News: Steve Thompson quoted in Chicago Lawyer Magazine article, "Midsize firms often offer outside-of-the-box practices."

Excerpted from Chicago Lawyer Magazine:

[M]any lawyers in midsize firms have developed their own quirky interests into niche practices.

As they work in diverse areas such as luxury goods, sports and even fire and explosions, they get the chance to meet interesting clients and master skills that take them beyond the regular realm of corporate, trial or personal-injury law.

These lawyers said midsize firms inspire a sense of ingenuity and adventure and serve as the ideal setting for experiments with new industries to grow into full-fledged practices. Lawyers approach these unique areas from many different directions and continue to prove that it's always possible to achieve success by taking risks and trying something new.

Steven Thompson, a partner at Ungaretti & Harris, moved into sports law in the late 1980s when he developed an interest in representing college athletic programs accused of NCAA rules violations.

He continues to work on those cases, representing such clients as Bruce Pearl, the University of Tennessee basketball coach who was suspended for eight games after facing allegations of major recruiting violations.

In 2000, Thompson took his practice in a different direction and joined the small group of 15 lawyers across the country who represent athletes in Olympic selection disputes. During the Sydney Summer Olympics, he represented Matt Lindland, a wrestler who fought for his spot on the team after he accused an opponent of tripping him. After court action, Lindland was able to join the team and win a silver medal.

Thompson also represents athletes involved in drug-testing cases before athletic commissions and doping agencies, which sometimes presents a challenge, he said.

"I find that in representing athletes, the scales are not always balanced," he said. "Athletes are not generally people with a lot of money and they're up against organizations with tremendous resources. An athlete in a drug-testing dispute with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has a very hard time financing his own defense."

Even though he calls his work in sports law "somewhat episodic," he enjoys getting involved in the business as both a lawyer and a fan.

"I think athletes bring a special intensity to everything that they do, including when they're involved in litigation," Thompson said. "They're fighters, so it's interesting to watch how they approach these problems."

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Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Publishing Company.