JUNE 2016
Stephen Hale Golden Rule Award The Roles of with A• Conversation Supervised Visitation & Therapy David Falk, • Joint Agent Operating Sports
Agreements in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Professionalism for judges and lawyers means possessing, demonstrating and promoting the highest standards of Character, Competence, Compliance, Courage, Civility and Citizenship.
Tulsa Lawyer
In this Issue Page... 2 Message from the President Fight the Good Fight 5 Golf in Pictures
6
8
11
Rule
Law Day Review
Community Outreach
Golden Stephen Hale
12 A Conversation with David Falk, Sports Agent By D.C. Bar staff writer David O'Boyle
22
Capital Campaign
24 Making a Murderer
and the Problem of False Confessions 28 Grapevine
31 Classifieds
June 2016
A Message From the President
E. Zach Smith Fight the Good Fight Summer is upon us, and the fiscal year winding down. Last month saw the success of the Tulsa County Bar Foundation’s Annual Golf Tournament and the Young Lawyer Division’s 3rd Annual Trivia Night. Both events were a success. William Kellough has been phenomenal as the committee chair for the golf tournament this year, and Clayton Baker and the YLD committee helped put together another great trivia night. Thank you to everyone who attended and made those events a success. Due to the timing of the event (April 29th), in the last edition of the Tulsa Lawyer I failed to discuss the events of the Law Week Luncheon in detail. The Tulsa County Bar Foundation put on an amazing Law Week Luncheon this year to a sold out crowd. The keynote speaker was Laura H. Nirider, Brendan Dassey’s post conviction attorney. Brendan Dassey is the nephew of Steven Avery, the now infamous man who is the centerpiece of the Netflix series, “Making a Murderer”. Steven Avery was sentenced to prison for the sexual assault and attempted murder of a woman in Manitowoc, WI, a crime he vehemently denied committing. Due to the work of the Wisconsin
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Innocence Project, DNA evidence later exonerated him, and he was released from prison in 2003 after serving 18 years of his sentence. However, by 2005, he found himself the target of the investigation of another heinous crime, the murder of a Teresa Halbach. Brendan Dassey, Avery’s nephew, was later charged as a party to the murder of Teresa Halbach, as well as mutilation of a corpse and sexual assault. Dassey was sixteen at the time, and he was in special education classes. He was brought out of class and questioned by detectives without his mother or any other adult to support him. The subsequent charges were based solely upon Dassey’s “confession” to the crimes. Mrs. Nirider’s presentation on the facts surrounding the interrogation and the “confession” of the Dassey case kept everyone’s attention. Her lecture about false confessions, how they are obtained, and why people give them was extremely informative and supported by the many
www.tulsabar.com video clips of Dassey’s interrogation shown to the audience. Everyone in attendance seemed awestruck as to how a confession under the circumstances could have occurred, and even more confused his original trial attorney agreed to stipulate to the video of his interrogation that excluded potential exculpatory statements made by him. Mrs. Nirider’s presentation was a strong reminder to everyone in attendance of just how important attorneys are to the public at large. What we do for people matters, and whether it is a person’s liberty, a contract, or a property dispute, it is all relative. To the client their issue is often times the most important thing in their life, and sometimes, it actually is their entire life.
Keep fighting the good fight, on whatever side you happen to be. Thank you again to all the TCBA staff and members who have helped make this year a wonderful success up to this point. Please enjoy the beginning of your summer, and remember to be safe, relax, and enjoy your friends and family. The work will always be there when you get back.
E. Zach Smith TCBA President 2015-2016
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Tulsa Lawyer
Congratulations to our TCBF Golf Tourney Winners!
Tier 1 winners – Mark Dixon, Larry Burchart, Geordie Matson & Jared Lentz
Tier 2 winners – Cliff Wofford, Will Wofford, Jason Moreau & Jerry Truster
Tier 3 winners – Steve Odea, Jeff Steven, Alex Stodghill & Gregory Meier Tulsa Lawyer 5
Stephen Hale 2015-2016 Golden Rule 3rd Quarter
Professional, prepa red, k nowledgeable, capable, practical, and persuasive, all apt descriptors of this quarter’s Golden Rule Award recipient. Stephen Hale epitomizes these qualities and more. His disposition is inevitably pleasant and courteous. He exudes a solid capability, seemingly without arrogance or angst. These attributes are noteworthy in and of themselves, and especially so in the context of his chosen and stressful legal practice area. Mr. Hale has practiced law for twenty years, the last fifteen of which have been exclusively in Family Law. Since 2013, he is a shareholder with the Hall Estill law firm having practiced with the Riggs Abney firm from 1999-2013. Mr. Hale assists his clients with many areas, including divorce and protective orders. However, his practice primarily focuses on parenting coordination and guardian ad litem work. Mr. Hale is also a certified Family/Domestic mediator.
GOLDEN RULE:
Kimberly Hays, family law practitioner, says this of Hale: I have worked with Mr. Hale in his capacity as Guardian Ad Litem, Parenting Coordinator, mediator and opposing counsel. In all roles, he is dedicated, professional, courteous, and knowledgeable. Mr. Hale’s calm demeanor makes him an effective Parenting Coordinator. He is a skilled advocate who represents his clients’ interests in a professional manner. As a mediator, he offers the parties creative solutions while making each one feel he or she had the opportunity to “tell his or her story.” I often suggest the use of Mr. Hale in the role of Guardian Ad Litem because of his dedication to the best interest of the child/children in the case. Stephen Hale’s outstanding service protecting the interests of children enmeshed in divorce actions was recognized when he was named the OBA Family Law Section’s 2012 Guardian Ad Litem of the Year. Mr. Hale works and plays hard with ability and talent on another kind of court as well, the tennis court. Watching him in tennis drills or in matches shows him to be a tough and challenging competitor and a superlative athlete. According to Russell Warner, his pro and teammate: “I have been in many matches on the tennis court and the person I had the most fun with is Stephen
1: capitalized G&R : a rule of ethical conduct : do to others as you would have them do to you 2: a guiding principle
Hale. Stephen is a great player. He is fun energetic, fair and respectful. He is one of the best doubles partners I have had.” Mr. Hale is consistently fair and respectful on all courts in which he participates. Shane Henry, another family law practitioner, advises that: “Stephen Hale is a leader in the legal community. His advocacy for his clients, professionalism in dealing with opposing counsel and dedication to the practice of law provide an example for all to follow. He is truly deserving of the TCBA Golden Rule Award.” Judge Stephen Clark has observed Mr. Hale in the courtroom and states: “Mr. Hale has practiced before me in various capacities. He always conducts
himself as a gentleman and a professional. He treats everyone with respect and is respected in return.” Mr. Hale graduated from Oklahoma State University with his B.S in Biology and acquired his M.S. in Taxation from the University of Tulsa. He graduated from the University of Tulsa College of Law with is J.D. in 1993. He was admitted to the practice of law in Oklahoma in 1993. Mr. Hale is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, Family Law Section. He serves as Chair, Grievance Committee, Oklahoma District for the United States Tennis Association. Congratulations to Stephen Hale, Golden Rule Award recipient.
Summary of Golden Rule Award Criteria 1. Meets ethical and professional obligations, spirit, and intent of Rules of Professional Conduct; 2. Is ethical, honest and true to his/her word; 3. Strives for moral excellence; 4. Exhibits highest standards of fairness and integrity; 5. Sets model example of conduct through words and deeds; 6. Is civil, courteous, respectful to the Court and opponents; 7. Is loyal to his/her client while being professional and honest with the Court and opponents; 8. Is without personal vendetta in representation of clients; and 9. Improves the image of the Bar to the public through his/her conduct.
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LAW DAY 2016 REVIEW On April 28, 2016 we held a reception for Ms. Nirider at the SkyLoft. There were around 60 attorneys, Judges, and colleagues in attendance and Ms. Nirider held a Q&A session regarding Mr. Dassey and his case.
been sub-chaired by Dan Crawford for 25 years. Dan presented an excellent event again this year. The attorneys who volunteered answered 355 total phone calls and 50 emails. Some additional notable longstanding volunteers are as follows: Mark Dixon-over 30 years of participation, Joe Bohanon Our committee chair over 20 years of participation, and this year was Kara Pratt, Mark Schwebke-over 15 years of an attorney at Barber & participation, 11 of those years he Bartz. stayed the entire 12 hours.
Our Law Day Luncheon was held on April 29, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency Downtown Tulsa. The Tulsa County Bar Foundation adopted the OBA theme, Judges, Juries, and Justice- The Constitution and the Rights of the Accused. Our Keynote Speaker was Laura Nirider, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago. Ms. Nirider represents individuals who were wrongfully convicted of crimes when they were children or teenagers. Notably, one of her current clients is Brendan Dassey, whose case was profiled in the Netflix Global series Making a Murderer. The event was sold out with 287 attendees. Ms. Nirider’s presentation was right on point with our theme and recognition of the 50th anniversary of Miranda v. Arizona and well received by all. 8 Tulsa Lawyer
Our award winners this year were: Liberty Bell- Julie DelCour, a dedicated, unbiased, and accurate reporter. For 39 years, Ms. DelCour has promoted a better understanding of the rule of law, encouraged a greater respect for law and the courts, stimulated a sense of civic responsibility and contributed to good government in our community.
Naturalization Ceremony- This event occurred on April 13 at the Federal Courthouse for the Northern District. Several of our committee members attended this event.
Green Country Challenge Speech and Debate Tournament- Our committee chair, Kara Pratt participated in this event on March 2, 2016 as a community Judge. The participates were all homeschooled Sandra Day O’Connor Award- This students from Oklahoma and award is given to a person or persons surrounding states and they all did who have significantly advanced the a fantastic job. teaching of legal civics in Oklahoma Schools. This year the award Immigration Clinic- This event was presented to Hope Christian is sub-chaired Academy in Skiatook Oklahoma. by Rebekah The award was received by Belinda Guthrie-Frisby. Stevenson and Rachel Keeney on The immigration behalf of the school. clinic was a huge success! Our committee participated in the They assisted following activities as part of our around 50-60 law week celebration: people. This is more than Ask a Lawyer – This event has 4x the amount
of people assisted last year! Most were Hispanic (Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras; but there were a few from Vietnam and a few Americans there to ask questions about petitioning for relatives oversees. Civics in the ClassroomOn May 4, 2016, 5th graders from Kiefer Middle School participated in a GOLD E LOCKS trial. Judge Martha Rupp Carter presided, Sheila Naifeh played Gold E. Locks and Melissa Norris played Mama Bear. On May 6, 2016 Judge Daman Cantrell and Deborah Reed presented at Thoreau Demonstration Academy to their EC Law Class. On May 11, 2016, Judge Cantrell and Judge Carter presented at Owasso 8th grade. Student Art and Poetry Contest- This event is subchaired by Rodney L. Buck. We had many excellent submissions by local elementary, middle, and high schoolers. The students and parents attended an award ceremony on May 3, 2016.
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TCBA Family Law Section
This year during Family Law Section meetings we have been bringing in speakers for informal 30 to 45 minute presentations on issues related to the practice of Family Law. Please join us for more of these casual and informative sessions. We look forward to seeing you there. Here you will find a list of our future speakers and dates.. Chairs - Aaron D. Bundy and M. Shane Henry
June 16, 2016 Ron Little - Trial Lawyer’s Lessons in the Courtroom July 21, 2016 Robert G. Fry-Favorite Client August - No Meeting Meetings are held at the TCBA Bar Center at 12:00pm.
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Community Outreach by Bethany A. Lyon
Pictured from left to right: Doug Inhofe, Ashley Webb, Katy Inhofe, Kevin Cousins
The Mental Health Association Volunteer Day was held on April 23, 2016. The Tulsa County Bar Foundation Community Outreach Committee worked to rebuild and repair fencing along the Altamont Apartment location downtown. The apartmentsfeature24-hourstaffing,onsite meal service, social activities, and offer the opportunity of independent living for those with a serious mental illness. Thank you TCBF Community Outreach for your efforts to rebuild the community!
TCBA Sections and Committees are encouraged to submit their meeting updates, photos of events and meetings and news about what they have planned or accomplished during the year. Submit your information to tulsabarnews@yahoo. com
The Bar Center will be closed Monday, July 4th! TTulsa Lawyer 11
A Conversation with David Falk By D.C. Bar staff writer David O'Boyle
Sports agent David Falk has been in the game since the early days of the sports representation business. With a heavy focus on NBA players, his star-studded client roster includes names such as Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, and the NFL's Boomer Esiason. Falk has negotiated some of the most lucrative and eye-catching contracts for his clients.Falk actively marketed his players, fielding shoe deals and even producing the movie Space Jam. Falk also is credited with dreaming up one of the most iconic marketing campaigns of the 20th century—the concept of "Air Jordan."Immediately following his graduation from The George Washington (GW) University Law School, Falk was hired as a full-time sports agent with the firm Dell, Craighill, Fentress &Benton, which later became ProServ, Inc. Falk left ProServ in 1992 to create his own boutique firm, FAME, short for Falk Associates Management Enterprises, Inc. Just six years later, Falk sold his agency to SFX Sports Group for $100 million in cash and another $100 million in stock, and became its chair.SFX was bought by Clear Channel in 2000. As chair, Falk oversaw approximately 900 employees and 1,100 clients. Frustrated with his role and the size of the new operation, he resigned in 2001 and took on a much smaller role, managing a small group of clients.In 2007 Falk relaunched FAME as a boutique agency, where he now works with his partner, Danielle Cantor Jeweler. Washington Lawyer recently sat down with Falk to discuss his career. Tell me about your upbringing and background. I grew up in Seaford, New York, which is in Long Island. I went to school in Levittown, New York, a community built by William Levitt for GIs returning from the Korean War. My dad was a butcher, and my mom was a teacher, which was typical of the community. I'd say 80 percent of the families were working class. They were skilled laborers, carpenters,
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electricians, plumbers, and steamfitters.I was always a pretty good student, one of those kinds of students who did really well without maximum effort. I liked to play sports and got pretty involved in extracurricular activities, and I always knew I was going to go to college. What kind of values did your parents instill? My mom had two master's degrees in classical languages and Spanish. She was an interpreter here in Washington, D.C., during World War II for Nelson Rockefeller and the U.S. Office for Inter-American Affairs. Both of my parents were first-generation Americans whose parents were immigrants from Poland.My dad never finished high school, but he pushed education. My mom was highly educated, so she pushed it as well. My mom was very loving. She was my mentor. Nothing was ever enough, no matter what you did. My first SAT scores were just under 1,400, and she barely talked to me. She thought that was like failing. That's the way she grew up. It was in her DNA. Growing up, did you have any experience with the legal profession? Did you have any interest in it? Not really. It's funny—back in the day, it was a rite of passage at the end of fifth and sixth grades to get these little books with colored pages. You'd write something in them for your friends, goofy stuff like "Too young to drink Four Roses." One student in my class, Gregory Mallow, wrote in my autograph book, "You should be a lawyer because you're a good arguer."Don't ask me why that stuck, but from fifth grade on, I always sort of expected to become a lawyer. It's something that I almost arbitrarily gravitated toward.
What led you to Syracuse University for your undergraduate studies? I really wanted to go to Cornell University because it was an Ivy League school in New York. I also applied to Brown, Penn, and Yale, and I didn't get into any of them. I got into Cornell on the waiting list, and I was offered a scholarship at the State University of New York.I got into Syracuse the day after I applied. In hindsight, I would say it was the best thing that ever happened to me because I ended up studying economics, and they had a great economics department. The honors program had a bunch of students just like me: They could have gone to an Ivy League school, but for one reason or another, they didn't get in.Syracuse was so much fun. The social life was great. I met my wife there. My college roommate for three years is still one of my closest friends. Now I have my own college at Syracuse called the DavidB. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, so it was fortuitous for me. Why did you choose to go to GW Law School? My best friend who I grew up with got into GW, and we thought it would be fun to live together.I got into Boston University and on the waitlist at Boston College, but my wife is from Boston. We were pretty serious and lived together for a year in college. I love her parents, but I didn't want to be under their nose.I also liked the idea of being in Washington, D.C .Did you do legal work while you were at GW? For my first job, I worked for the Bureau of Land Management at the U.S. Department of the Interior doing land leases for three or four months. Then I got a job at Sidley Austin LLP. Some of the work was administrative—doing filings and things—but the
young associates let me do research.Then the summer came and they hired two summer clerks from Ivy League schools, and all the research assignments stopped. I asked the associates what happened to the research, and they said, "Oh, we have the Ivy League guys now." And I asked, "Well, didn't I do a good job before the Ivy League guys showed up?"I wasn't jealous. I felt I was just as qualified. I don't believe in labels. I believe you hire people for their ability, but the law is traditional that way. When I started to become successful, some people suggested I come back and work for the law firm. I refused and said they could stick to their Ivy League types. They don't need black sheep like me who went to Syracuse and GW. How did you get into the sports representation business? Many of my networking connections within the business told me that if I wanted to be in sports management and representation, I had to meet a gentleman named Donald Dell. Dell had a tiny firm that represented American tennis players. Of the firm's six lawyers, three had gone to the University of Virginia School of Law, one had gone to Tulane University Law School. So, again, it was a little bit like Sidley. I came in from Syracuse and GW, and I didn't exactly bowl them over with my credentials.I couldn't even get Dell on the phone. I called him for weeks on end. It was classic. I was told that he was at lunch, at a meeting, out of town, with a client, in the bathroom. One day, I just got so frustrated that I went to the law library, which I rarely visited, and I called the guy every 15 minutes. When they ran out of excuses, he finally agreed to see me. He kept me waiting three hours in the lobby and then told me they weren't hiring. I told him that I would work for free and that I really wanted to try it.So in the summer
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between my second and third years of law school, I got married, I took a course in negotiations at GW at night, I worked for Sidley Austin full-time in the day, and when I got done around 6 p.m., I walked across the street and worked at Dell, Craighill, Fentress &Benton until 11 p.m. for free.They hired me as a clerk at the end of my second year for $5 an hour. As a full-time student, they allowed you to work 20 hours a week, but I knew that this was my opening, so I worked full-time— about 80 hours a week.I waited all year for them to hire me. As one of the ironies of life, I learned later on that they had put an offer in to a guy from Princeton, but he had accepted a job from a small firm in New Jersey. Fortunately for me, he honored his commitment.They hired me a week after graduation for $13,000 a year. My friends at GW probably would have burned down the building if they hadn't hired me. They all knew how badly I wanted it and how hard I had worked for 15 months. It was a great introduction for me because when I started, I wasn't a rookie anymore. I had organized all the contracts in the firm, so I had a good feel for the marketplace.My first mentor, an associate at the firm named Michael Cardozo, was hired right after I started. Mike was later hired by Jimmy Carter to run Carter's presidential campaign in Connecticut. Carter lost in Connecticut, and to reward him for the great job he did in that state, Carter hired him as deputy White House counsel.When he left, the firm gave me Mike's 20 clients. It was like jumping into the deep end of the pool after only a few swimming lessons. My whole career accelerated immediately. What would you say fueled your tenacity to get that position at Dell Craighill? It's my DNA and the way my mom raised me. Her mantra was "Always shoot for the stars;never settle for second best." That's my life philosophy. I've come to believe that really successful people see obstacles as hurdles, as things that they're going to jump over. Most people see obstacles as barriers, and they think they can't get through them.It never occurred to me that I wasn't going to find some way to make it work. I didn't know how—it wasn't like I had an amazing route to get to where I wanted to go—I just instinctively felt that I was going to get there. 14 Tulsa Lawyer
continuted on page 16
Your career requires excellent negotiation skills. How did you hone those skills early on?
How did your relationship with Michael Jordan begin?
When I teach negotiations, which I do at GW and at Syracuse, I tell students you have to negotiate with your own personality. You have to be real.Donald and I met these two Ohio State football players in the mid-'80s, an All-Pro who played for the Washington Redskins named Jim Lachey, and Mike Tomczak, a quarterback who played for the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers, among other teams. We were invited out to Columbus, Ohio, to meet with a screening committee of 10 local business leaders. They told Donald that he had an impeccable reputation and track record, but that we would be dealing with two young men from Ohio State, so he should dial back his personality.So we went into the meeting and tried to be as lowkey as we could be. Afterward the head of the screening committee called me up and said we did a great job, but the players both picked another guy. When I asked what we could have done better, he said the guys thought we were too low key.Now no one has ever told me that I'm too low key. I've been told a lot of things in my career, but no one has ever told me I'm too low key. It taught me that you just have got to be yourself. People are going to like you and respect you for who you are, or they won't. You can't play a different role every time you go to meet someone because then you'll have no credibility.
Back in the day, the [college] coaches would screen the agents. They basically said agents could have no contact whatsoever with the players.Michael had left the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Coach Dean Smith invited all the agents that ever represented a Tar Heels player—there were only six of them—to make a presentation. He would then make a recommendation to the parents, which was like a recommendation from the Pope. Most of the time he recommended us and we got the player. Once or twice a player wanted to sign with us, but Coach Smith didn't recommend us, and we didn't get the player.In 1977 we represented a Tar Heels player named Tom LaGarde, a 6-foot-10 center who blew out his knee right before the NCAA Tournament, which North Carolina lost in the finals to Marquette. LaGarde was the ninth pick of the 1977 draft, and we really did a great job on his contract. He got more money than Walter Davis, who had been the number five pick from North Carolina that same year. After that, we got every guy from Carolina.
Thank you to all who participated!
When you first began representing Jordan, did you have any idea what kind of iconic figure he would become?
No. I don't think there's a human being on Earth who knew. He was the third pick of the 1984 draft— people thought he would be exciting, but nobody believed he would be the greatest player of all time.In his own Naples Flatbread way, Michael is the most competitive “Eat for a Cause human being I have ever met. His parents Night” raised $320, were really hardworking people, and they proceeds to benefit kept him both motivated and humble. They the Welcome Home were like my mom. No matter what he did, his parents always felt he could do more, Project for the Tulsa which is amazing. Day Center for the
Homeless!
On the Air Jordan deal, why did you choose to go with Nike, a relatively unknown brand at the time? Based on my experience representing tennis players, I wanted Michael to be treated as an individual athlete with his
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own line. Everyone scoffed at this idea and said it would never work in basketball.Nike was tiny, and I had developed a strong relationship with a lawyer at Nike named Rob Strasser who became its head of marketing. We both thought we were instinctive marketers, and we were two lawyers who were sort of chiefs of staff to strong-willed CEOs who had never taken a course in marketing.After all the recruiting by Nike marketing executives Sonny Vaccaro and George Raveling, Michael didn't even want to get out of the plane and visit the sports company.It was like a college coach recruiting a player for a year and the player doesn't even want to make a campus visit.I went to Michael's parents and told them that if we were going to work together, they had to trust me. I thought that Nike was the best place for him because they would be the most aggressive, the most creative. I basically told Michael that he had to see Nike. It was his choice of who he wanted to go with, but he had to see them and understand what the opportunity was. What effects did the contracts you negotiated for your players have on the market?
At the time—and I don't want to sound braggadocious— we were like the Warren Buffett of agents. We set the market. We had the best returns. We had the best track record in both contracts and marketing.I'll give you an example: The last year before the wage scale was instituted was 1994, and we had a client from the University of Michigan named Juwan Howard. He was the fifth pick in the 1994 draft, and after being in the league for nine years, he had out-earned more than the four guys picked ahead of him.Howard came to Washington [to play for the NBA's Bullets], and he ended up on a team with Chris Webber, Howard's college teammate who everyone always thought was better. Webber signed a deal in 1995 for $9.5 million a year for six years. Howard signed a contract one year later for $15 million a year for seven years. That was the best head-to-head comparison in the history of pro basketball. Two players who went to the same college, who were about the same height, the same weight, they played in the same position, their birthdays were weeks apart, and they both signed contracts with the same pro team. Most people would have said, "Yeah, Webber will get 60 percent more because he's better," but he got 60 percent less.That all changed in 1995 because they established the
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wage scale and it homogenized the market. It turned into socialism. It's very hard to differentiate yourself today on the contract side, but not on the marketing side. What role did you play in the NBA lockouts of the 1990s? I encouraged my better players to get involved in the players' union so they could be involved in thedecision making and know what was going on. Patrick Ewing was president of the union; Dikembe Mutombo, Juwan Howard, and Alonzo Mourning were officers.My job was to try to counsel players on how to evaluate what was going on with the league. While I always had tremendous respect and affection for David Stern, [the former commissioner of the NBA], I didn't want to go against Stern, but I wanted to try to educate the players on how to protect their rights.The players went too far. It was all rhetoric. It was almost like suicide bombers. I told a few of the players to be prepared to be locked out for the whole year. You're not going to challenge someone as strong and smart as Stern. He's going to crush you. The idea of having a lockout where players who are
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earning a few million dollars a year are trying to challenge owners who are worth billions is idiotic. The players don't have the staying power for that. Through the two lockouts, the players lost something like $1.25 billion that they will never get back. It was a gargantuan waste of time. It hurt the growth of the business. No one profited by that. I think the players' union dropped the ball on that twice, and I hope they don't drop the ball again.Players said that I didn't want to fight, but there's no one who has fought harder than I have. I put my reputation on the line. I don't mind fighting, but I don't want to fight stupidly. My job is to make deals. What was behind your split from ProServ and the launch of your agency, FAME? I never had a great burning desire to be on my own. I expected to be at ProServ forever. I told Donald Dell that I would leave if I found out someone else was making more money than me, or if I had to put a gun to my head for him to be fair with me. I don't want to have that kind of relationship.Dell broke both rules, and I knew I had to go out on my own.
How did Dell break your rules? He had secret deals with people who would make more money than I was making, and I realized he would have never paid me what I deserved unless I told him I was going to quit. To illustrate that point, when I resigned, his counteroffer was four times more money than I was making.I told him I could always have made that money. I didn't want to have to threaten to quit in order to make it. That's not how you have a partnership. I don't believe in that. I wasn't angry or resentful. I just realized it was time.Because I had a non-compete, I could never imagine walking away from it all, so I ended up doing a leveraged buyout and basically bought the business. Did you enjoy developing your own agency? I loved it. I loved having my name on the door. I'll give you an analogy: If you're a student in high school or college, and you think your teachers are really boring, and you complain to all your friends about how boring your teachers are, and one day lightning strikes and you decide you're going to be a teacher, you can be any kind of teacher you want except for one kind—boring.Keeping in mind all the things that bothered me about ProServ or Donald's management style, I tried to do it differently—and I'm not saying I was always successful. I didn't want people to say I wasn't financially fair or that I didn't treat them properly or I was greedy and had secret deals. I tried to stay out of the management of the firm. I hired someone to be the chief operating officer to handle those tasks. I wanted to be the rainmaker. I wanted to bring business in.I was the rainmaker—the Mr. Outside—and my partner, Curtis Poke, was Mr. Inside. It worked. We had the company from 1992 to 1998, then we sold it for 20 times what ProServ sold for. What was your role during the years between the sale of FAME in 1998 and the relaunch of the agency in 2007? Bob Sillerman, who I'll always be grateful to for giving me lifetime security, told me he wanted to grow SFX Sports Group, so we went out and bought 14 other agencies. I bought my biggest competitor, Arn Tellem, who is a very good friend. We bought
three baseball agencies. We bought a football agency with Jim Steiner and Ben Dogra, who I take license to call my protégé. We bought branding companies. As chair of SFX, I went from having 24 employees and 40 clients in 1998 to 900 employees and 1,100 clients in 2001. I was working for a New York Stock Exchange company. I really didn't like it because you have to do earnings reports and all sorts of other stuff.In 2000 SFX was sold to Clear Channel. The management of Clear Channel came to me and said I had to show them 50 percent year-over-year growth. The maximum increase in salaries that collective bargaining allows for is 10.5 percent, so they told me to sign more clients. I said, no, and explained that we're like Neiman Marcus, that's our brand. We're not going to become Wal-Mart.After six years, I stepped down as the chair. The pressure from the top and the immaturity of a lot of the agencies we bought that didn't want to give up the titles or their autonomy of being a mom-and-pop agency became too frustrating. After that, I had a very loose work arrangement with Clear Channel and managed a group of my clients. When they spun off the entertainment division of Clear Channel as Live Nation, which was the remnants of SFX, I got what was left of FAME back.I hired Danielle Cantor Jeweler, who had done talent marketing for me, and told her FAME was going to be a boutique firm, just the two of us and my assistant. That's what it has been for the past eight years. I love being small and boutique. I love not having to work for anybody. I love not having personal management issues. I love working with women because there's less testosterone. It's really fun for me. What significant changes have you seen in the sports management business? Everything is different. Now you have a wage scale. I'd say 70 percent of the contracts in basketball are predetermined. There are minimums and maximums, mid-level exceptions, so there's a lot less negotiation. The business has become largely corrupted. Many or most of the players are getting paid by the agents to sign with them. I wouldn't pay a penny to anyone because it goes against the grain of everything I believe. You can't start a relationship of trust when you're buying people.You can't do the kinds of things that I've done in my career like telling guys like Alonzo Mourning to turn down their first $100 Tulsa Lawyer 19
million contract, or telling Dikembe Mutombo not to marry his fiancĂŠe because she wouldn't sign a prenup, or telling Michael Jordan to go with Nike when he doesn't even want to get on the plane. You can't do those things for your clients if they don't really trust you. You lose all that trust at the outset when you buy them.Overall, I'm not angry. I had my run, and I enjoyed it. I don't think anyone will ever replicate it. At one time, I had Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, Dominique Wilkins, James Lofton, Chris Doleman, Boomer Esiason, Ethan Horton, Mike Krzyzewski, and John Thompson.If I never have another client, I'll live a very long, happy life. I'll always be incredibly grateful to those people, who in my thirties made me who I am today. I have no allusions that I got here on my own.Those people established me, they trusted me, and they stood with me. Do you think law school is the best option for someone who is interested in becoming a sports agent? It was for me at the time I went in, but I'm not sure it is today. When I went into the business in the 1970s, it was a nascent field. I would say, respectfully, that Mark McCormack basically invented the business. People like McCormack, whose firm was IMG, and Michael Ovitz, cofounder of the Creative Artists Agency, enabled someone like me, with legal training, to spread my wings. If you had told me in college that I would become a movie producer, I would have said, "Yeah, after I grow hair."Those people were pioneers who pushed boundaries of what a representative could do and created a path for people like me who came after them to follow their own passion and creativity. I'm very grateful to those people. What's your take on the state of collegiate basketball? I don't believe in the players coming out of school early. For every LeBron James there are 20 players who will fail within the first three years. Even though they're very talented, they either aren't physically ready or they aren't very well known.If you study basketball from 1979, when Larry Bird played Magic Johnson in the NCAA Tournament, which at that point was 20
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the highest-rated basketball game in history, to 1995, when Kevin Garnett went to the NBA out of high school, almost every major star in the league played in the NCAA Tournament.The NCAA Tournament has been a springboard for average fans, not for whacko fans like me who live and die by this stuff. The average fan, over a three-week period of intense coverage from ESPN and other networks, connect with the players so that when they come into the NBA, they're well known.That's not good for growing the business. It's not a question of civil rights, it's a question of sheer business. The NCAA Tournament is the best free advertising for the NBA, and we have diminished its role because we don't let the guys participate for long enough. I think that's foolish. That costs the players billions of dollars in revenue.I don't believe that college players should be paid. I'm not saying they shouldn't be helped if they come from disadvantaged backgrounds. But either you're pro or you're an amateur. If people want to be pros, then we should have a D-League [developmental league] for that. If guys don't want to go to college, that's fine. I don't like the "one and done" rule [where players play one year of college basketball before declaring for the NBA draft], because I think the kids don't go to school. They know they're going to leave, and they're not committed. What do you hope your legacy is defined by? I hope I am defined as a person who is a passionate advocate, a loyal friend, a good teacher, and as someone who values relationships and who wasn't afraid to roll up his sleeves and advocate for his clients whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Reach D.C. Bar staff writer David O'Boyle at doboyle@ dcbar.org (mailto:doboyle@dcbar.org) . Follow him on Twitter at@d_oboyle (https://twitter.com/d_oboyle) From the Washington Lawyer (http://www.dcbar. org/bar-resources/publications/washington-lawyer/), March 2016. Reprinted with permission
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Bringing Making a Murderer and the Problem of False Confessions to Tulsa
www.cwcy.org. 20
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Laura Nirider and Steven Drizin, Brendan Dassey’s Post-Conviction Attorneys Credit: Randy Belice
On April 29, 2016, I had the great honor of speaking at the Tulsa County Bar Association’s annual Law Day Luncheon about my client, Brendan Dassey, whose murder conviction was the subject of the recent Netflix hit docuseries Making a Murderer. Brendan’s case has long fascinated me and my cocounsels – Steven Drizin and Robert Dvorak – because at age sixteen, Brendan gave what appears to be a patently false confession under police interrogation to the murder of a young Wisconsin woman named Teresa Halbach. Making a Murderer chronicles his story as well as the story of his uncle, Steven Avery, who was convicted as Brendan’s co-defendant. Brendan’s post-conviction case came to the organization that I direct – a national project called the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth (CWCY) – because we have unique expertise in wrongful conviction cases involving false confessions by juveniles. To date, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, 1,781 individuals have been exonerated of crimes
that they did not commit. Before 2008, however, no attention had been focused on those who may be most likely to be wrongfully convicted: children and adolescents. The CWCY, housed at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, was founded to fill that gap. Soon after its founding, the CWCY focused its work on eliminating false and coerced confessions by children – guided by the expertise of our founder, nationally recognized false confession expert Steven Drizin. Indeed, there is no better illustration of the challenges faced by our clients than the story of Brendan Dassey. Making a Murderer exposes the way in which police interrogators induced sixteen-yearold, intellectually limited Brendan to give a false confession. As the video of the interrogation reveals, investigators used a number of tactics that increase the risk of false confessions: they interrogated Brendan alone, without a parent or lawyer present; they falsely implied that he might be facing charges unless he told a story
in which he was involved in Halbach’s disappearance; they falsely assured him that they already knew everything he had supposedly done and that they were nonetheless willing to “go to bat” for him; and they assured him that telling the “truth” would help him and that “honesty is the only thing that will set you free.” After Brendan was eventually convinced to confess, information was fed to him about the facts of the crime so that Brendan was eventually able to string that information together into an accurate-sounding confession. When these tactics were used against a mentally limited juvenile like Brendan, he didn’t stand a chance. The eventual result was a false confession – and, even worse, a false confession that sounded true – which landed Brendan in prison until at least 2048 for a crime he didn’t commit. As tragic as his story is, Brendan Dassey is not alone. Many CWCY clients – like Damien Echols of Arkansas’s West Memphis Three or Robert Taylor of Illinois’ Dixmoor Five – spent decades in prison based on false and coerced confessions before the CWCY and our partners secured their release.
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Virginia’s Robert Davis is another such case. At age eighteen, Robert falsely confessed to a 2003 arsonhomicide during an interrogation that uncannily resembled that of Brendan Dassey. Interrogators threatened that Robert was going to face charges – and perhaps even the death penalty – if he didn’t confess; they lied about the strength of the evidence against him; and they fed him information about the crime until Robert was able to weave those facts into a plausible story of apparent guilt. Despite his confession’s falsity, Robert was convicted and sentenced to decades in prison. Fortunately, the CWCY was able to work with Robert’s longtime attorney, Steven Rosenfield, to vindicate Robert and secure his release. He walked out of prison – and into his mother’s waiting arms – at the end of 2015, only four days before Christmas. I consider these children’s heart-wrenching stories to be an inescapable call to action. As I write, Brendan’s case is on hold
while we wait for a federal court in Wisconsin to rule on our petition for a new trial. Meanwhile, in the wake of Making a Murderer’s release, my colleagues and I at the CWCY have done what we can do to spread awareness of the problem of false confessions. We have given interviews to investigative journalists from around the world about this troublingly common phenomenon; we have worked with national law enforcement organizations to begin reforming interrogation tactics so that children are no longer led to falsely confess; and – most importantly – we have traveled around the country to speak to supportive organizations like the Tulsa County Bar Association.
Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, our operations and the salaries of some of our staff attorneys are funded by charitable donations. For those who may feel moved to act in support of our work, I invite you to visit www.cwcy. org. There, you can find updated information on Brendan’s case; a description of badly needed reforms to the police interrogation process; and guidelines for the support of the CWCY’s work. In the meantime, the Tulsa County Bar Association has my gratitude for inviting me to speak at the 2016 Law Day Luncheon. I hope and pray that by the next time I come to Tulsa, Brendan Dassey will be a free man.
As we await a ruling in Brendan’s case, we at the CWCY continue to fight for Brendan and other children who were wrongfully convicted. Our ability to effectively advocate for our clients, however, is dependent on philanthropic support. While the CWCY is housed at
THANK YOU TO OUR HOUSEHOLD DRIVE SUPPORTERS Curtis W. Fisher and Ann H. Morris Maureen J. Knudson, PC Anonymous Crowe & Dunlevy McAfee & Taft Hall, Estill, Hardwick, Gable, Golden & Nelson, PC Pray Walker, PC Gorospe & Smith, PLLC Monroe & Keele, PC
Jones Gotcher & Bogan, PC Barrow & Grimm, PC GableGotwals
Doerner, Saunders, Daniel & Anderson, LLP Connor & Winters, LLP Smakal Munn, P.C. Laredo Petroleum James R. Gotwals & Associates, Inc Riggs Abney Tulsa Lawyer 27
Grapevine News The law firm of Richards & Connor is pleased to announce that Bradford J. Williams, Jr., has become Of Counsel with the firm. Mr. Williams graduated from the University of Tulsa College of Law while also serving in the Air National Guard. He began practicing law in the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office , worked at the Hall Estill law firm and, subsequently, for Mazzio’s, LLC as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for 37 years until February, 2016, when he decided to transition to private practice and join Richards & Connor. Mr. Williams practices primarily in the fields of real estate, franchising, employment, and contracts and also continues as General Counsel for Mazzio’s.
Crowe & Dunlevy has named Timila S. Rother president and CEO and elected its 2016 Executive Committee, including James W. Larimore as vice president of economics and Joel W. Harmon, Jeffrey T. Hills and Drew T. Palmer as members. The five-member committee is responsible for managing the firm’s business activities, including long-range planning, among other responsibilities. Larimore, based in the firm’s Oklahoma City office, and Hills, based in the firm’s Tulsa office, are returning committee members; the remainder are new to their roles and all based in Oklahoma City. Rother is a director and member of several Practice
Groups, including Litigation & Trial, Insurance, Healthcare and Appellate. Her experience and practice focus includes commercial, class action, insurance and healthcare litigation. She is also experienced in ethics and professional liability litigation, and serves as loss prevention and claims counsel to the firm. She is a lecturer on ethics, insurance, healthcare and cybersecurity topics. Additionally, she is a member of the American Bar Association, the Oklahoma Bar Association, Oklahoma Legal Ethics Advisory Panel and the OBA Professionalism Committee and listed in Best Lawyers for Insurance Law. Rother is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law and obtained her bachelor’s degree in political science from The University of Oklahoma. A director at the firm, Harmon serves in the Banking & Financial Institutions and Bankruptcy & Creditor’s Rights Practice Groups. He focuses his practice in commercial and banking law, lending transactions, workouts and restructurings, bankruptcy litigation, creditor’s rights law and defense of financial institutions. His representation of creditors presently includes national banking associations and state-chartered banks as well as industrial concerns, creditor’s groups and individuals. Harmon represents many clients as lead counsel in creditor-related litigation and financing transactions. He is admitted to practice law in Oklahoma and Texas and is a member of the Oklahoma County Bar Association, the Oklahoma Bar Association, the Texas Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and has a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Oklahoma Christian University.
Grapevine News? Send to tulsabarnews@yahoo.com 28 Tulsa Lawyer
Palmer is a director and member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group, specializing in litigation and conflict resolution in the software, internet and other hightechnology industries. He handles patent, copyright and trademark infringement matters for his clients and assists in the protection and enforcement of his clients’ other intellectual property interests. Palmer also counsels businesses with regard to their obligations and rights associated with a variety of software, internet, service and other license agreements. As a former executive in the software industry, he has a unique and invaluable perspective regarding the business motivations and common practices in enterprise software. As an attorney, Palmer leverages that knowledge and experience to assist clients in navigating the complex legal issues surrounding the
procurement and use of information technology. Palmer received his law degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University. Graves McLain PLLC is pleased to announce that Malcolm McCollam of MalcolmLaw, PC is now of counsel with the firm. Malcolm was admitted to the bar in 1982 and is a co-founder of the Saint Francis Tulsa Tough cycling event, which annually draws thousands to Tulsa from around the world. Malcolm will focus primarily on personal injuries arising out of bicycle and motorcycle collisions. One of the firm’s founding partners Chad McLain said “Malcolm’s profile in the cycling community along with his reputation and experience in handling bicycle accident cases make him a great fit with our firm.” You may reach Mr. McCollam through the office at 918-359-6600 or at malcolm@malcolmlaw.com
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Congratulations to the Winners of the YLD Annual Trivia Night by Bethany A. Lyon
TRIVIA WINNERS Pictured L-R:
Hayley N. Stephens Russell C. Ramzel Ryan Scharnell R. Daniel Carter Daniel E. Gomez C. Austin Birnie Timothy T. Trump
We would especially like to thank the firms and universities that continue to sponsor Trivia Night…
On May 12, 2016 the sharpest legal minds inTulsa area gathered to participate in the TCBA’s Young Lawyers Division Annual Trivia Night. The teams were highly competitive, putting their heads together to test their knowledge and go home with the coveted Lady Justice Trivia Trophy and a year’s worth of bragging rights! At the completion of the trivia rounds, both Gorospe & Smith and Conner & Winters teams had tied for the prize. In the final lightening round however, the 1st Place Trivia Masterminds emerged: Conner & Winters, LLP! 30 Tulsa Lawyer
Conner & Winters, LLP GableGotwals Gorospe & Smith, PLLC Logan & Lowry, LLP Riggs Abney Neal Turpen Orbison & Lewis Robinett, Swartz & Aycock Sherwood, McCormick & Robert Sobel & Erwin Law, PLLC University of Tulsa College
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