(Vermont Law School Biography)
Professor Michael McCann is a nationally recognized expert in the fields of sports law, antitrust, and behavioral law and economics. He is a Legal Analyst for Sports Illustrated, the "Sports and the Law" columnist on SI.com, and, along with Harvard Law School professor Jon Hanson, a co-founder of The Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School. Professor McCann also served as chair of the Association of American Law School's Section on Sports and the Law in 2008.
Professor McCann has placed articles in the Yale Law Journal, Wisconsin Law Review, Connecticut Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, Brooklyn Law Review, and Yale Journal of Law and Technology, among other law reviews. His most recent article is American Needle v. NFL: An Opportunity to Reshape Sports Law, 119 YALE LAW JOURNAL __ (forthcoming, 2009).
Professor McCann was a visiting associate professor of law at Boston College Law School in 2008 and he serves as the Distinguished Visiting Hall of Fame Professor of Law at Mississippi College School of Law, where he was an assistant professor of law between 2005 and 2008 and where he now teaches a sports law course every summer. While at Mississippi, Professor McCann received the school's most prestigious awards for teaching, including the Professor of the Year Award in 2006-07 and 2007-08 and the Professor of the Year for First-Year Courses Award in all three years. He was also honored with the Phi Delta Phi Professor of the Year Award in 2007-08 and his colleagues named him the recipient of the Shirley Norwood Jones Faculty Award, also in 2007-08.
Professor McCann's commentary for Sports Illustrated has also attracted acclaim. He has received recognition from The American Lawyer and the Newhouse School of Public Communications, among other entities, for excellence in journalism.
Professor McCann is also a legal correspondent for the nationally syndicated Dan Patrick Show and he has been frequently interviewed on television programs, including HBO's Bob Costas Now, CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, American Morning, Headline News, and Glenn Beck Show, Fox News' Fox Live Desk, and CNBC's Morning Call and Power Lunch. He has also been interviewed on NPR, BBC, CBC, CBS Radio, ESPN Radio, the Lou Dobbs Radio Show, and the Jim Rome Show, and by the New York Times, Washington Post, The New Republic, and Business Week. Additionally, Professor McCann contributes to two award-winning blogs: Sports Law Blog and The Situationist.
Prior to becoming a law professor, Professor McCann served as counsel to college football star Maurice Clarett in his lawsuit against the National Football League and its age eligibility rule (Clarett v. NFL, 369 F.3d 124 (2nd Cir. 2004); cert. denied, 125 S. Ct. 1728 (2005)). He also served as a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School and legal counsel to U.S. Congressman Marty Meehan.
Professor McCann received his LLM from Harvard Law School, his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, and his BA, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University. At Virginia, he was named a Hardy Cross Dillard Fellow, served as editor-in-chief of the Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, and received the law school's Best Oral Advocacy Award.