LOS ANGELES — Once a year, law professor Moraima “Mo” Ivory usually brings celebrities like Steve Harvey, Ludacris and Rick Ross to her classroom at Georgia State University for an entertainment legal talk. But this time she’s taking her next lesson across the Atlantic, from Atlanta to the Olympics in Paris.
Ivory and her law students will go to the Summer Games at the end of July for an all-expenses-paid week-long trip, mainly financed by a donation from Delta Airlines. Students on her Legal Life course study the business and legal issues related to the Olympic Games.
“Normally we have celebrities, but I wanted to get into the sports world,” says Ivory, director of the school’s entertainment, sports and media law program, which she started in 2019. “I thought it would be interesting to study the Olympics as the centerpiece of the class and go through all the implications of the Games.”
During the semester, Ivory brought in guest speakers such as U.S. Olympic Committee general counsel, Olympian Edwin Moses and civil rights icon Andrew Young – the mayor of Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Her students learned about adhering to the laws of the host city , NBC’s exclusive U.S. broadcast contract, corporate governance, intellectual property ownership, security protocols and how the International Olympic Committee functions.
After arriving in Paris, Ivory and more than 30 students expect to explore the Olympic Village, visit Team USA House, attend the opening ceremony, visit Olympic sponsor sites and spend time at a local law school. They also go on a scavenger hunt around Paris, looking for all the trademarks the class has studied all semester.
“This is kind of an immersive education,” said Hannah Nodar, 24, a second-year law student and Ivory’s research assistant. She hopes to delve into sports and entertainment law and looks forward to learning more about safety regulations and sponsorship agreements.
“I think it’s more practical, especially in a legal sense. “I think it’s really cool to be able to describe during an interview what a licensing agreement is or what a recording contract entails,” she continued. “You can have a more authentic conversation. You understand what you’re talking about, instead of just regurgitating things from a book.”
Nodar said she is grateful to have a professor like Ivory, who wanted her students to hear directly from stars and experienced lawyers about negotiating the deals, contracts and legal concepts behind their brands. She started her course in 2019 with Ludacris as a speaker before bringing in Kandi Burress, Harvey and Ross. Others who have appeared include DJ Drama and Steve Sadow, former President Donald Trump’s lead attorney in the Georgia election interference case.
In January, Ivory dramatically surprised the class with the Olympic trip. The professor handed out envelopes to the entire class and told them that only two envelopes contained tickets to the Games.
As the Ivory students eagerly opened their envelopes, they gradually took out return tickets to Paris. The professor said Delta Airlines — which did not disclose the amount the company will reimburse for airfare and hotels — was on board with sponsoring the trip about 48 hours after she pitched her idea to them. She collected other small donations from alumni of Georgia State’s law school.
“It wasn’t a hard sell,” said Ivory, a Spelman College alum who earned her law degree from Temple University. Over the years, she built relationships within the entertainment and media industries as a practicing attorney and radio host and at Warner Music Group, where she worked on artist contracts.
Ivory said she wants to use her relationships to improve her students’ experiences while creating new partnerships.
“I give my students a learning experience through the popular culture they already love,” she said. “It is not difficult to explain that to an organization, company or anyone else. They get it right away. People are genuinely friendly and really want students to have experiences that will change their lives.”
That has certainly been the case for one of Ivory’s students, Ayanna Grant, who comes from an immigrant family. She gained valuable experience from the course, which she says gave her a “leg up,” even though Georgia State’s law school is not as highly regarded as Yale, Harvard and Stanford.
“Seeing Professor Ivory and hearing her story and path as a lawyer is very inspiring to me,” says Grant, who is Guyanese and Jamaican and has wanted to become an entertainment lawyer since the fifth grade.
Now Grant and her classmates will have the opportunity to network and build connections on an international level.
“To see who competes and make the Olympics possible, it’s a great opportunity,” she said. “You never know what connections could result from that. Years later, that person could be someone who gives you a job. You have already acquired that fame with them.”
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More AP coverage of the Paris Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
