By Roberta M. Gubbins
Legal News
“Sports is a big business,” said Kevin Poston speaking to a large crowd gathered at noon on October 2nd for the Eighth annual Thomas M. Cooley Howard Soifer Memorial Lecture in sports and entertainment law. Poston, president and CEO, DEAL Elite Athletic Management represents numerous professional NFL players.
Poston began his discussion, held at the Cooley Center in Lansing, noting that he did not have any idea that he would be a sports agent when he graduated from law school. His early career took him in an entirely different direction, handling complicated real estate transactions. He became a partner at Miller, Canfield, Paddock, and Stone and later a shareholder with Miro, Miro, and Weiner, but, eventually, he was drawn to the world of sports.
Athletes, particularly in football, have a short career, he explained. “You get a sports scholarship, you get a degree, you may be a pro,” but the average sports career of an NFL player is 3.42 years. Players who have spent their entire lives playing a particular sport can be finished at 22 and, in spite of the amount of money they earn, can “be broke by the time they are 28.”
Poston sees his job as an agent as one of advisor. “My job is to advise you (the player) in your career.”
When the sports client has to make the change from a player to a non-player, the agent must not simply say “Yes. My job is to represent the athlete and to be fair with him.” And being fair may be saying “no.”
“A sport’s agent is more than someone who just negotiates a contract,” said Poston, “at the end of the day my primary job is to advise my clients. Remember (a player’s) career is over by the time they are 30 and if their projected life is until at least 80, they have 50 more years to live. My job is to make sure that young man makes a successful transition from athlete to retirement.”
Poston is proud that to say that all his athletes, “who stayed with me and listened” are doing well. He has been in this business for 25 years and has enjoyed every minute of it. The agent he concluded is not simply a contract negotiator; he is a friend, a psychologist, a career counselor, a brother—a confidante to his client.
“These lectures,” said Jim Robb, associate dean for Development and Alumni relations, “were established in memory of a great lawyer and a great man in our community, the late Howard Soifer.”
Howard Soifer was born in the Bronx and moved to Monsey, New York in 1963. Following graduation from the Spring Valley High School Class of 1967, he attended the University of Toledo for two years and received his undergraduate degree from Long Island University in Brooklyn. Soifer was a proud 1977 graduate of Cooley Law School in Lansing, Mich.
He was an accomplished lawyer, and a shareholder in the firm of Loomis, Ewert, Parsley, Davis, & Gotting PC until the time of his death on January 29, 2003 at the age of 53. More than anything, Soifer loved sports. Later in his career, his passion for basketball, baseball, and football led him to represent several prominent professional athletes. He was proud to have negotiated a $2.5 million donation to Michigan State University by Steve Smith, NBA champion, MSU All-Star, client, and close friend, which was and remains the largest gift from a professional athlete to his alma mater.
Sandy Soifer, Howard Soifer’s wife and executive director of the Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame, spoke of Howard, saying “Howard was passionate about his family, the law and sports. Howard will be remembered for his great sense of humor, his loyalty, integrity and strength.”
Poston also teaches law at Wayne State University Law School. He is a graduate of Fisk University and earned his law degree at Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.
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