Clay Barnett is a Senior Counsel in the Firm’s Denver office and a member of the Litigation practice group and maintains a national sports law practice that involves many facets of collegiate and professional sports.

Mr. Barnett also has two decades of experience as a commercial litigation attorney with a particular emphasis on partnership disputes as well as cases involving real estate, energy, construction and employment matters. He frequently litigates contract disputes, employment matters as well as class action and appellate cases.

Mr. Barnett comes from a collegiate sports family and has continued his involvement in sports throughout his professional career. After playing collegiate football, he worked in the scouting departments of two separate NFL teams. As a law student, he was President of the Sports and Entertainment Law Society and earned the Scholastic Excellence award in Amateur Sports Law. He now serves as outside counsel to various NIL Collectives where he is regularly involved in compliance oversight, contract drafting, as well as structuring and monitoring NCAA-compliant compensation programs.  His sports law practice also includes the representation of college and professional coaches in a wide variety of roles, including contract negotiations, internal investigations, public relations, and crisis management. Representative matters have included:

• Represented for-profit and non-profit entities in the creation of NIL Collectives as well as formulating compliance guidelines;
• Drafted NIL contracts relating to both domestic and international student athletes;
• Drafted and negotiated third-party vendor contracts involving businesses, collectives and student athletes;
• Regularly providing oversight and management of intellectual property rights related to institutions and NIL Collectives;
• Providing day-to-day NIL Collective compliance oversight;
• Providing regular compliance review and oversight related to press releases and external marketing and advertising campaigns;
• Structured and negotiated NIL Collective merger;
• Represented coaches in relation to contract negotiations;

Defended coaches in matters in internal investigations related to allegations of misconduct.

Professional Involvement

• Colorado Bar Association
• Denver Bar Association
• Sports Lawyers Association

Bar Admissions

• Colorado

• A Brave New World(?) – A Closer Look at the Jaden Rashada NIL Litigation
• NIL: Never-ending Intercollegiate Litigation