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Name the sport and Kirstie Yu ’19 surely has something to say about it. When Major League Baseball is in full swing, she’s watching the New York Yankees pitch-by-pitch. During the NFL and NBA seasons, it’s Russell Wilson, recently signed by the New York Giants, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, and newly-signed Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard, respectively, who grab her attention. And throughout tennis’s Grand Slam tournaments, she dissects the performances of Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff with the skill of a veteran analyst. Yu is a serious sports fan. Yet she never expected to have the job that she has now, counsel in the business and legal affairs department at NBC Sports.

In this Q&A, Yu talks about navigating the twists and turns of the sports broadcasting business, explains how ������ Law enabled her to use her musical abilities, and shares what studying abroad in Paris taught her about herself.

What led you to consider sports as a career option?

My parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan for their master’s degrees. They are both huge fans of sports and entertainment. So I grew up, with my younger brother, in a household that loved American sports. I still remember fondly when we would make our annual family summer outing to catch an Oakland A’s game when the Yankees were in town. My brother and I would run and stand near the Yankees dugout to get autographs. But we also had the MLB TV package, which allowed us to watch out-of-market games. And whenever our parents were driving and taking us to our afterschool activities, my dad would turn on the radio for us to listen to the Yankees game. At home, we also watched a lot of tennis, basketball, and football.

When I got to law school, I discovered that the sports industry is a niche business. With only a limited number of leagues and teams out there, the opportunities felt incredibly narrow. In other areas, like the tech field, there are just more opportunities. So working in sports just felt like it was a dream—a passion more than a practical career direction.

How did you become interested in law?

I attended UC San Diego, and my major was political science-international relations with a double minor in cognitive science and law and society. In my first year, I took an introduction to law and society class—which covered tort law of all subjects. I thought it was fascinating to learn how the law can influence product safety and in turn drive industry change and improve public welfare. So I definitely wanted to learn more about how the law functions as a force in society.

Why did you choose ������ Law?

For law school, I was actually a bit hesitant about throwing myself into New York City because I grew up in the suburbs, in the San Francisco Bay Area in a town called Saratoga. But after speaking with two ������ Law alums, Alice Thai ’18 and Brent Low ’18—I felt more confident about the decision. Brent also grew up in California and had attended UC San Diego. After hearing how well it worked out for them, that inspired me to take a leap and move across the country.

Which experiences at ������ Law stand out for you?

That it was not at all like that [1973] film I saw, The Paper Chase, where people were sabotaging each other. I was surrounded by brilliant people. And the professors were wonderful, especially my constitutional law professor [Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law], and my 1L civil procedure professor [Herbert M. and Svetlana Wachtell Professor of Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties]. In my second year, I played the flute and piccolo as part of ������ Law Revue. It was especially awesome because my friends came out to support me and I could hear them cheering for me while we were playing. I’ve played the flute since the fourth grade, so it was wonderful to have that opportunity.

Being in New York, I could see that I was becoming more confident. I remember when I finished my final exam during my 1L year, I took the subway to Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx. There wasn’t a game happening at that particular time, but I just wanted to be in that atmosphere. I went over to the Hard Rock Cafe. For me, it was just a celebration of my first year of law school and being in New York. I told myself, “All right, I made it.” And then I just started going to Broadway shows on the weekends and visiting museums, landmarks, and restaurants in different neighborhoods.

And for my last semester, I studied abroad in Paris. I had already learned conversational French while I was in middle school and high school. But being in Paris really opened things up for me. Studying abroad was one of the best decisions that I made in my life, but especially while I was in law school.

You also co-chaired the Asian-Pacific Allied Law Students Association (APALSA) at ������. What do you recall about that?

It was a tough year in working to make sure that we continued the accomplishments of the prior team—we wanted to ensure that our members got access to a variety of opportunities to connect with law firm practitioners. APALSA was very important to me because of diversity. We wanted to make sure that everybody was included and to give other students who looked like me the resources they needed to engage with folks in the field. It was also about building a community and a support system.

What happened after you graduated from ������ Law?

I worked at a big law firm called Debevoise & Plimpton doing investment funds and M&A. When I was in law school, I had attended a few sports law association events that had panels with people from the sports industry. And every single one of them said, “You have to go to a big law firm because companies don’t hire law students straight out of law school.” They compared the firms to boot camps. They said that being there would show the companies that you have the discipline and training to handle the pressure of in-house life. After about three and a half years, I was ready to try something else.

I was applying to postings on LinkedIn, and I randomly found a posting for an opening for my current position. I applied and I did an initial screener, which I actually thought went poorly because I couldn’t speak to any prior sports or media experience. But then I was asked to come in for an interview. After several rounds of interviews, I got a job offer.

Some people find it hard to believe that I didn’t have a connection because the field is often based on a lot of networking. But that wasn’t the case for me. I was just looking when this dream opportunity came up.

What does your work with NBC Sports entail?

I’m one of the main production lawyers on our team. I work on vendor and production services agreements for our operations, which includes the engineering, marketing, and production teams. We don’t shoot every single thing that we put on TV, for example. So we often hire third-party production companies to help film a commercial or do a shoot internationally. That’s where I come in, to help get a contract in place with these service providers. One example are the contracts with the vendors who built our sets at the summer Olympic Games in Paris last year. And sometimes I work with the talent team and get involved with labor and employment issues as well.

We’ve been working on contracts and deals for the Winter Olympics next February in Italy in addition to the Super Bowl, which will also take place next February. And this fall will mark the first season of our new NBA deal. All of that is already in full swing behind the scenes, so it’s been a really exciting time.

The media landscape is constantly evolving. What has it been like to work in the industry during such a transformative time?  

Well, right now we’re undergoing a spin-off that was announced late last year. It will be a transition in which some of NBCUniversal’s cable companies—such as MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, the Golf Channel—will be part of a new independent company called Versant. We’re doing a lot of prep work for that transition, and it’s been interesting seeing how much strategy and planning goes into a move like this.

But overall, every day I feel like I hit the jackpot. I’m learning something new all the time—whether it’s about sports or the law. It’s just been amazing.

What advice would you give to current students?  

Use experiential learning to try something unfamiliar. It’s a fantastic opportunity to explore without long-term risk. Some of the most meaningful parts of law school for me were the things that felt like leaps—mediating real cases in small claims court in the Bronx, or spending my last semester studying abroad in Paris. Those experiences pushed me outside of my comfort zone and helped me get more comfortable with uncertainty, which made it easier to stay open to unexpected opportunities, like the one that led me to my current dream job in sports media.