KEN SHAMROCK - THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS MAN

From Chicago Lawyer:

A legal need

San Diego-based lawyer Rodney Donohoo didn’t know who MMA fighter Ken Shamrock was when he started representing him in litigation involving an altercation.

But he won the trial, and started managing him about three years ago. He also manages fighters in Lion’s Den, Shamrock’s fight team. Donohoo is outside counsel to Ken Shamrock Entertainment, which is responsible for Lion’s Den’s fighters, training facilities, licensing and merchandising.

He also counsels Ken Shamrock Productions, which puts on MMA fights. His work in this area has grown, and now takes up between 25 and 70 percent of his practice at any given time.

Donohoo said he’s found similarities between managing Shamrock and handling his regular trial work.

”It’s hard-nosed negotiation and people trying to throw their weight around,” he said. ”It is nice to have lawyers in there because the amount of professionalism increases.”

Because the sport has grown, there’s a lot more money involved and bigger players are stepping into the sport, he said, but the lack of professionalism and ethics sometimes concerns him. He wishes there were more lawyers working in this area.

A lot of legal issues are surfacing, just as they did in the boxing world in the 1930s, he said. For example, some promoters are trying to control who the champions should be.

Organizations are granting their own belts, and rankings are not unified across organizations and media outlets, he said.

He’s heard of some promoters telling their fighters during a fight to perform a certain way so the fight seems more entertaining. That’s not how it works in other sports. No one steps in during an NFL game and tells the players to change their strategy to make it a more exciting game, he said.

Donohoo questions whether it’s good for the sport to be mainly controlled by the UFC. He would like to see more competition because it would make the sport stronger.

”I’d like to see more attorneys in the hierarchy of the commissions, and as judges, as you see in the NFL, and as referees in fights,” he said. ”Attorneys are trained to look objectively. … I’m concerned if this will become an entertainment show as opposed to a legitimate sport.

”As an attorney, I think that lawyers are particularly adept at recognizing the issues, and hopefully giving their clients good solid advice beyond the initial glory of getting their faces on TV.”

Read the full article here: http://www.chicagolawyermagazine.com/2008/12/05/lawyers-enter-the-mma-world/

On the Web: www.donohoolaw.com