By Scott Flaherty, From The Am Law Daily

Top Winston & Strawn antitrust lawyer Jeffery Kessler is back in the sports industry spotlight this week, after a group of leading U.S. women’s soccer players accused the sport’s governing body of sex bias.

As widely reported on Thursday, Kessler is representing five prominent members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team—Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe and Rebecca Sauerbrunn—in a wage discrimination case filed at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC filing alleges that female players are paid substantially less than members of the U.S. men’s soccer team, despite the women’s exemplary record on the international stage, which includes winning the most recent World Cup in July.

Kessler said Thursday that his involvement in the case grew out of his firm’s work for the team’s players union in a dispute over a collective bargaining agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation, the sport’s American governing organization. The federation in February sued the women’s union in connection with that matter.

“In assessing the situation,” said Kessler, “we conferred with the women, and they concluded that it was time to assert their rights under Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964] and the Equal Pay Act.”

The EEOC discrimination complaint sets off an investigation, after which the agency could decide whether to pursue litigation. If the EEOC declines to sue, the players could still take their claims to court on their own. 

By choosing Kessler for the EEOC case, the female soccer players are sending a clear signal that they mean business with their bias claims.

Kessler joined Winston & Strawn from Dewey & LeBoeuf amid Dewey’s collapse in 2012, and last September was named co-chair of the firm along with Dan Webb. Kessler also leads Winston’s antitrust group and co-leads its sports law practice, and he’s been an ever-present figure in a string of major cases involving leading sports organizations in recent years. 

In the early 1990s, Kessler represented National Football League players in a landmark antitrust case, McNeil v. NFL. The suit resulted in a 1992 win that many credit with paving the way toward a less restrictive free agency system in the NFL.

He also helped a class of NFL players in a more recent antitrust dispute with league management, helping to bring an end to the 2011 players’ lockout. And, last year, Kessler cemented his reputation by helping New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady beat a suspension in the wake of the “Deflategate” saga.

The Am Law Litigation Daily recognized Kessler as Litigator of the Week for the Brady win, and Patriots’ fans were even more generous in their praise. They reportedly chanted Kessler’s name while he was on the sidelines at a Sept. 10 game.

Kessler’s sports work has often had at least some interplay with labor issues stemming from players’ collective bargaining agreements. Still, his latest case marks his most direct foray into the employment litigation arena.

Kessler said Thursday that he’s never brought an EEOC case in the sports context, but he described the soccer players’ case as a natural extension of his sports law practice.

“This is well within my wheelhouse,” he said. 

IMAGE: Jeffrey Kessler of Winston & Strawn. Laura Barisonzi

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