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As Indiana University’s vice president and general counsel, Anthony Prather has seen the university’s football team rise in stature over the last two years, culminating in this year’s undefeated season and top ranking heading into the College Football Playoff.
The university’s increased visibility presented Prather with an unexpected legal conundrum in 2024 when “Cignetti Towels,” in honor of Coach Curt Cignetti, briefly became all the rage for IU fans.
Unfortunately, they had a striking similarity to the Marlboro logo and Philip Morris, Marlboro’s owner, took notice of the thousands of towels and wanted a word with Prather. They quickly became a limited edition.
“It never occurred to me because I don’t smoke,” Prather told an audience of fellow general counsels Tuesday at The Indiana Lawyer and IBJ Media’s inaugural Corporate Counsel Power Breakfast.
Prather and Steven Shultz, Purdue University’s senior vice president and general counsel, took part in a “Fireside Chat” with Indianapolis Business Journal editor and IBJ Media assistant publisher Lesley Weidenbener, where they talked about legal topics like college athletes being paid, campus free speech and the impact of new Trump Administration executive orders and policies.
Schultz described the new paradigm of American college sports and college athletes getting paid for their name, image and likeness as a “revolution,” while acknowledging the challenges colleges face in trying to keep up and maintain successful athletic programs.
He and Prather also touched on issues involving student encampments, finding common ground on campus between different viewpoints and both universities’ commitment to diversity.
Prather acknowledged it has been difficult at IU, with the university traditionally having robust DEI policies in place.
He said the federal government has been telling universities that they will put themselves in harm’s way if they don’t follow the administration’s rationale regarding DEI.
The event later featured a panel discussion with several high-profile general counsel weighing in on a variety of current issues they face, including tariffs, a changing federal regulatory landscape, artificial intelligence and corporate DEI policies.
Panelists included Rachel Hazaray, Anne O’Connor, Cynthia Ridgeway, Eric Scroggins and Erika Nelson Sylvester, with The Lawyer Editor Greg Weaver moderating the discussion.
Several of the panelists cited tariffs and rapid regulatory changes as the top legal risk issues for their clients.
“In my 18 years at Allison, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Scroggins, vice president, general counsel and assistant secretary at Allison Transmission Inc., said.
Hazaray, general counsel and vice president of legal, compliance and government relations at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, said the rate of regulatory change during the second Trump administration has been incredible.
She noted that during the Biden administration, there had been more emphasis by the federal government on producing electric vehicles and hybrids.
With Trump, there’s been a dramatic rollback of the EV incentives introduced by Biden.
“Both the carrot and the stick are gone,” Hazaray said.
Hazaray acknowledged that the changes for companies moving from a free trade environment to one dominated by tariffs had been significant, with businesses not being able to anticipate all of the resulting impacts.
Ridgeway, vice president/deputy general counsel and global head of litigation at Elanco Animal Health, said her company tried to get out in front of some of the tariff changes.
Use of artificial intelligence is growing, Hazaray said. For corporate counsel, a challenge is knowing that a company is deriving benefits from the technology but also needing to fully understand the potential legal exposure attached to its use, she added.
Sylvester, general counsel and head of compliance at Authenticx, said humans need to maintain control of decision-making authority with AI.
She said she preaches to clients that they manage AI’s output.
“AI isn’t the ultimate decision maker,” Sylvester said.
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