Biography
Raised as an Army brat, I spent the majority of my childhood in Hawaii and Denver. While attending college I became a licensed stockbroker to help pay for school, but quickly turned to waiting tables. I entered the stock brokerage business during the height of the penny stock days and the ethics, or lack thereof, did not suit me. After earning my undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice, I was offered the opportunity to become the Director of Marketing for the Miami Hooters Arena Football team. Having always wanted to work in sports, I jumped at the opportunity and quickly relocated to Miami, Florida. After a very successful first season, I was accepted to law school in St. Paul, Minnesota. As a first year law student, I kept my job with the arena football team and traveled between Minnesota and Florida on weekends to work on sponsorships for the team. Following that harrowing first year, I transferred to Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to complete my law degree and to be closer to the sports industry career that I had started for myself. The overachiever in me was not content with juggling a career and a full-time law school schedule, so before completing my J.D. degree I became an intern with the Dan Marino Foundation and unexpectedly found myself presented with an opportunity in the modeling industry. I seized the opportunity when presented and was able to secure seven pages in the swimsuit issue of Inside Sports. The exposure from just this one magazine spread lead to many more modeling jobs both in and out of the country and a second full-time job.
With a modeling career in full-swing, immediately after graduating from law school I jumped at an Italian modeling agency’s offer to work in Italy for the summer. So instead of joining my classmates in a summer of studying for the bar exam, I got on a plane to Milan. Once I returned to the U.S. I decided it was time for another move and packed my bags and moved to Los Angeles, knowing that although LA was going to be a much bigger and tougher city than Miami, it would be full of much more professional and personal opportunity. I decided not to waste any time pursuing a career as an attorney and immediately hunkered down for my first three months in LA and did nothing but study for the California bar exam, which I thankfully passed in the first attempt. Soon thereafter the perfect job came along: an in-house counsel position for the under-construction Staples Center, which also included work for the NHL Los Angeles Kings and MLS Galaxy.
After an amazing year with Staples Center, I moved on to become Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs for an elite sports and entertainment management firm, Management Plus Enterprises. Our client list at MPE included Shaquille O’Neal, Oscar De La Hoya, Lisa Leslie and Pamela Anderson. After two and a half years with MPE, I decided to tackle the new challenge of working in a large law firm. For the past five years I have been and continue to practice law at a high profile law firm. I have been able to build a successful practice focusing in intellectual property, with an emphasis on sports and entertainment licensing, and mergers and acquisitions.