Lester Munson: About Lester


lester@lestermunson.com Phone: (312) 648-1152 FAX: (312) 648-0801

LATEST NEWS (4/27/08):

Munson Will Be Featured Speaker at Law Day Celebrations in Memphis, Tenn. (April 29) and Woodstock, Ill. (May 2)

Using a unique combination of journalistic investigative skills and courtroom experience, Lester Munson has reported on legal issues in sports for 18 years. He digs into criminal charges against sports celebrities; he analyzes labor issues that divide team owners and players; and he describes the dynamics of money, celebrity, race, politics, economics, drugs, gambling, and violence in the sports industry, a business that commands a larger audience than any other in America.

In his speaking engagements, Munson combines his inside knowledge of sports with his own insights and humor to produce presentations that are both substantive and entertaining. His topics range from serious looks at domestic violence, use of performance enhancing drugs, sexual assault, and murder to descriptions of some of the most bizarre episodes in the history of sports.

As a senior writer and legal analyst for ESPN.com, his current assignments include the Congressional hearings on the Steroid Era in baseball, the investigations of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Miguel Tejada, the prosecution of NFL star Michael Vick on dog fighting charges, the prospect of an NFL work stoppage, and gambling charges against an NBA referee.

TEACHING

Munson has lectured at the University of Chicago Law School, the Chicago-Kent College of Law, the John Marshall Law School, DePaul University, Loyola University, Concordia University, Loyola University, and Robert Morris College.

His principal teaching work is at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism where he is an adjunct professor. He teaches a nine-week seminar on sports issues two or three times each year.

Using his legal training and expertise, Munson is able to gather and to analyze material not often found in routine sports coverage. He is able to put criminal charges and civil litigation in the sports industry into a context that give new insights into each case and into American pop culture.

Before joining ESPN, Munson worked at The National Sports Daily (1989 to 1991) and Sports Illustrated (1991 to 2007). He writes columns for Crain’s Chicago Business on both sports and politics. He appears frequently on WTTW, Channel 11, the Public Broadcasting affiliate in Chicago, on WBEZ, the National Public Radio affiliate in Chicago, and on numerous ESPN television and radio shows. He has won several journalism awards. Three of his articles have been finalists for National Magazine Awards, and his writing has appeared in the series Best Sports Writing.

Munson is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago Law School and is licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois. He teaches at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism.

His wife, Judith, an attorney, specializes in international issues of public health preparedness and is the executive director of the International Collaborative for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and an adjunct professor at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago.