Labor Agents

Former Octagon counsel opts for entrepreneurial dreams

At age 34, Erica Bashour seemingly had it all, or at least all that matters to career-minded, upwardly mobile sports lawyers.

As general counsel of Octagon Worldwide, the sports marketing powerhouse, Bashour was lawyering the deals for the firm’s superstar clients, including handling endorsements for Michael Phelps and recently overseeing NBA rookie Chris Paul’s pact with Nike.

Then, on Sept. 9, Bashour quit.

After seven years at Octagon, Bashour left to try her hand as an entrepreneur. Her new venture is b.sweets, a gourmet chocolate company that seeks to unite candy lovers with chocolate-covered, upscale confections. Take your pick at the company Web site, www.bsweets.com.

Why would an experienced lawyer with a coveted sports job toss it for chocolate-covered marshmallows?

Not burnout, noted Bashour’s former boss, Octagon senior vice president Peter Lawler.

“Obviously, the entrepreneurial activity excited her a lot,” Lawler said.

Erica Bashour (right), sister Shelly (second from right) and two cousins are running b.sweets.

Bashour explained her decision as partly personal, partly professional and partly the result of her spirit of adventure.

Recently married, Bashour was seeking a change in lifestyle and a different rhythm to her work days, which at Octagon began with 10 hours and often stretched much longer.

“What I was doing at Octagon wasn’t challenging anymore,” Bashour said. “I was ready for something new, and something I could be passionate about because it was my own business.”

But Bashour’s decision also reflects colder realities facing lawyers working in the sports field. For those not affiliated with law firms, career paths can be unpredictable and slower to develop than those for their peers.

For Bashour, staying at Octagon likely meant that she had reached the top, or nearly the top, of the ladder for a lawyer. Short of being named a vice president, there were few paths to promotion.

“At a point, you understand that the only way to advance is to leave,” Bashour said.

Lawler agreed. “There were no stepping-stones,” he said. “If she stayed another 10 years, she’d probably be doing pretty much what she had been doing.”

Then there are issues of compensation for sports lawyers, who are well paid but whose salaries often do not match those of comparably experienced attorneys in private practice.

“To be in this glamorous field, you take a discount,” Bashour said. “At a point, you accept it. It is what it is.”

Bashour makes it clear that there was much about her practice at Octagon that she found satisfying, even energizing. Seeing the fruit of a negotiation — a commercial or a print ad — is one example.

Stepping out on a narrow ledge is not new to Bashour. Fresh out of Catholic University Law School in 1997, she passed up traditional law jobs to join Octagon as a glorified go-fer. “My parents laughed about it,” said her sister, Shelly. “They’d say, ‘Erica, tell us again why we sent you to law school?’”

For now, Bashour’s focus is to get b.sweets on store shelves and to develop relationships with companies, such as hotels, that might be large buyers of gourmet candy.

“With no one being full time until now,” she said, “we haven’t had the opportunity to work on strategic partnerships.”

Mark Hyman can be reached at mhyman@sportsbusinessjournal.com.