Law360 Names Akin Gump’s Sports Practice a Practice Group of the Year

February 6, 2017Law360

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(Washington, D.C.) –Akin Gump’s sports practice has been named a Law360 practice group of the year, following what the publication said was “a busy 2016 guiding the NFL (National Football League) to some major labor wins that confirmed the commissioner’s authority, including an arbitration decision upholding the commissioner’s new player personal conduct policy.”

Law360 cited a trio of labor disputes that concluded last year on which Akin Gump acted on behalf of the league. They included:

  • “Deflategate,” involving New England patriots quarterback Tom Brady
  • a case involving the suspension of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson
  • a grievance over the player personal conduct policy issued in 2014 by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

Each of the cases, Law360 wrote, set strong precedent for the NFL and “the commissioner’s authority to discipline players under the collective bargaining agreement.”

Akin Gump labor and employment partner Daniel Nash, who was also selected by Law360 as an Employment MVP for 2016 (click here to read more), told the publication the reason for that “is a labor law principle that essentially, the parties to a collective bargaining agreement have a right to negotiate how things are handled. In each of the cases, both the courts and the arbitrator said this is what the parties bargained for and the labor laws require that the bargain be enforced.”

Labor and employment partner Stacey Eisenstein, speaking about the firm’s many years representing the NFL in such disputes said, “There is certainly a great team of people in our group who have been working on NFL matters for over 10 years. We all have a longstanding relationship with lawyers in the league and it enables our practice to handle a variety of matters.”

To read the full profile of the firm, please click here.

Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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