Arent Fox Partner RICHARD BRAND likes to joke that he typically never gets to thoroughly enjoy his weekends because he is sitting by his laptop drafting agreements. “I usually find out my weekend work schedule at about 7:09 Friday evening.” But he enters this weekend with high hopes of relishing family time at his Bethesda, Md., home.
HAVING A BALL: Friday night I’m going to go to the Wizards game. I’ve represented those guys for many years and my 17-year-old son is a Wizards ball boy. So I go to all the games with my wife and we usually go to the game and the ball boys have to stay after usually one to two hours. So usually I go to the Wizards game with my wife, watch my son do whatever it is he does. I also watch the game a little bit too. Afterwards we go to dinner, wait for him to be finished and take him home. By the way, I would love, love to get a job throwing strong passes to the players and all that other stuff. I’ve asked the client, but they just don’t want a 52-year-old ball boy (laughing). ... The good news is we see all the restaurants around the Verizon Center. The bad news is I probably spend more cash at these restaurants than my son could ever hope to make being a ball boy, but it’s all good.
ROCK & ROLL: Saturday morning I go to the gym. I work out for usually two to three hours. I run half marathons and I’m thinking about a full marathon. I just finished the Rock & Roll half marathon and my daughter is studying in Madrid, so my wife and I are going out there. And it just so happens that on that Sunday they have the Rock & Roll the first time ever in Madrid, so I’m going to run that one as well. Great way to see Madrid, I’m really excited about that.
GOT A HUNCH FOR BRUNCH? We always have a family brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, which would be my wife and my kids minus the one in Madrid. Whenever I get back from the gym, usually 11 or 12 o’clock, we usually have a pretty nice-sized brunch. We don’t have the breakfast thing or a lunch thing, we just the brunch thing.
EXCUSE MR. SPEAKER: This Saturday I’m speaking at the SEME Sports Career Conference, which is sponsored by Georgetown University. I’m speaking at a panel there at Nationals Park. That’s going to take up a large part of my afternoon. The panel is called Sports Law Contracts, Negotiations and Representations: Sign On The Dotted Line. I must speak about 20 or 30 times a year. As usual, in our market it’s a 30-minute panel and five hours of networking. And I know that for sure because I just got back from the IMG World Congress.
BRACKET BUSTER: Saturday night at 6:09pm is the Final Four, so I pretty much know what I’m going to be doing Saturday night. I was leading my bracket and then Michigan State lost. Now the only way I could win is if all four teams in the Final Four lose all their games. Probably not going to happen. If they all walk away and say we’re not doing this anymore, I’m pretty sure I’m going to win.
ON THE SEVENTH DAY HE RESTS: We’ll be spending the day outside. We have a nice family dinner on Sunday night, and then usually the family watches some type of TV show. We have a couple of favorites that we save, that we DVR. Then I kind of prepare for the week that’s coming. I travel a lot so Sunday night for me is just a good time to sort of hang in there, see the family and get ready for the upcoming week.
