Matt Laczkowski ’04
Director, Sporting Administration, St. Louis CITY SC
As a walk-on to the University of North Carolina (UNC) men’s basketball team, one of the nation’s most storied college basketball programs, Matt Laczkowski ’04 was no stranger to taking chances and proving his worth. Seeking a career in the sports industry, Laczkowski carried his resume to practice hoping for an opportunity to share it with scouts and agents evaluating the team’s players.
“I always wanted to work at the intersection of sports, business, and the law,” he recalls.
Eventually, he decided law school would provide him with the right credentials and entrée into the high-powered sports world. True to his ambitions, he was president of the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Society at Maryland Carey Law and was quick to connect with Adjunct Professor Julie Rubin ’98 and her sports law class and with Professor Emeritus Robert Condlin, who taught negotiation skills.
“He is a sports guy at heart,” says Laczkowski. “We spent a lot of time talking about all kinds of issues—some of it related to the law—and his class prepared me well for the real world.”
Sports has always been the through line for Laczkowski, who bypassed law journal and moot court participation at Maryland Carey Law to volunteer as a high school basketball coach and play invitation-only basketball games at the home of Orioles great and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr.
Facing a downturn in the economy when he graduated, Laczkowski began his law career with short stints at firms focusing on bankruptcy and representing architects and engineers, before establishing his own single-shingle practice, representing restaurant and bar owner-clients, and individuals in sports and entertainment.
Laczkowski had all but given up on pursuing his dream to work in the sports industry when he received a call from Jim Tanner, who was leaving the powerhouse Washington, D.C. firm of Williams & Connolly to launch boutique agency Tandem Sports and Entertainment. Tanner introduced Laczkowski to Tandem team members—mostly Williams & Connolly alumni—as the person who understood the value of relationships and was “appropriately persistent” in pursuing opportunities better than anyone he had worked with since their introduction eight years prior.
The initial intent was not for Laczkowski to do much of the legal lifting, given his “single shingle” background. But his work ethic, hustle, relationship-building, and legal abilities soon made him an integral Tandem team member, whom Tanner described as the agency’s “glue.” As Tandem’s director of athlete and talent representation, he contributed across agency practice areas from recruiting and representing (NBA and overseas) players’ in their on-court, playing contract negotiations; to pursuing and negotiating off-court, endorsement and sponsorship opportunities and agreements; to working on behalf of its broadcasting clients.
Key to his success was his genuine belief in and focus on strong relationships. In the close-knit sports industry, those relationships are especially important. “Tandem had a well-earned reputation for being very principled and prepared in its negotiations,” notes Laczkowski, who relates the approach to fundamental lessons from Maryland Carey Law.
An athlete at heart, Laczkowski never looked back. “I knew the sports space was the right choice for me,” he says. “Understanding sports helps me be a better sports lawyer, including being able to put myself in the other side’s shoes.”
A longtime friendship with a professional soccer agent led him to the position of director of sporting administration for the expansion soccer team of St. Louis CITY SC in 2021. He compares his introductory year to the popular Ted Lasso television series: “It was similar to season one with a brand-new team, a female owner, and me not knowing much about soccer,” he laughs.
In his current job, Laczkowski serves as the club’s in-house expert on Major League Soccer (MLS) collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), works with its sporting director on player contracts, and handles other legal matters pertinent to its sporting department, including immigration and compliance with MLS roster rules.
“My skills were directly transferrable, having been an agent and understanding contract conversations and interactions,” he adds. “Practicing this type of law is less about being defensively oriented and more about solving problems and putting out fires.”
Laczkowski is at his best bringing people together and reaching agreement through negotiations and contracts. “My job, for the most part, is to make sure all the parts of a transaction align and to reach that place in negotiations where all the finer points are agreed upon.”
Unbeknownst to many casual fans, no matter how long a season or when it ends, a career in the sports industry is a 365-day job. “Sports move at a certain pace, and you become accustomed to the cadence on both the agency and team side,” explains Laczkowski. “As an attorney on the sporting side, your job is to support the team and its players anyway you can.”
Laczkowski anticipates his time at CITY SC may be nearing its end. As for what’s next, he hopes to remain in the sports industry, pairing his passion with what he has learned along the way, possibly closer to his home state of Maryland.