Alan Fein worked in the Carter White House, first for the White House Domestic Policy Staff and then for the President's Assistant for Reorganization. He has been involved in Florida politics for thirty years, and has supported Democratic presidential candidates, including Barack Obama. Alan is a practicing lawyer, specializing in complex commercial litigation, first amendment litigation, sports law and election law. He graduated with honors from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennslyvania, and the Georgetown University Law Center. He has been a frequent guest on MSNBC's "Hardball" on subjects ranging from the 2000 Florida recount to professional sports.

As a sports lawyer, Alan helped secure the franchise for the NBA's Miami Heat, and has been counseling the Heat for over two decades. He has negotiated some of the largest player contracts in the history of professional sports, and is the proud owner of an NBA Championship ring.

Alan lives on Key Biscayne, Florida with his wife, the playwright Susan Westfall, and their two sons, Jake and Peter.

Blog Entries by Alan Fein

Generational Theft?

2 Comments | Posted March 10, 2009 | 10:55 AM (EST)


The Republican response to President Obama's stimulus package and budget proposals have been nothing but predictable. They warn us that we are about to "saddle our children and grandchildren with debt," debt so profound that it amounts to "generational theft."

The president and a number of commentators were certainly correct...

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Underestimate Obama At Your Peril

74 Comments | Posted February 11, 2009 | 10:46 AM (EST)


I received an email from a friend in Los Angeles last Monday telling me that my buddy Chris Matthews quoted me on the midnight edition of Hardball. Earlier on Monday, I had emailed Chris to vent my frustration. For the last week or so I had been throwing things at...

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I Like What I See in Florida

Posted November 1, 2008 | 02:37 PM (EST)


I just returned from the early voting site at the Government Center in Downtown Miami. The sight was thrilling. There is a steady stream of voters, and the crowd skews to the young and minority. At another site here in Miami, over one thousand, mostly minority, voters are waiting in...

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Declaring War on the Meltdown/Part 2: Taking on Debt For Infrastructure

Posted October 13, 2008 | 10:40 AM (EST)


Last week, I suggested a bold plan to declare war on the meltdown. I discussed how our misadventure in Iraq had drained a trillion dollars from our economy, just like doctors used to drain blood from a sick patient. Senator McCain's basic answer is to tighten our belts, in effect...

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Declaring War on the Meltdown

Posted October 10, 2008 | 02:32 PM (EST)


It's time to declare war on our economic meltdown, and put America back to work.

Back in July, I shared some thoughts in this blog about what an "economy" is, and how the war in Iraq was bleeding dollars from our economy: George Bush has chosen to fight this war...

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Marketing for Grownups: Selling the Rescue Plan

Posted September 30, 2008 | 04:33 PM (EST)


For years, we've marveled at the marketing and branding skills of the Bush White House. From "The Patriot Act" to "No Child Left Behind", these guys came up with great names for some toxic stuff. That is why I'm so surprised at how they've bungled the sale of Secretary Paulson's...

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McCain's Untethered Flailing Continues

Posted September 25, 2008 | 11:22 AM (EST)


John McCain's week of flailing on the economic crisis has -- like his pick of Sarah Palin -- demonstrated that he is untethered and lacking in temperament to be our nation's leader. His latest gambit, his attempt to avoid the marketplace of ideas in Friday's debate, demonstrates he has no...

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A Celebrity for the Right Reason

Posted September 15, 2008 | 07:00 PM (EST)


For nearly two weeks, all we talked about was lipstick. Now, finally, we are talking about the Republican stewardship over the economy. It's easy to forget that in just a few days, Barack Obama and John McCain will debate foreign policy. In that light, it's time to remember something we...

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In the Big Hall With Hillary

Posted August 27, 2008 | 07:56 PM (EST)


I had not been back to a national convention since 1976, so I had forgotten something: conventions are a lot like Super Bowls. When there are moments of drama, there's nothing like being there. The rest of the time - like the Super Bowl halftime show, for instance -...

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On The Amtrak To Wilmington With Joe Biden

Posted August 24, 2008 | 04:39 PM (EST)


One of the things we've been told about Joe Biden lately is that he takes the Amtrak home to Wilmington at the end of the day. The day I shared a car with him, I saw for myself that he doesn't just take the train. He works hard, and what...

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Obama Calls McCain's Bluff on Drilling

Posted August 4, 2008 | 06:24 PM (EST)


Coming just the day after Exxon announced the largest quarterly profit in the history of the Earth, Barack Obama's announced willingness to consider the proposed Senate compromise to allow the possibility of new and limited oil drilling leases seemed a bit curious. When you drill down a little deeper --...

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It's Not Good Luck, It's Consensus

Posted August 1, 2008 | 11:32 AM (EST)


It has been described as Barack Obama's "good fortune" at the beginning of his recent trip. But what we've witnessed over the last few weeks was not a string of luck, but a culmination of a process of thought that has spanned much of the new century. Finally, in the...

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Iraq Is The Economy, Stupid

Posted July 3, 2008 | 12:44 PM (EST)


John McCain has been arguing lately that we are closing in on "victory" in Iraq. It's sometimes hard to understand what "victory" means, especially when we watch Iraq's leader physically embrace Iran's Ahmadinejad, while Ahmadinejad calls for American troops to leave Iraq. Our "victory" is Iran's new best friend....

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How McCain and Crist Help Big Oil Change the Subject

Posted June 30, 2008 | 04:42 PM (EST)


Here in Florida, there has been a bipartisan and historical agreement that oil drilling off our coasts is a very bad idea. Even our last Governor had told his brother president that lifting the drilling moratorium wouldn't sell in Florida. If it weren't for presidential politics, it would be hard...

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