MICHAEL LEE-Chin, the Jamaican-born chairman and founder of Canadian mutual fund company AIC, and American criminal lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who played a significant role in getting O. J. Simpson acquitted on a murder charge, have joined forces to form a sporting and entertainment client agency. The agency is rather like the William Morris Agency and Creative Artist Agency, founded by Michael Ovitz.
The aim is to negotiate sporting personalities performance contracts, more notably for those in the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB). The new body will also represent those in the entertainment business.
AIC, in a release, said the new branch of sports representation service to professional athletes and entertainers will "provide their clients and their clients' families with a level of comprehensive financial and business education and guidance from the start of their professional careers, that will empower their clients to better protect and grow their wealth so that it can be passed on from generation to generation."
It has yet to be established where this new entity will be based or how much capital has been injected into the enterprise. However, there are synergies that should prove propitious to this new venture.
Michael Lee-Chin, who acquired the local National Commercial Bank (NCB) last year, brings experience in financial services, and Johnnie Cochran's legal expertise is fairly well known.
It is hoped that Jamaican sporting and entertainment personalities who have in the past complained about the absence of adequate representation will benefit from this new alliance.
