Miami’s Alan Fertel recounts the thrills and challenges of supporting Olympic stars
Miami lawyer Alan Fertel, right, at the Paris Olympics with client Bobby Finke’s parents, Jeanne and Joe. Finke won the 1,500-meter freestyle and preserved a tradition that has seen U.S. men’s swimming take at least one individual Olympic gold medal since 1900. “Bobby Finke saved U.S. men’s swimming,” Fertel says. “If Bobby Finke doesn’t win a gold medal, the U.S. is shut out for the first time in Olympic history. Not only does the kid win a gold medal, he sets a world record. It was the most unbelievable evening.”
Jet lag and a rocky readjustment to the Eastern Time Zone haven’t dulled Miami lawyer Alan Fertel’s Olympic high.
“I’m riding this post-Olympic crest,” he said. “You say to yourself, ‘was it dream? Was it a fantasy?’ And it turns out, it was real.”
As chair of the sports, arts and entertainment and family law groups for Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, Fertel attended the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris to support his clients, USA Swimming standouts Caleb Dressel of Gainesville and Bobby Finke of Clearwater.
Fertel got to watch their triumphs and setbacks play out on a world stage with all the high drama that Olympic fans and corporate sponsors have come to expect.
Fertel can hardly contain his excitement as he issues a non-stop stream of Olympic vignettes and recounts a 40-year legal career that he decided to pursue as a boy growing up in the Bronx.
“You can tell I’m a talker,” he apologizes. “This was the highlight of my professional/sports career.”
It was the business trip of a lifetime and Fertel earned his keep.
He was forced to play hard ball with a national network when it trained its cameras — too painfully long — on Dressel tearfully hugging University of Florida team physician Dr. Katie Edenfield after Dressel finished fifth in his heat in the 100-meter butterfly, and a disappointing 13th overall.
What fans considered gratuitous coverage could only make sense from a network producer’s perspective.
Dressel, 27, is 6-3 and more than 200 pounds. Square shouldered, thickly muscled, and with heavily tattooed arms, he looks more like an NFL linebacker than a typical lithe swimmer. Big men don’t cry, especially not on a world stage. Fertel wasn’t poolside for the incident, but he knew about it immediately.
“My phone starts to blow up. It was just hours of issues,” Fertel says. “The agent and I had to contact USA Swimming, USOC [U.S. Olympic Committee]. We had to talk to NBC. They didn’t apologize, but they did do a pretty nice piece the next day on Caleb and mental health.”
It was a telling moment at a time when world-class athletes like gymnast Simone Biles, and Dressel himself, have had to step back from the pressures of competing to safeguard their mental health.
It became a public issue for Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist when he entered the Paris games, in the summer of 2022, when he withdrew from the World Championships in Budapest after winning two gold medals.
“The whole swimming world was incredibly nervous, because the face of American swimming took eight months off,” Fertel said.
Dressel’s comeback was firmly established at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis earlier this year, where he qualified for three Paris events.
“Nobody knew how he was going to do in Indianapolis. He did great. Speedo was there, Omega was there, Coca-Cola, Beats, they were all there, and they were all nervous,” Fertel says.
The NBC incident was also emblematic of how Fertel defines his role as an Olympic athlete’s lawyer — protector.
“I’m a civil litigator, I’m there to handle their civil needs. I negotiate contracts,” he says. “But if any of the family members has any issues, I take care of it as part of what I do, no matter what it is, if it’s buying property, if it’s starting a foundation, God forbid, if it’s a car accident. I’m not there just to do contracts for people. I’m also an advisor.”
Unlike an agent who claims a percentage of a sponsorship deal, Fertel charges his clients by the hour.
“All that matters to me is if it’s a good deal for my client,” Fertel says.
Fertel knew from an early age that he wanted to be a lawyer. When he was a toddler, his grandfather noticed his gift for gab and inquisitive nature and nicknamed him “counselor.”
Fertel worked in the family’s bagel bakery in high school, starting shifts at 5 a.m. A lifelong sports lover, he played a lot of football. At Shippensburg State College, Fertel competed as a pole vaulter.
Alan Fertel with U.S. swimmer Caeleb Dressel’s family poolside at the Paris Olympics..
Fertel was working as a college intern for a New York legislator when a lawyer in the same building who happened to know Florida Congressman Claude Pepper recommended that Fertel enroll at the University of Miami School of Law.
“He used to steal me from the senator’s office and talk to me. He knew I wanted to be a lawyer,” Fertel says.
After graduating UM School of Law in 1984, Fertel began plying his trade as a commercial civil litigator, which still makes up half his practice. Back then, the only professional sports team in South Florida was the Miami Dolphins.
Things started to break more Fertel’s way when he represented a radio station owner in a dispute with an on-air talent. When the owner bought the sports formatted radio station WQAM, Fertel was in heaven.
“The next thing I know I’m doing broadcast agreements for the Dolphins and the Marlins and the University of Miami. And I started to do work in the sports space,” he said.
A law partner suggested Fertel meet with a New York public relations firm to build up a sports practice. They issued a news release listing 10 “do’s and don’ts” for keeping players out of trouble during the Super Bowl.
“We put it out on the AP and the UPI wire, because that’s how you got things out then, there was no internet,” Fertel said.
The NFL remembered Fertel’s advice when an Oakland Raiders player disappeared before Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002, only to be found later passed out in a Tijuana motel, Fertel said.
“It was terrible for him, great for me,” Fertel said.
The head of NFL security recruited Fertel to participate in a training video. Fertel also became a “legal chaperone” for NFL draft picks. It wasn’t a paying gig, Fertel says, but it introduced him to some of the nation’s top players.
“I would have paid them,” he said.
Another lucky break came when a doctor advised Fertel’s daughter, Kelly, to rehab an injury by swimming laps.
“She turns out to be an All-American swimmer, she goes to the University of Florida, becomes a two-time captain, she goes to the Maccabean Games in Israel, and sets five Maccabean records,” Fertel says. “As a result of her swimming at Florida, I was a swim dad with Caleb Dressel’s parents, and Bobby Finke’s parents, and the next thing I know, Dressel’s mother asked me to represent him.”
Dressel was 19 and had two gold medals from the 2016 Olympics in Rio when he decided to go pro and asked Fertel to represent him. Fertel helped Dressel negotiate a rare, two-Olympic sponsorship deal with Speedo. Dressel went on to win five gold medals in Tokyo in 2020. If anyone can sustain a comeback, it’s Dressel, Fertel says. In interviews, Dressel is open about his mental health challenges, refuses to make excuses for a disappointing performance, and refuses to criticize competitors. Dressel is deeply devoted to his parents and siblings who often travel with him, Fertel says. Earlier this year, Dressel became a father when his wife Meghan gave birth to their son, August Wilder Dressel. Fertel says Caleb Dressel is happiest surrounded by his family on his Micanopy cattle ranch, a purchase he helped Dressel negotiate.
Finke, who trains with Dressel at the University of Florida, also approached Fertel when he decided to go pro.
Finke entered the Paris games already holding two Olympic gold medals, and delivered an Olympic thrill that Fertel will never forget.
Finke won the 1,500-meter freestyle and preserved a tradition that has seen U.S. men’s swimming take at least one individual Olympic gold medal since 1900.
“Bobby Finke saved U.S. men’s swimming,” Fertel says. “If Bobby Finke doesn’t win a gold medal, the U.S. is shut out for the first time in Olympic history. Not only does the kid win a gold medal, he sets a world record. It was the most unbelievable evening.”
Just thinking about it gets Fertel worked up.
“I can’t thank my firm enough for making it possible, and I’m really, really, happy to be talking to you and letting other lawyers know there’s a little fun in being a member of The Florida Bar.”
