On November 2, 2016, the Berkeley Center for Law Business and the Economy hosted a lunchtime lecture by Ryan Horning, the Assistant General Counsel to the Oakland Athletics.
Mr. Horning got his Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Michigan State University. He graduated from the Chicago Kent College of Law in 2003. After law school, Mr. Horning worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. During his time at Skadden, Mr. Horning worked on many international cases across a spectrum of several different industries.
Mr. Horning returned to school at Northwestern and graduated with a Master of Arts in Sports Administration. The program enabled him to greater understand the intersection of business and the law within the sports industry and made for a great discussion point in his interviews.
Mr. Horning found his past experience at Skadden to be particularly useful in transitioning into an Assistant General Counsel role. His experience working internationally with diverse clients enabled him to work with the diverse groups of individuals now with the Oakland A’s. Mr. Horning notes that if you talk to any sports lawyer about what kind of people you deal with as a General Counsel, then they’ll tell you that you’re dealing with people from a lot of different backgrounds. For this, you have to cater your approach to each of these individuals. A major difference between working at a firm and working in-house is that in-house you’ll spend most of the time you working with people who are not lawyers. Mr. Horning suggests changing communication styles and approaches accordingly.
Mr. Horning reflected that when he began working for the A’s, he worked primarily on legal issues, but has since transitioned to undertaking more business -oriented responsibilities. The legal aspects are primarily transactional (e.g., negotiating contracts). He works with the players primarily through their agents. From the player side, he notes that you want to get the player in the best place that they can be in for a price that works for both parties. Also, you want to ensure that the right legal protections are in place for the player. In this way, his work is mostly collaborative (as opposed to the adversarial nature of most litigators’ practices).
In the past three years, Mr. Horning has undertaken a more active role on the business side. Recently, he’s has been working on upgrading the stadium for the A’s. Despite the many challenges of such a big endeavor, he’s very optimistic.
It is easy to see the passion and commitment that Mr. Horning has for his career and the impact that his work has on the community. He encourages people to look at a sports team as a community asset, “it’s a part of your life. It’s a part of your community.”
At the end of the talk, Mr. Horning answered student questions and offered helpful advice. Regarding networking, he encouraged students to “meet as many people as you can.” He recalls that many of the people he has met, both in law school and when practicing within the legal field, were willing to listen and to help in what way they could. He suggested that the key is to “get your head in the right spot and figure out what you want to do.”
Event-Recap-Ryan-Horning-Assistant-General-Counsel-To-The-Oakland-Athletics