Law duo to be published in Harvard Law journal

What began as a late-night conversation about a shared interest between friends started an eventful journey for TRU Law Alumni Karen Perry and Madison Steenson: they received an offer to publish their paper “The Legal Impact of Brexit on the English Premier League” from not one, but two academic journals.

Their journey began when the pair were invited to present at the Play the Game conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Perry and Steenson worked tirelessly on perfecting their presentation before heading to The Netherlands by practising to audiences of faculty members and classmates. The task of condensing a 17,000-word paper into a 12-minute presentation was not an easy feat, but the presentation was met with great success. Following the conference, they reached out to journals for publication and were contacted by the University of Denver Sports & Entertainment Law Journal the next day and the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law two weeks later.

“With the help of many of TRU’s Law faculty, we were able to successfully navigate the world of academic publishing. They encouraged us to write the initial paper, let us bounce ideas off of them, introduced us to industry experts, and took time out of their evenings and weekends to listen to us practise for our presentation,” said Perry. “The TRU Law faculty members are what truly makes attending TRU special. They went out of their way to help us and we can’t thank them enough.”

Karen Perry and Madison Steenson present their paper, “The Legal Impact of Brexit on the English Premier League,” at the Play the Game conference

TRU Law faculty member Ryan Gauthier was one of the faculty who worked with the pair throughout the process as his research has been based primarily in sports law, and he also presented at the Play the Game conference.

“Madison and Karen have consistently delivered excellent work at TRU Law. Their paper addresses a complex topic outside of anything they have taken in class. Their success shows their initiative and creativity, and marks them as young lawyers to watch in sports law,” said Gauthier.

Perry is currently an articling student at a law firm in Calgary where she has had plenty of exposure to litigation, as well as bringing in her own clients, including some sports organizations. Alongside her articling work, she is pursuing a Graduate program in Tax Law through the Osgoode Law School from York University.

Steenson is currently working at Omura Law group in Calgary with a sole practitioner, where she is able to work with a variety of files including civil litigation and family law.

The pair both have plans to continue to write in the academic community, and Perry has plans to continue to write for Canadian Tax Focus, a tax journal for practitioners. Both women hope to open their own law firm one day and have considered collaborating on such a venture as they both share an interest in pursuing sports law.