOrder), and website: LawAndBattingOrder.com.