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Partner | Church Church Hittle + Antrim
A former collegiate golfer, Kelleigh Irwin Fagan guides colleges and universities through challenging NCAA investigations and other NCAA matters such as infractions, name-image-likeness issues and Title IX concerns. Outside the practice of law, she helps ensure that the people on the firm’s sports law team are fulfilled and challenged so they can succeed professionally and personally. She credits the team with much of her own success. “They make me better at my job,” she said, “and we collaborate in a way that is without ego, which I think leads to the best advice, brief or strategy for clients.”
Getting here: After her college golf career at the University of Indianapolis was cut short by injury, she worked in the school’s athletics department, where her boss connected her to an alum who worked at the NCAA. A college externship in the NCAA’s enforcement department exposed her to an opportunity to combine two things she loved—sports and law.
First job: Working the concession stand, miniature golf course and carousel at Forest Park in Noblesville.
Proud moment: She helped persuade CCHA to establish the sports law practice. “It’s thrilling to reflect on where we started, where we are now, and where we are headed,” she said.
Mentors: Fellow CCHA attorneys Leslie Henderzahs, Mike Antrim and Julie Roe Lach, who each made her career at CCHA and practicing sports law possible. “Each took a chance on me, championed me, and then deftly and gently guided me—and continue to—along the way,” Fagan said.
Givebacks: She sits on the Sports & Entertainment Law Section Executive Committee of the Indianapolis Bar Association and is president of the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville. “I spent a lot of time as a kid at BGCN, and my family has always been involved,” she said. “So to come full circle as a board member in a leadership role is a privilege.”
Advice: “Find a topic that makes you really excited to learn and study, and surround yourself with people you enjoy practicing that topic. Those two things make the stressors we all face day to day more manageable.”•
Check out more Forty Under 40 honorees.
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