William C. Odle

For over thirty years, My practice has focused primarily on sports and entertainment law, complex commercial and consumer litigation, education law and Title IX. I have represented sports clients in numerous high-profile cases in the areas of antitrust, defamation, intellectual property, civil rights and constitutional law. My clients include colleges and universities, non-profit associations, and school districts, as well as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which I have successfully defended in cases involving student-athlete eligibility, amateurism, drug testing, student-athlete health and welfare, and concussion litigation. In addition to representing the NCAA in courts nationwide, I have served as outside counsel to two NCAA Presidential Working Groups, helped develop and implement major changes to the NCAA Division I enforcement program and, most recently, was engaged to assist the NCAA with implementing the recommendations issued by the Rice Commission on College Basketball. I have an active entertainment law practice and regularly advises clients in the music, publishing, and film industries.  
I have also represented Fortune 500 companies in a wide array of litigation in state and federal courts, including complex commercial litigation, class actions, FLSA and labor law, consumer law, and many other areas.
More recently, I began representing individual plaintiffs in civil rights and discrimination litigation, sex abuse cases against educational institutions and employment law. Building on this experience and, after spending decades working in “Big Law,” I decided to open my own firm with the goal of providing smaller companies and individuals with the same level of experience, service and expertise clients like the NCAA have long valued, but at affordable rates. The Odle Law Firm, LLC opened its doors in August 2021 in historic Parkville, Missouri, just minutes from downtown Kansas City.

EDUCATION  
University of Michigan School of Law School, J.D. cum laude (1988) 
University of Kansas, B.A. with highest distinction (1984)

BAR ADMISSIONS 
Missouri (1988); Kansas (1989)
Admitted to the United States Supreme Court, United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, United States District Court for the District of Kansas, United States Courts of Appeal for the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Tenth Circuits

ACTIVITIES AND MEMBERSHIPS 
The Sports Lawyers Association 
Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association (“KCMBA”)
Board Member and Legal Counsel 2004-2005
Chair, KCMBA Sports and Entertainment Law Committee,
2017-present

PRESENTATIONS
Fixing College Basketball: The Rice Commission Report One Year Later, KCMBA CLE, May 2019
Panelist, UMKC Film and the Law Series: Concussion,
January 2018
Recent Developments in Sports Law, KCMBA CLE, June 2018
Panelist, College Athlete Compensation and Unionization and the Impact of NCAA Concussion Litigation, May 2017
Hot Topics in Sports Law, KCMBA CLE April 2016

SELECT CASES
Soloviev v. Goldstein, 104 F.Supp.3d 232 (E.D.N.Y. 2015) (dismissing coaches’ discrimination claim against the NCAA and the member school that terminated him)
Class v. Towson University, 806 F.3d 236 2015 (4th Cir. 2015) (holding that university’s decision not to clear injured football player did not violation the ADA, citing the NCAA’s amicus brief on return-to-play guidelines.)
 Cohane v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 2014 WL 1279151 (W.D.N.Y. 2014) (granting judgment on civil rights conspiracy claim by former University of Buffalo men’s basket-ball coach), aff’d 2015 WL 2330069 (2d Cir. May 15, 2015)
Spirit Lake Tribe of Indians ex rel. Committee of Understanding and Respect v. NCAA, 715 F.3d 1089, 293 Ed. Law Rep. 689 (8th Cir. 2013) (affirming dismissal of antitrust, breach of contract and trademark infringement claims brought by Indian Tribe challenging policy banning hostile or abusive Native American imagery or nicknames at NCAA champion-ship events)
McAdoo v. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 736 S.E.2d 811, 288 Ed. Law Rep. 930 (N.C. App. 2013) (affirming dismissal of suit by student-athlete seeking reinstatement of athletics eligibility forfeited for academic fraud)
Victory Through Jesus Sports Ministries Foundation v. Lee’s Summit R-7 School District, 640 F. 3d 329 (8th Cir. 2011) (upholding school district’s student “backpack flyer” program against First Amendment religious discrimination claim)
Maloney v. National Collegiate Ass’n, 379 Ill.App.3d 1088, 957 N.E.2d 594 (Ill. App. 4 Dist. 2008) (rejecting challenge to policy banning use of hostile or abusive Native American imagery at NCAA championship events)