About

“What is ‘NIL’?” Nine out of ten times, this is the question I get asked when I tell people what I do for work. To the rest of the world, NIL - or name, image, likeness, - is better known as “influencer marketing.” To college sports fans, it’s the thing that’s ruining college sports. To the legal field, it’s another term for our universal right to publicity. To me, it has become a life-changing calling.

In December 2020, I found myself - like many recent college graduates - bored, restless, and living at home in my childhood bedroom. I had recently graduated from University of Southern California where I had spent two years interning with the USC Trojan football program. Thanks to COVID, I was close to giving up on my hope of a career in college sports, but I noticed that my recent Tweets (threads sharing tips on how high school athletes could leverage social media to get noticed by college coaches) were getting a lot of attention. Grasping for some way to stay connected to sports, I decided to start a blog.

At the time, there were strong rumors swirling that the NCAA was just a few months away from reversing their policy on student-athletes profiting off of their name, image, and likeness. Intrigued, I decided to shift my blog’s focus from recruiting tips to NIL. Sure enough, six months later, it happened: collegiate athletes were allowed to start selling merchandise, monetizing their social media platforms, appear in commercials, and more.

My blog “COVID Recruiting,” which had picked up some momentum leading up to the policy change, led to a job with NIL-focused startup NOCAP Sports. However, I really missed working with a team...so I briefly stepped back in to football ops and spent 1 year with University of Virginia football team as an operations & administrative services assistant. After that first season, I decided to accept a director-level role with the UVA's NIL collective “Cav Futures” where I helped to source and facilitate brand sponsorships for UVA student-athletes. I helped to grow Cav Futures into an official sponsor of the University while obtaining my M.Ed in Student Affairs, Collegiate Athletics Administration from UVA.

After graduating with my master's, I came back to Los Angeles and started as the assistant director of NIL for the UCLA Bruins. For the past two years, I have managed the day-to-day of NIL partnerships, strategy, compliance, and education for all 22 of UCLA’s varsity teams and their respective 650+ student-athletes. It’s a dream job that I never could have anticipated considering “NIL” didn’t exist when I was in college.

The past few years have been incredible. I have sourced, fundraised, managed, and consulted on millions of dollars’ worth of brand partnerships. I have been able to work with hundreds of incredible student-athletes as they navigate this new space and the many layers of institutional rules, state laws, and ever-changing NCAA policies that govern it. I have been at the forefront of an evolving industry and built a personal platform around it.

However, things are changing again. More and more antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA are being filed weekly, and I strongly believe we are close to student-athletes becoming employees of their universities. The industry is going to need experts in contract and employment law. The types of jobs in college athletics are going to shift. I want to continue to stay at the forefront of the industry, and therefore recognize the need to develop a new set of skills and expertise.

Thus why I have decided to pursue my JD at the University of Washington. Earning a law degree will empower me to better protect student-athletes in the future, no matter what direction the industry goes in. In the meantime, I am still passionate about using my niche expertise to help others to navigate this ever-changing space. If you would like support with your NIL activities, athlete brand partnerships, educational programming, or sports marketing strategy - let's talk!