Also called: Sports Law Attorney
Handles legal work for athletes, teams, and leagues, from player contracts to NIL deals.
Sports lawyers negotiate player contracts, review college athletes' name-image-likeness deals, and handle league discipline hearings. Some work in-house for teams like the Dallas Cowboys or for the NCAA. Many sports agents are also lawyers.
Highly competitive; pay varies widely.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Professional degree (MD, JD, DVM…), about 7 years after high school. Bachelor's degree, 3-year JD, and passing the bar exam.
Ways in: 4-year college, Professional school. Training cost: Over $150k.
Majors to look at: Sport Management, Business, Communications, Economics.
Growing about average (about 4% over 10 years). BLS projection for all lawyers (2024-34); niche areas vary.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI drafts contracts and compares NIL deals; trust with athletes and teams and high-stakes negotiation keep this human.
Classes: Economics, AP English Language, Speech and debate, Business CTE class.
Official data: O*NET occupation 23-1011.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.