Master the Legal Systems That Shape Global Sport
Build deep legal expertise through Oregon Law's Sports Law LLM, situated within one of the United States' most innovative and influential sports ecosystems.
Where Sport, Business, and Law Intersect
Sport runs on legal systems. Contracts, labor agreements, antitrust rules, intellectual property, and arbitration frameworks determine how athletes compete, how leagues govern, and how businesses operate. Here, you’ll learn at those intersections—applying legal doctrine to the structures that make modern sport possible.
Building on Oregon Law's Business Law LLM, this degree option combines specialized sports law coursework with the business law expertise modern sports practice demands.
Understand How Sport Actually Works
Go beyond contracts and transactions to understand how sport functions systemically. Learn where authority resides, how rules are contested, and how legal decisions affect institutions, athletes, and organizations across amateur, professional, collegiate, and international contexts.
Build Cross-Cutting Legal Expertise
Sports law draws from contracts, labor law, antitrust, intellectual property, international law, negotiations, and more. Develop the ability to see connections across legal domains and apply multiple frameworks to complex problems.
Engage with Sport in Real Time
Oregon's concentration of collegiate athletics, Olympic sport, and global brands means the legal questions you study are happening here, in real time. Engage in events, panels, and direct conversations with the practitioners and organizations shaping sport today.
Prepare for a Dynamic, Multifaceted Career
A career in sports law rarely follows a straight line. Most attorneys first build expertise in areas such as negotiation, contracts, employment, IP, or dispute resolution. As their reputation and professional networks expand, pathways into sport open.
Once inside the field, sports law practice is a network of overlapping roles and opportunities. The Sports Law LLM prepares you for this reality. You won’t train for one position; you’ll develop systems-level understanding, transferable expertise, and a professional identity that positions you to navigate the field over time.
Program Structure
You’ll build comprehensive expertise through required foundational courses, a capstone writing project, and specialized coursework tailored to your career goals.
To earn your LLM degree, combine these 15+ credits with the remaining Business Law LLM degree requirements for a total of 24 credits.* Full-time students typically complete the degree in one academic year. Students interested in enrolling in Oregon Summer Sports Law Institute courses are welcome to begin their LLM course of study early.
Required Courses (7 credits)
- Amateur Sports Law — Legal and regulatory frameworks governing intercollegiate, interscholastic, and Olympic sport
- Professional Sports Law — Governance, labor relations, and commercial structures of professional leagues, players, teams, and agents
- Capstone Writing Colloquium — Culminating research paper on an advanced sports law topic
Sports Law-Relevant Courses (8+ credits)
Select from a menu of approved courses, such as:
- Pathway to Practice: Sports Law
- Sports Licensing
- Sports Transactions
- Business Associations
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Contract Drafting
- Copyright Law
- Patent Law & Policy
- Intellectual Property Licensing
- Trademark Law
- Employment Law
- Mediation
- Arbitration
- Negotiation
- Tax Policy
Who Should Apply
The Sports Law LLM is designed for attorneys and law graduates (domestic and international) who see sport as a complex legal arena where your expertise can make a real impact.
Career Changers
You're a practicing attorney looking to pivot into sports law or deepen your existing practice. You want advanced training that positions you for legal roles that combine your expertise and passion for sport.
International Attorneys
You're trained in law outside the US and want to understand how American legal frameworks govern sport—particularly relevant if you work with transnational businesses, leagues, or organizations.
Recent Graduates
You've just completed your JD or are early in your career and want to build a pathway to sports law practice. You're seeking deeper engagement in sports law coursework or specialized credentials and connections that help you hit the ground running.
Systems Thinkers
You're fascinated by how rules are made, contested, and enforced. You want to understand the regulatory and governance structures that shape sport at every level—from youth leagues to international competition.
Credential Builders
You want to formally establish yourself in sports law. Whether for career advancement, positioning yourself as a subject matter expert, or distinguishing yourself in a competitive market, you're looking for advanced training and credentials that signal serious commitment to the field.
Athletes, Advocates, & Reformers
You care about athlete rights, equity in sport, or institutional accountability. You want the legal knowledge to advocate effectively within the systems that govern sport.
Why Oregon?
Oregon offers a rare concentration of sports law in action. Governance, competition, innovation, and accountability are not abstract concepts here—they are visible, contested, and evolving.
Collegiate athletics operate as a regulatory laboratory. International sport and Olympic pathways shape the region’s identity. Global sports brands, athlete advocacy, and institutional decision-making converge in ways that make the law of sport tangible.
Our sports law programming grows directly from this environment. You’ll see how rules are created, applied, and challenged, and how legal decisions shape the broader industry. This is the Oregon advantage.
OREGON: Where Sport Means Business
Oregon Summer Sports Law Institute
Award-winning sports law institute bringing together top practitioners, scholars, and industry experts for intensive summer study. Law students from Oregon and across the nation network with attorneys actively practicing in the field and engage with cutting-edge sports law questions.
University of Oregon Athletics
One of the nation's most visible collegiate athletics programs navigating live questions in NCAA governance, compliance, NIL policy implementation, and institutional accountability. A regulatory laboratory where legal frameworks meet real-world practice.
Warsaw Sports Business Center
A hub for sports business education and industry engagement, featuring regular guest speakers, industry seminars, domestic and international study tours, and hands-on learning opportunities. Research and teaching explore sponsorship, media rights, brand strategy, and enterprise governance—bridging business and legal questions in sport.
Olympic Studies Hub
The only U.S. member of the worldwide network of Olympic Studies and Research Centres recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Convenes university-wide Olympic-related activities through study abroad programs to Olympic cities, guest lectures from stakeholders, and research on Olympic business, governance, and international sport regulation.
TrackTown USA
Eugene regularly hosts the Olympic Trials, national championships, and world-class international competitions at Hayward Field. A concentration of international sport governance, Olympic regulation, and the operational frameworks enabling elite competition.
Global Sports Brands
Eugene is the birthplace of Nike. Decades of close connection between Nike and UO are evident across campus. (The law school building itself is named after Nike founder Phil Knight's father, William Knight.) This deep regional presence creates an environment where IP protection, brand strategy, international business, and sports innovation shape the legal landscape. Adidas, Columbia, Keen, and other major brands also call Oregon home.
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