U of T Law competes at its first (but hopefully not its last) International Baseball Arbitration Competition
Toronto is a large sports market—not just within Canada, but within North America. We have the only NBA team in the Raptors, the only MLB team in the Blue Jays, and one of the most historically successful NHL teams in the Maple Leafs [Author’s Note: choose among countless 1967 jokes].
Yet, for a Toronto law student, there are surprisingly few opportunities to explore the sports industry as a legal career. From a competition standpoint, by far the most valuable opportunity is the Hockey Arbitration Competition of Canada (HACC) hosted by U of T’s Sports and Entertainment Law Society. From an internship standpoint, the most sought-after opportunity is the summer student position with the NHL Players’ Association.
So, as a 3L student who has learned from, but in the process exhausted, those limited opportunities, I was immensely grateful for the chance to compete at the 15th annual Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition (TIBAC) alongside my wonderful colleague, Peter Voltsinis (2L), on January 20 and 21. This was the first time U of T Law has competed at this competition. I would also like to express my gratitude to Cassels, Brock & Blackwell LLP and the law school’s Advancement Office for their support of our participation at TIBAC this year.
TIBAC closely mirrors U of T’s own annual HACC event. It is a mock salary arbitration competition modelled after a professional sports league’s salary arbitration mechanism as outlined by the league’s collective bargaining agreement; in TIBAC’s case, it follows MLB, while HACC follows the NHL. There is a written component and an oral component to the competition, with the latter being adjudicated by baseball industry professionals.
TIBAC is typically hosted as an in-person event in New Orleans, with networking opportunities among guest arbitrators and competitors alike. Although this year’s competition was originally scheduled to be in-person as well, the recent uptick in the spread of the Omicron variant led to the late decision to move the event to a virtual setting. Should future editions of TIBAC return to the in-person format, I have no doubt the value of participating in the competition would be greatly increased.
Serendipitously, Peter and I were assigned the arbitration case for the Toronto Blue Jays’ budding superstar, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., for the written component of the competition. Our task was to write both a Player brief, which represented Guerrero Jr.’s case, and a Club brief, which represented the Blue Jays’ case.
We researched Guerrero Jr.’s career, from his signing as a 16-year-old international free agent to his years as MLB’s #1 prospect to his outstanding MVP-calibre season in 2021. Dusting off our advocacy caps, buried somewhere in our respective cabinets along with our 1L LRW notes, we developed themes for Guerrero Jr.’s arbitration case on both sides. We met frequently over the holiday season to discuss and debate the strength of our arguments. Our efforts culminated in two ten-page arbitration briefs, of which we were tremendously proud.
Next, we prepared for the competition’s oral component. For this, we were assigned four cases: both sides of the Guerrero Jr. case, the Club side (Cleveland Guardians) for the Shane Bieber case, and the Club side (Los Angeles Angels) for the Shohei Ohtani case. Hours of research and many Excel spreadsheets and graphs later, we prepared four 50-slide PowerPoint presentations in advance of competition day.
Our opening round was the Shane Bieber case in front of Rachel Luba, a trailblazing MLB player agent who had previously worked for the MLB Players Association as a lawyer. With 15 minutes for our opening presentation and 7.5 minutes for our rebuttal, it felt as though our time was up as soon as we started the clock. The pace was quick with a lot of content to cover.
After both sides presented their cases, arbitrator Luba shared some feedback based on her experience participating in real-world MLB salary arbitrations. She expressed how the dynamics of salary arbitration are often complex and emotional: the Player sits in the hearing room as the Club—his team—argues that he is not worth the salary he believes to be fair. Words cannot be unsaid or unheard, so a diplomatic approach, especially by the Club, is required to preserve the future working relationship between the two parties after the arbitration ends.
In all, we presented three cases, learning and growing from the feedback we received after each hearing. We did not advance to the quarter-finals, but it was an experience I will not soon forget as I write the final chapter of my law school career. Having helped build U of T Law’s growing pathway for sports law, TIBAC is an excellent addition to the opportunities available for students to explore the sports industry as a career. This may have been our school’s first time competing at TIBAC, but I sincerely hope it will be far from our last.
