Eugene Lee Featured As Leading NFL Agent

NFL agent Eugene T. Lee was featured in an ESPN documentary about the inside world of sports agents.

Attorney and sports agent Eugene T. Lee was featured in The Dotted Line, an ESPN documentary about the inside world of sports agents which aired on October 11.

Director Morgan Spurlock — nominated for Academy Awards for Super Size Me and The Greatest Movie Ever Sold — said he picked Lee because he is quickly making a name for himself as a premier NFL sports agent, and may become the next “powerhouse” agent. The other reason is that in a profession often hated for its greed, scandal and ruthlessness, Lee has kept an image of untarnished integrity. These qualities are in evidence as Spurlock follows Lee and a leading baseball agent through their days of nurturing promising athletes and negotiating deals with teams and sponsors on their behalves.

“I love to conquer obstacles… the principles of hard work and sacrifice remain entrenched in everything I do,” says Lee who founded and built ETL Associates into a leading sports agency that represents players currently signed to many NFL teams.

A testament to Lee’s drive is his surprisingly quick rampup from a fresh graduate of Notre Dame Law School to building a multi-faceted sports management enterprise that does everything from training clients for pre-draft workouts to negotiating contracts, and planning out their financial strategies.

Another indicator of his rapid rise is the fact that Lee is still young enough to list “National Merit Scholar” and “Eagle Scout” among his honors and awards.

Lee laid part of the groundwork for ETL Associates by acquiring the financial accounting skills needed to graduate summa cum laude with a BBA in accountancy from Notre Dame in May of 1995. That was followed by a JD from Notre Dame Law School in May 1998 which provided entrée into the respected New York intellectual property law firm Fish and Neave. The constellation of an athlete’s skills and personality are a form of intellectual property which agents seek to leverage into lucrative playing contracts and endorsement deals.

After less than two years at Fish Lee moved to Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner where he picked up experience drafting, revising and negotiating licensing, marketing and outsourcing contracts. His work at these firms gave Lee the opportunity to build his own sports law practice.

In September of 2002 Lee left to start ETL Associates. In addition to building a client list of NFL athletes, Lee has turned himself into a valuable piece of intellectual property — a speaker who has presented talks in numerous law schools on topics ranging from sports agenting to technical expositions on trends in NFL collective bargaining agreements to the art of selling in effective representation of athletes.