Larry C. Rosales ’05: Fun on the Job at the National Lacrosse League
Larry grew up playing lacrosse as a child in Syracuse, N.Y., where lacrosse was extremely popular and youth leagues plentiful. He enjoyed playing, but never dreamed he could build a career around the sport. Larry explains how he arrived at his dream job with the National Lacrosse League (NLL). “I like to say it took me losing two jobs in one week to end up working in my dream field,” he says. “I left a new media marketing internship with the New York Knicks to start practicing at one of the local New York District Attorney’s offices. However, right before I was supposed to start at the District Attorney’s office, the position fell through due to a ‘financial crisis,’ and I was left scrambling for a job. At the time I felt crushed, but it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I remembered seeing an internship posting for the NLL at the beginning of law school, so I emailed the general counsel to see if he could use me. The very next day I had an interview.” While Larry finally got his foot in the door, he knew it was not going to be easy in sports. Larry explains how he had to pay his dues. “Initially, I started as a volunteer attorney. Being a full-fledged attorney and still working for free was a gut-check for me to see if I really wanted to be in the business. However, I knew this is what I wanted to do, so I worked my butt off and it paid off in the end. I’m right where I want to be.”
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As one of the youngest in-house counsels in professional sports, Larry is challenged on many levels. He says his job “is both exciting and demanding, as I have a lot of responsibility - from working on large corporate sponsorship agreements to arguing players’ suspensions.” He relies on his diverse experience and the insightful advice of his colleagues to steer him in the right direction. “I am part of an amazing team from the Commissioner all the way down,” he says. “I could not do what I do without the help of the people around me because I was, and still am in certain respects, very green. I would never have imagined at this stage of my career I would be working for a professional sports league addressing complex issues of not just law, but business affairs like television, radio, merchandising and marketing.”
The majority of Larry’s representation falls in the areas of corporate compliance, league administration, labor, and general contracts law. Although Larry was interested in labor law while at Moritz (he was on the labor and employment moot court team and clerked at a labor firm in Columbus), he did not envision himself practicing that type of law. However, Larry’s labor experience was what ultimately got him in the door at NLL. “The League was working on their collective bargaining agreement at the time, so that’s where I showed my value,” he explains.
In contrast, Larry had virtually no experience in intellectual property and licensing. He had to learn these areas of law “on the fly,” as he has been involved with lawsuits over intellectual property infringement and sponsorship contract violations. Larry describes learning new areas of law as “a trial by fire” but he tries to remember that he would not be in his position if the NLL did not trust his abilities. He shares what he believes to be the recipe for his success: “I've had to learn to stay confident, work hard, and be able to weigh factors other than just the law in order to get things done right.”
Larry has an infectious excitement about the bright future of the National Lacrosse League. He rattles off the statistics, “The League itself is growing at an astronomical rate; lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. We have 13 teams from San Jose to Toronto playing in major arenas like New York City’s Madison Square Garden and Denver’s Pepsi Center. It’s likely we'll add another two or three teams next year. We average around 11,000 fans a game, and our top teams bring in 17,000 to 18,000 fans per game. We have a national cable television deal in a prime time slot. I really enjoy being a part of something that is growing and exciting.”
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The Buffalo Bandits play in
the 2006 championship game at home in HSBC Arena |
Larry started working at NLL a little over a year ago, and he is having a ball. He says, “I feel incredibly fortunate that I work in sports business and that I get to practice law; I'm in my chosen field in my chosen profession. Every day I'm continually building up substantive legal and business experience, and in a really exciting context. It's so rare that someone gets an opportunity like that, so I appreciate it a great deal and keep working hard for my dream.”
Classmates and friends wishing to get in touch with Larry can email him
at lrosales@nll.com.
