A recent American Lawyer story, “Amid Battles With League, NFL Players Incur Big Legal Fees,” reports that in February, the NFL revealed in federal tax filings how much it paid during its most recent fiscal year to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Covington & Burling and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. In an annual filing with the U.S. Department of Labor just before the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the Washington, D.C.-based labor union representing the league’s players detailed its own payments to 16 law firms, including fees for more than a half-dozen Am Law 100 firms.
Winston & Strawn, which has long served as primary outside counsel to the National Football League Players Association, won the lion’s share of the outside counsel work by receiving nearly $4.5 million in fees during the one-year period between March 1, 2015, and Feb. 29, 2016, according to the union’s LM-2 filing with the Labor Department on May 27. The sum is nearly double what Winston & Strawn took in from the union a year before.
Jeffrey Kessler, co-chair of the sports law group at Winston & Strawn and elected co-chairman of the firm last year, just three years removed from leading a 60-lawyer team to the firm from now-defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf, serves as the NFLPA’s primary outside counsel. Kessler, a high-profile sports industry litigator, is currently part of the legal team assembled by New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady in his ongoing effort to overturn league-imposed sanctions stemming from the so-called Deflategate saga.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which is working with Kessler on Brady’s appeal of a four-game suspension in the Deflategate matter, received $145,182 for its services to the union last year. Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which has also worked closely with Kessler (he was once an associate and partner at the firm) on NFLPA matters, took in another $35,570 from the union.
Norton Rose Fulbright, which has handled internal investigations for the NFLPA on everything from bounty scandals and locker room bullying issues to domestic violence, was paid $255,358 by the union last year. Latham & Watkins, which began taking on more NFLPA-related work in 2009 after the election of former partner DeMaurice “De” Smith as the union’s executive director, received $418,472 from the nonprofit organization during its most recent fiscal year.
Other outside firms receiving payments from the NFLPA last year include the Washington, D.C.-based Groom Law Group ($331,412); Minneapolis-based Berens Miller ($193,356); Boston-based Hemenway & Barnes ($84,766); Philadelphia’s Willig, Williams & Davidson ($60,000); San Francisco-based Altshuler Berzon ($38,648); New York’s Norwick, Schad & Goering ($30,000); Columbus, Ohio-based Zaino Hall & Farrin ($26,852); Kirkland & Ellis ($26,387); Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe ($17,899); Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner ($12,741); and Andover, Massachusetts-based Gilbert & Renton ($8,072).