Tax, NIL, and the Post-House NCAA: Practical Legal Strategies for Advising Student-Athletes, Institutions, and Collectives

Steve Berman, Founder and Managing Partner | Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP

Steve W. Berman is a nationally renowned class-action attorney and co-founder and managing partner of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, a plaintiffs’ firm he established in 1993. With 44 years of legal experience, he has dedicated his career to representing consumers, investors, and employees harmed by corporate misconduct, securing total settlements valued at more than $340 billion and achieving historic reforms across a wide range of industries. His landmark representations include serving as co-lead counsel in the $22.78 billion House v. NCAA settlement — believed to be the largest antitrust settlement in world history — and as Special Assistant Attorney General for 13 states in the State Tobacco Litigation, which produced the largest civil settlement in history at $260 billion. In addition to his U.S. practice, Steve serves as managing partner of Hagens Berman EMEA LLP in the United Kingdom and as U.S. Managing Member of HBSS France.

• Education & Credentials

Steve earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1980 and his B.S. from the University of Michigan in 1976. He is admitted to practice in Illinois and Washington and is a Foreign Registered Attorney in England and Wales. His court admissions include the Supreme Court of the United States, all thirteen federal circuit courts of appeals, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, multiple U.S. District Courts, and the Supreme Courts of both Illinois and Washington.

• Recognition & Leadership

Steve has received extensive recognition from leading legal publications and organizations. He has been named Law360 Class Action MVP multiple times, recognized as a Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar, and listed in Washington Super Lawyers since 1999. Lawdragon inducted him into its Hall of Fame and repeatedly included him among the 500 Leading Lawyers in America. Best Lawyers and The National Law Journal have also honored him among the nation’s most influential attorneys, while recognizing Hagens Berman as a top plaintiffs’ firm.

• Professional Involvement

Steve is a frequent public speaker and guest lecturer at institutions including Stanford University, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan, and Seattle University Law School. In 2003, he and his wife, Kathy, founded the Kathy and Steve Berman Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Washington. In 2021, they expanded their environmental philanthropy with a gift to launch the Kathy and Steve Berman Western Forest and Fire Initiative at the University of Michigan. Their work reflects a longstanding commitment to environmental law, policy, and sustainability.

• Experience

Steve’s practice spans antitrust, class actions, securities, consumer protection, environmental law, sports litigation, whistleblower matters, and other complex disputes. Over his 44-year career, he has led antitrust cases securing more than $27 billion in settlements and automotive matters exceeding $21.4 billion. His notable roles include leadership in the NCAA NIL settlement, Volkswagen emissions litigation, Visa/Mastercard antitrust litigation, Toyota sudden acceleration cases, and Enron pension litigation. His work has impacted industries ranging from technology and agriculture to pharmaceuticals and financial services.

Nicole Ford, Partner | Baker & McKenzie LLP

Nicole (Niki) Ford is a member of Baker McKenzie’s Tax Practice Group in New York, where she focuses on state and local tax litigation and planning. Before rejoining the firm, she served as a Tax & Accounting Specialist Editor at Thomson Reuters, where her research concentrated primarily on multistate taxation of electronically delivered goods and services. Her practice centers on advising multinational and domestic corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and individuals on a wide range of multistate tax matters, including planning, audits, and litigation across income, franchise, sales, and transactional tax issues.

• Education & Credentials

Niki holds an LL.M. from New York University (2013) and a J.D. and M.Tax. from the University of Akron (2011). She was admitted to practice law in New York (2013) and Texas (2015).

• Professional Involvement

Niki is a member of the American Bar Association’s Tax Section and the State Bar of New York’s Tax Section. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications on state and local tax issues for Thomson Reuters, covering topics including multistate taxation of digital goods and services, judicial deference to tax regulations, the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Chevron, pass-through entity-level tax elections, sales tax on NFTs, and the multistate tax treatment of crypto assets. She has also published in The Tax Lawyer and State Tax Notes, as well as in the Duquesne Law Review.

• Experience

Niki’s practice focuses on state and local tax matters, with an emphasis on multistate tax planning, audits, and litigation. She advises a broad range of clients, including multinational and domestic corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and individuals, on income, franchise, sales, and transactional tax issues. Before her current role at Baker McKenzie, she served as a Tax & Accounting Specialist Editor at Thomson Reuters, where she focused on research related to the multistate taxation of electronically delivered goods and services.

Lindsay Faulstich, CPA, MST, Partner | Grassi & Co.

Lindsay Faulstich, CPA, MST, is a Tax Partner at Grassi with more than 15 years of progressive experience in public accounting and tax advisory. She focuses on providing strategic tax planning and compliance services to partnerships, family offices, real estate firms, professional athletes, and high-net-worth individuals. Her work includes advising clients with complex tax structures and multi-entity operations, and she serves as a trusted advisor to private equity firms and privately held businesses navigating growth, transactions, and succession planning. Lindsay works closely with high-achieving clients and emphasizes tax strategies designed to maximize cash flow while minimizing risk.

• Education & Credentials

Lindsay Faulstich holds a Master of Science in Taxation from the University of Baltimore and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting with a minor in International Business from the University of Delaware. She is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Maryland and is actively pursuing reciprocal licensure in New York and Pennsylvania.

• Recognition & Leadership

During her career, Lindsay held leadership responsibilities, including serving as Tax Director at Siegfried Advisory, where she led a team of more than 15 tax professionals. In that role, she also contributed to broader firm leadership initiatives such as sales strategy, financial reporting oversight, talent acquisition, team development, and quality control across the tax service line.

• Professional Involvement

Lindsay is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYCPA), and the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs (PICPA). She was also involved in the Accounting Student Association and the UD Honors Program during her time at the University of Delaware.

• Experience

Before joining Grassi, Lindsay served as Tax Director at Siegfried Advisory, where she spent seven years leading a team of more than 15 tax professionals. In that position, she developed a comprehensive family office service offering and helped establish a tax due diligence practice to support high-achieving clients and investment entities. Her professional experience includes delivering tax advisory and compliance services to a range of clients, including partnerships, family offices, real estate firms, professional athletes, and high-net-worth individuals, while advising on complex tax structures and multi-entity operations.

I. The Post-House NCAA Landscape: What Changed, What Didn’t, and Why It Matters | 1:00pm – 1:40pm

This session provides attorneys with a precise, authoritative account of what the House v. NCAA settlement decided and, critically, what it left unresolved. We will walk through the settlement’s structure and timeline, distinguishing between direct institutional payments and NIL compensation, and explaining how each carries distinct legal implications for schools, conferences, and advisers. The session addresses the antitrust, labor, and employment-law consequences that have emerged in the wake of the settlement, including the evolving question of student-athlete employment status and the institutional exposure it creates.

Attendees will also examine Title IX and equity considerations reshaping how revenue-sharing dollars are allocated across athletic programs, as well as the interplay between the settlement and existing state NIL statutes that continue to govern athletes’ activities. Practical emphasis is placed on avoiding the most common advising pitfalls, including overreliance on professional athlete analogies, inconsistent institutional implementation, and counseling clients through regulatory gaps that the settlement has not yet filled.

Break | 1:40pm – 1:50pm

II. Federal Tax Classification of Student-Athlete Compensation | 1:50pm – 2:10pm

As direct payments to student-athletes become a structural feature of college athletics, the federal tax classification of that compensation has become one of the most consequential and contested questions practitioners face. We will examine how the IRS treats NIL income in a post-House environment, focusing on the critical distinctions between W-2 wage treatment and 1099 independent contractor classification and the significant audit exposure and penalty risk that flows from getting that determination wrong.

The session covers self-employment tax obligations that many athletes and their advisers fail to anticipate, as well as the withholding responsibilities now imposed on schools and collectives that make payments directly to athletes. Attendees will also explore the interaction between scholarship awards and taxable benefits, a nuanced area where institutional reporting obligations and athlete tax liability frequently diverge. Throughout, the discussion is grounded in the practical documentation and planning failures, including inadequate records of services rendered and the absence of estimated tax payment strategies, that most commonly lead to IRS scrutiny.

III. Structuring NIL Deals, Collectives, and Direct Payments | 2:10pm – 2:30pm

With the House settlement establishing a new framework for institutional revenue sharing, the structuring of NIL agreements and related entities has never carried higher legal and financial stakes. We will guide attendees through the entity selection decisions that most directly affect athlete clients, including the use of LLCs, S corporations, and trusts, and the tax and liability considerations that distinguish each. The session examines how collectives should be structured in a post-settlement environment, comparing nonprofit and for-profit models, considering the IRS’s aggressive posture toward tax-exempt collectives and the wave of Private Letter Rulings denying exempt status.

From a transactional perspective, attendees will analyze the key contract provisions that define sound NIL and revenue-sharing agreements, including the scope of services, termination rights, morality clauses, indemnification obligations, and appropriate insurance frameworks. The session is designed to help practitioners identify and avoid the structuring failures that generate the greatest client exposure, including sham entity arrangements lacking genuine business purpose, over-promised tax benefits, and the absence of internal compliance controls capable of withstanding IRS or institutional scrutiny.

Break | 2:30pm – 2:40pm

IV. State and Multistate Tax Planning for Student-Athletes | 2:40pm – 3:20pm

Student-athletes today earn income across multiple states, sign endorsement deals with national brands, and transfer between institutions with dramatically different state tax environments, making multistate tax planning one of the most technically demanding dimensions of NIL representation. We will address how state income tax regimes apply to mobile athletes, beginning with the foundational analysis of residency determination and the source-of-income rules that govern where NIL compensation is taxed. The session examines the application of “jock tax” principles in the NIL and revenue-sharing context, a framework historically applied to professional athletes that is now being adapted inconsistently across jurisdictions as they grapple with student-athlete compensation.

Attendees will explore the competitive dynamics between non-income-tax states and high-tax jurisdictions, and how those differences are increasingly factoring into recruitment strategies and athlete decision-making. The session also covers apportionment methodologies for national endorsement income and the state-by-state reporting inconsistencies that create double taxation risk when income-producing activity is not carefully tracked. Attorneys will leave with a practical framework for advising athletes and their representatives on the state tax consequences of compensation arrangements before commitments are made.