STUDENT ORG SPOTLIGHT - Sports and Entertainment Law Student Association

Colorado Law is home to nearly 50 active student organizations. These organizations empower law students to increase their knowledge, gain leadership experience, network, and collaborate with the legal community—all while building connections with classmates that will last throughout their careers and beyond.

The Sports and Entertainment Law Student Association (SELSA) provides students with the chance to explore career opportunities and learn from lawyers actively working in sports and entertainment law. 

In this interview, we hear from Katrina Chavez ’26, the President of SELSA. 

What are the primary goals of SELSA?

SELSA at the Law School Student & Campus Organization Fair

KC: Our biggest goal is illuminating opportunities in the spaces of Sports and Entertainment law. They're both growing fields, and they're becoming their own fields of law, even though they're both just an amalgamation of every other type of law that exists. But, those laws from these other areas are applied to sports and entertainment differently. Specifically with things like antitrust. We’re trying to bring to light what exactly sports law means and how many different routes you can take just within those two large buckets.

How does this student organization help members to reach their career goals?

KC: All of the board members are part of the Sports Lawyers Association, which is national. Typically, the board members attend the conference at the end of the year in May. We find connections, and we stay up to date on the hot topics in sports law and entertainment law as much as we can. We're building more of the entertainment side, especially since Sundance is coming to Boulder. We're trying to work with the undergrad and any other connections in the Boulder area. Our sports side is more developed currently. If there are networking opportunities with the Colorado Bar Association, or any webinars that we think would be interesting that are free for students to attend, we'll send those opportunities out to our club members. We also bring in speakers for our lunch meetings. We directly connect our students with people who practice in those fields in the Colorado area.

What kinds of outreach does SELSA engage with? 

KC: A couple days ago, we had two people from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee come and speak at lunch. And that was super cool. I think it was great for people to hear more about how the games are run, and how the Olympics run as a nonprofit organization. So I think the coolest thing, and the most rewarding part of outreach,is being in the position to bring these really, really cool and awesome speakers to all these 1Ls and 2Ls. Obviously, it's still exciting for the 3Ls, but we're more set in our immediate future. For the 1 and 2Ls, the opportunities are truly endless, and so to be able to bring in these speakers, it reinforces the idea of, “This is why I came to law school,” because that's how I felt when I was in those years. Being on the other end of it now is really cool. 

How has SELSA impacted your law school experience? 

KC: Well, I've gotten two free vacations out of SELSA. I got to go to Baltimore and Nashville for the conference, which is awesome. I don't think I have felt imposter syndrome as much as I have felt at those conferences. Being in the presence of these people who hold your dream job, it’s very humbling seeing that they're just normal people. I think being part of the organization has brought me imposter syndrome like no other, but also has shown me that lawyers are just people. As I stepped into the leadership position, I do a lot of outreach, and I have my board members do a lot of outreach - it's so scary at first. But then, the lawyers come speak to us, and they're just so helpful. You just realize they were in your shoes before. 

It's also impacted my time here, because we're growing our sports program at Colorado Law, and it's just so cool to be on the forefront of that. We’re at the precipice of Colorado Law breaking into more sports related endeavors. Specifically, I'm also part of the Name Image Likeness (NIL) practicum. So huge shout out to that with Leigh Augustine, and that has been great. So a lot of our club kind of work, we're trying to teach people about the practicum as well to keep that going.

Alongside Chavez, the SELSA Executive Board includes Vice-President Sidney Lawless ’27, Treasurer Ethan Wheeler ’27, Secretary Caroline Montierth ’27, and Special Advisor Miles Gilbert. 

To get involved with SELSA, students can email SELSA@colorado.edu.