With the labor fight shifting from a conference room to a courtroom, the NFL has lined up a couple of big names to help win the case.
The league has announced that David Boies (pictured) and Paul Clement will join Gregg Levy in the handling of the antitrust litigation filed by Tom Brady and other players on Friday.
Boies, one of the best-known lawyers in the country, has been involved in numerous high-profile cases, including the Bush v. Gore litigation that determined the 43rd President of the United States. More recently, Boies secured a $1.3 billion copyright infringement verdict for Oracle. Boies currently presents plaintiffs who are attacking California’s ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional.
Clement was the 43rd Solicitor General of the U.S., serving from June 2005 through June 2008.
Levy, a finalist for the job of Commissioner in 2006, is a partner at Covington & Burling, the firm that produced former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
The players are represented by locally in Minnesota by the firms of Berens & Miller and Briggs & Morgan. Also on the pleadings are James W. Quinn and Bruce S. Meyer of Weil, Gosthal & Manges of New York, and Jeffrey Kessler and two other attorneys from Dewey & LeBouef. Kessle has served the NFLPA for years and enjoys a high profile, especially in sports litigation. The fact that the NFL generally dislikes him means that he’s doing something right.
