NCLAWYERSWEEKLY.COM VOLUME 34 NUMBER 16 ■
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GAME CHANGER
AUGUST 15, 2022 ■ $8.50
NCAJ names Johnson as 48th president ■ BY JASON THOMAS jthomas@scbiznews.com
with its billion-dollar revenue stream, is not exempt from the Sherman Act, a late-19th Century antitrust law intended to promote competition. The unanimous decision, which has prompted ongoing changes in NCAA policies, did not directly address name, image and likeness (NIL) matters. However, it has been widely seen as a shot across the bow to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s longstanding restrictions that have previously limited amateur athletes’ opportunities to profit
Valerie Johnson of Johnson & Groninger PLLC in Durham began a one-year term as the 48th president of North Carolina Advocates for Justice on July 1, according to a post on NCAJ’s website. Johnson is the first Black woman to serve as NCAJ president in the organization’s 60-year history, the post stated. She accepted the president’s gavel after the membership vote in June during the NCAJ Annual Meeting, held in Charlotte. In her speech at Annual Meeting, Johnson told mem- Valerie bers that she stood Johnson before them as a symbol of dreams and visions and the fact that they do come true, the post stated. She shared the stories of her grandparents and parents, who gained education and economic stability despite the obstacles they faced in rural North Carolina. Johnson also praised the vision of the men who established NCAJ – then the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers – in 1962. “Our founders’ vision came from a deep desire to make change,” she said, in part, in her acceptance speech, according to the post. “They wanted to help people and to serve them. We still share that vision, and the belief that we will be effective in
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Last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding NCAA policies on compensation of students continues to have broad implications in North and South Carolina, as legislatures and law firms try to sort out a patchwork of actions. Photo via Pexler
Name, image and likeness challenges the legal industry ■ BY DAVID BAUGHER Correspondent
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hat’s in a name? For some amateur athletes, the answer may be defined in dollars and cents, thanks to court cases and legislative efforts that are fast changing the rules of the once-staid world of university athletics. Last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding NCAA policies on compensation of students may have been limited in scope but it continues to have broad implications, including on issues related
to an athlete’s ability to capitalize financially on their own notoriety. “Because of the way that the decision was interpreted, it led everyone to kind of jump to this conclusion that the NCAA doesn’t have the same powers to regulate individual student athletes’ commercialization of their name image and likeness,” said William “Corky” Klett III, an intellectual property attorney with Burr & Forman in Charleston and Columbia. In NCAA v. Alston, the high court found that the association,
INSIDE: Real estate attorneys Power List ■ BY JASON THOMAS jthomas@scbiznews.com I’ve experienced both sides of the sizzling real estate market over the past couple of months as a seller and now, a buyer. But I guess I should introduce myself first, right, before you hear my sob story? I’m the new executive editor of SC Biz News. What does that have to do with North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, you ask? Great question. I’m acting as interim editor of
NCLW until we find a replacement for former editor David Donovan. Big shoes to fill there, right? By the way, if you know of anyone interested in the position, please send me an email. (Contact info is at the end of this column). Back to the real estate scene. We were fortunate to benefit from a very hot (but cooling) real estate market in Louisville, Ky., where we sold our house. Now we’re on the buyer’s end of a seller’s market in Greenville, S.C. What should be a fun experi-
ence has turned into a stressful one. Everyone knows how you practically sign your life away when buying (and selling) a home. Thankfully, technology has eased the hand cramps caused by holding a pen. The documents have to get signed nonetheless. Attorneys have a front-row seat to the closing process. Lucky them. Inside this edition of North S e e Po w e r L i s t P a g e 6 ►
INSIDE : REAL ESTATE ATTORNEYS POWER LISTS BAR DISCIPLINE ROUNDUP
COURT CASE
COMMENTARY
Wake County attorney gets five-year suspension
Former Duke standout, NBA star scores a legal victory
What lawyers need to know about meeting issues
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