Advocating for College Athletes
Led by former NCAA athletes and NCAA investigators, Nevius Legal represents college and high school athletes, and the businesses that support them.
Nevius Legal advises clients on all aspects of their high school and college sports careers, including initial NCAA eligibility, NCAA waiver requests, college scholarship appeals, NCAA drug appeals, NCAA investigations, NIL contracts, sports wagering, Title IX matters, health & safety, strategic advice, and more. Our attorneys have also worked with some of the top brands and sports agencies, including on millions-of-dollars-worth of NIL contracts, not including college sports “collectives.” The opportunities and demands are higher than ever for college athletes and their families. Nevius Legal is here to help.
Fighting for college athlete rights.
Since 2018, Nevius Legal has represented hundreds of athletes, male and female, across more than 15 sports, from high school to college, the Olympics, and beyond. Our attorneys have worked with some of the top brands and sports agencies involved in the high school and college sports worlds, including on millions-of-dollars-worth of NIL contracts, exclusive of deals with college sports “collectives.”
We’ve also negotiated immunity for dozens of athletes under NCAA investigation, led numerous eligibility reinstatements, won multiple NCAA drug appeals, and secured eligibility extensions and waivers for athletes across the country. Our attorneys have successfully guided top athletes and their families through some of the most challenging academic, athletic, and professional pursuits of their careers. Our work has been nationally recognized and our experience shows.
Represented more than a dozen Division I football and wrestling athletes in defense of a high-profile sports wagering and gambling investigation.
Represented a Division I women’s volleyball athlete in defense of an NCAA investigation regarding recruiting inducements and NIL contracts.
Represented a Division I football athlete in defense of an NCAA investigation regarding recruiting inducements.
Secured immunity for dozens of NCAA athletes in defense of NCAA investigations regarding recruiting inducements, impermissible contacts, NIL contracts, extra benefits, unethical conduct, and more.
Represented a Division I men’s basketball athlete in a successful transfer waiver following three previous denials by the NCAA prior to the firm’s engagement.
Represented a Division I football athlete in defense of an NCAA extra benefits investigation and the successful reinstatement of his eligibility prior to the College Football Playoff.
Tim Nevius
Called “The Change Agent” by The Athletic, Tim Nevius has worked on some of the most defining matters in college sports and helped lead the college athlete revolution. Tim has nearly twenty years of college sports experience, including as an NCAA athlete, an NCAA investigator, and a leading advocate for college athlete rights.
Following his own college baseball career, Tim graduated first in his law school class before joining the NCAA as an investigator. In that role, he helped lead some of the NCAA's highest-profile enforcement cases and conducted investigations on college campuses across the country. As a liaison to the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Tim worked with college athletes from every Division I conference on NCAA rules and proposed legislation.
After five years at the NCAA, Tim earned an LL.M. with honors from Columbia Law School and went on to form a college sports practice at Winston & Strawn in New York. As co-chair of that practice, Tim helped initiate and lead Alston v. NCAA, a groundbreaking case that led to a unanimous Supreme Court victory for college athletes and changed college sports forever.
In 2018, Tim founded Nevius Legal, a first-of-its-kind college sports practice dedicated to the representation of college athletes. He has become trusted counsel to some of the top athletes in college sports and advised over a hundred high school, college, and Olympic athletes and their families on a variety of matters – including NCAA investigations, scholarship reductions, drug appeals, gender equity, name, image, and likeness (NIL) contracts, and more. Tim was an early advocate for NIL reform and worked with state and federal lawmakers on NIL legislation.
He has testified before state legislatures and led the negotiation and execution of multiple six- and seven-figure NIL brand deals for top high school and college athletes (not in connection with NIL collectives).
As a former Division I scholarship athlete, Tim understands first-hand the pressure and demands that college athletes face on the field and in the classroom. As a one-time transfer athlete, Tim has been through the confusing maze of NCAA bylaws that regulate athletes. He is dedicated to using his combination of experience as an NCAA athlete, NCAA investigator, and sports lawyer to work hard on behalf of college athletes in a system that too often lets them down.
Tim has appeared on ESPN Outside the Lines, HBO Real Sports, NBC Sunday Today, NPR’s All Things Considered, and his work has been featured in several leading media outlets. His TEDx Talk on the Exploitation of College Athletes has been viewed nearly 1.4 million times. Tim's passion for advocating for college athletes continues as founder of Nevius Legal, where he believes in fighting for fairness, speaking for those without a voice, and the ultimate power of the underdog.
Libby Harmon
Libby Harmon is a former NCAA athlete and NCAA investigator who spent a decade on the NCAA enforcement staff.
For a decade, Libby served as lead investigator on numerous high-profile NCAA investigations, including two men’s basketball cases connected to the unprecedented federal bribery cases in the Southern District of New York. She has conducted hundreds of interviews, argued cases before the Divisions I and III Committee on Infractions, and submitted dozens of infractions briefs detailing NCAA violations, including charges concerning failure to monitor, lack of institutional, head coach’s control, and unethical conduct.
Libby oversaw the hiring and mentoring of NCAA post-graduate interns, served on the culture and inclusion team, and co-led the People of Color Ally employee engagement group for the NCAA national office. She was an active participant in the Women’s employee engagement group and founded the Women of Enforcement. As an NCAA investigator, Libby helped lead efforts to utilize open-source intelligence tools and forensic device imaging while collaborating across the NCAA, including with the Office of Legal Affairs, the Office of Inclusion, Governance, the Eligibility Center, and Academic, and Membership Affairs.
Previously, Libby served as the Director of Compliance, Student-Athlete Issues, at the University of Michigan, where she monitored NCAA rules compliance across all 29 sports and provided NCAA rules education and interpretations. At Michigan, Libby helped launch the elite student-athlete program to assist elite and Olympic-level athletes.
Her college sports career began as a graduate assistant in athletics compliance at the University of Kansas before earning an NCAA’s post-graduate internship with the enforcement staff.
A native of Overland Park, Kansas and life-long athlete, Libby held the Kansas 6A high school girls state record in the pole-vault (12 feet 1 inch) for 10 years. She was a three-time captain of the University of Kansas track and field team, including the 2008 team, which was inducted into the University of Kansas Athletic Hall of Fame. As a scholar-athlete, Libby helped lead the Jayhawks to a top-ten NCAA finish at the 2008 indoor championships and the 2007 United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic award.
As a cancer survivor, Libby works with local and national breast cancer organizations. She credits her time as an athlete in helping her overcome her 2014 cancer diagnosis. She is also an active member of Women Leaders in College Sports and a member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). Libby received her law degree from the University of Kansas and has been licensed to practice law in Indiana since 2012. She lives in Indianapolis with her spouse, son, and two dogs.