Peter Carfagna

Peter Carfagna
Lecturer on Law
2020-2021
Biography
Peter A. Carfagna is Chairman/CEO of Magis, LLC, a privately owned sports marketing, management and investment company, including family ownership of the Lake County Captains, Cleveland Indians Class A Affiliate. He has also been the Managing Member of LLC's affiliated with many Major League Baseball teams, including the Boston Red Sox; Seattle Mariners; Houston Astros; and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
From 1994-2005, Peter served as Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel of International Management Group (IMG), and was Senior Partner at Jones Day LLP before that, during which time he worked as outside counsel to the Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Cavaliers' ownership groups.
Peter graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College, having also played Varsity Football. Peter was then a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, graduating M.A. with Honours in Jurisprudence/Law. He then graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude, where he studied under Professor Paul J. Weiler, the "Father of Sports and the Law" at Harvard.
Since being appointed by then-Dean Elena Kagan as the Covington Burling Distinguished Visitor in 2006, Peter has alternated teaching 3 Sports Law Courses at Harvard Law School, each of which has been published as a casebook: 1. Representing the Professional Athlete (3rd Ed. West 2018); 2. Examining The Legal Evolution of America's 3 'Major Leagues' (3rd Ed. West 2017); and 3) Negotiating and Drafting Sports Venue Agreements (2nd Ed. West 2016).
At Harvard Law School, he is Faculty Advisor to the Harvard Law School's Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law and its Journal on Sports and Entertainment Law. He is also Faculty Supervisor of Harvard Law School's Sports Law Clinical Program, responsible for 30+ sports law clinicals each school year with the NFL, MLB, Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Brooklyn Nets, CAA, Excel Sports Agency, Special Olympics, Carolina Panthers, among many other Major League Teams and Sports Agencies.
Peter also serves as a Visiting Professor and Director of the Sports Law Honors Track and LLM Program at the University of Miami in the Spring Term, where he offers many of the same courses that he teaches at Harvard.
Peter also serves as Co-Director of the Great Lakes Summer Sports and Entertainment Law Academy, a Joint Program sponsored by Case Western Reserve and Cleveland State University Law Schools.
Peter has served on the Midwest Region/Chicago-based Selection Committee for the Rhodes Scholarship. He is also a former Elected Director of the Harvard Alumni Association and the Association of American Rhodes Scholars. He has served the HAA as a Member of the Nominating Committee for the Harvard University Board of Overseers.
Peter is President of the Board of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and former Chair of the Board of the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Peter and his wife Rita, their 4 adult children, and 8 grandchildren reside in the Cleveland, Ohio area.
Education History
- A.B. Harvard College, 1975
- M.A. Jurisprudence University of Oxford, 1977
- J.D. Harvard Law School, 1979
Current Courses
- Sports and the Law: Examining the Legal History and Evolution of America's Three "Major League" Sports: MLB, NFL and NBA, Fall 2020
- Sports and the Law: Representing the Professional Athlete, Winter 2021
- Sports Law Clinic, Winter 2021
- Sports Law Clinic, Spring 2021
- Sports Law: Advanced Contract Drafting, Fall 2020