A recent Am Law Daily story, “Super Bowl Special: A Look at the Legal Fees Racked Up by NFL Player Ahead of the Lockout” reports that the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), like all labor unions, must file annual LM-2 forms with the U.S. Department of Labor.  The union’s most recent filings detailing its finances is for the period between March 1, 2010 and February 2011.  Included in those disclosures are payments made to outside accounting, financial, law, and lobbying firms, as well as to other external vendors.  By far, a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) consumed the bulk of the NFLPA’s outside legal and lobbying expenditures.  Top billing law firms included:

Latham & Watkins: $3.1 million (CBA and public policy)

Dewey & LeBoeuf: $2.9 million (CBA matters/legal services)

Patton Boggs: $948,983 (CBA and public policy matters)

Gibson Dunn: $294,843 (Antitrust/CBA matters)

Weil Gotshal: $274,075 (CBA matters)

One interesting conclusion that can immediately be drawn by reviewing the NFLPA’s financial statements is that since DeMaurice Smith, a former Latham and Patton Boggs partner became the union’s executive director three years ago, those firms have encroached on the outside legal turf traditionally owned by Dewey and Weil.  The filings also shows salaries and bonuses paid to the NFLPA’s in-house counsel.  The union’s longtime outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler, chair of Dewey’s global litigation department received more than $1.5 million in compensation for the union’s 2010 fiscal year.

A trio of Smith’s former colleagues from Patton Boggs that left the firm to join him at the NFLPA also appear on the union’s in-house legal payroll.  Longtime Patton Boggs partner and chief operating officer Ira Fishman received $606,300 in his new role as managing director of the NFLPA.  Payments to associate general counsel Heather McPhee and vice president of legal affairs Ahmad Nessar, both of whom are former Patton Boggs associates, totaled $310,020 and $287,324, respectively.  Tuaranna “Teri” Patterson, a former Latham associate now serving as deputy managing director and special counsel to Smith, was paid $178,554.