Pepperdine Caruso Law Team Competes at Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition

Pepperdine Caruso Law students Chris DeLorenz and Colin Martell joined team captain Andrew Jung to compete in the 13th Annual Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition (TIBAC) at Tulane Law School in New Orleans. Coached by Jeremy Evans (LLM '18, MBA Candidate '20), Calvin Jonker (JD '19), and Pepperdine Sports Law Professor Maureen Weston, the team went head to head against 40 law schools from all over the country.

TIBAC provides an arena for budding law students to improve their oral advocacy and written presentation skills. But unlike other moot competitions, TIBAC replicates MLB's salary arbitration proceedings, offering an incredibly unique experience for sports law students. Additionally, the timing of the competition sits nicely between MLB's Winter Baseball Meetings and the start of Spring Training, TIBAC draws, as Chris DeLorenz put it, "lots of heavy hitters from the world of sports law."

The Pepperdine team argued in front of Scott Barber (Player Agent, Ballengee Group), Mark Feinsand (Executive Reporter, MLB.Com), and Philip Stringer (Professional Scout, Los Angeles Dodgers). The team also connected with Pepperdine Caruso Law alumni Stephanie Wilka (JD '11, Associate General Counsel, San Diego Padres) and Rachel Luba (JD '16, Player Agent, Luba Sports LLC).

The team's work began back in November when Tulane released the three-star players: 1) Milwaukee Brewers Relief Pitcher Josh Hader, 2) Colorado Rockies Starting Pitcher Jon Gray, and 3) New York Yankees Outfielder Aaron Judge. The team started by pulling the statistics of players who had comparable experiences in their own salary arbitration process. From there, the team built visual representations, developed arguments, and practiced relentlessly. By the time January hit, team captain Andrew stated, "it was second nature and our comparisons spoke for themselves."

Andrew Jung competed last year with Nolan Dilts (JD '19) and now coach, Calvin Joker (JD '19). Chris DeLorenz and Colin Martell were new members to the team and performed excellently. Colin will be taking Andrew's place as team captain next year when the team hopefully returns for Pepperdine's fourteenth appearance.