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Billy Hunter's successor. Good thing she has a lot of trial experience because the next CBA battle won't be pretty.
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NBA players' union elects attorney Michele Roberts as executive director
Adrian Wojnarowski
By Adrian Wojnarowski 15 minutes ago Yahoo Sports
The National Basketball Players Association elected Michele Roberts, a prominent Washington civil litigator, as its executive director.
Roberts, an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, is the first woman to lead a major North American sports league union.
Roberts was the recommendation of NBPA president Chris Paul and the nine-member executive committee, winning with 32 of 34 votes among committee members and team player representatives, sources said.
Roberts won over the players with a strong background as a civil criminal litigator and an unblemished character. She'll be replacing the deposed Billy Hunter, whose tenure was marked with labor negotiation failures, corruption and ethical entanglements.
The players passed on a career NBA executive with strong ties with the league office, Dallas Mavericks CEO Terdema Ussery.
"I liked her labor law experience," one player representative told Yahoo Sports in a text message. "That was a priority for me."
The process was littered with the NBPA's usual dysfunction, including a late bid by player agents to push back the vote and further study the finalists – or possibly dump them all together. Nevertheless, the vote played out on Monday in Las Vegas and the union will start to move forward with a leader again.
Michele A. Roberts
Partner
Litigation
Washington, D.C.
Michele Roberts is a renowned trial lawyer and a member of the firm’s Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on complex civil and white collar criminal litigation before state and federal courts and in administrative proceedings. Ms. Roberts has tried more than 100 cases to jury verdicts, representing clients in a wide variety of areas, including products liability, white collar, racketeering, securities regulation violations, Title VII issues and premises liability. She has been called the finest pure trial lawyer in Washington, D.C. by Washingtonian Magazine. Ms. Roberts is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Ms. Roberts also served for eight years in the office of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where she was named Chief of the Trial Division. She served as counsel in more than 40 jury trials.
Prominent Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, Jr. commended Ms. Roberts’ courtroom presence, stating “she becomes the 13th juror, capable of seeing the case as the jury sees it, and therefore able to revise strategy, as necessary, mid-trial to address the jury’s concerns.” (The Legal Times, March 2011)
Ms. Roberts repeatedly has been ranked in the top tier for Litigation: Trial Lawyers in both Chambers Global and Chambers USA. She was the recipient of the Business Trial Lawyer of the Year at the 2011 Chambers USA Awards of Excellence. Ms. Roberts also was named a finalist in the “Litigator of the Year” category at the inaugural Chambers USA Women in Law Awards 2012. She was named one of Benchmark Litigation’s “Top 250 Women in Litigation” in 2013, was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2013-2014 and was included in the list of “Top Guns” in the Ethisphere® Institute’s 2012 “Attorneys Who Matter” rankings. In addition, she has been included in Who’s Who Legal – Business Crime Defense 2013 and Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2013. When the Washington Business Journal was looking for innovative and inspiring leaders, they named her to their 2010 “Women Who Mean Business” list. In 2007, she was recognized as one of Washingtonian’s “Big Guns: Top 30 Lawyers in Washington, D.C.,” and since 2003, Washingtonian Magazine has named her to its top lawyer rankings, including 2009’s list of Washington’s “100 Most Powerful Women.” In 2006, The Legal Times also listed her among the top 10 white collar lawyers in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Roberts is a frequent lecturer and presenter to both the bench and bar on a variety of topics related to litigation and trial practice. She serves as an adjunct member of the faculty at Harvard Law School, teaching a Trial Advocacy Workshop and is an instructor with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy.
Bar Admissions
District of Columbia
Education
J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law (University of California at Berkeley), 1980
B.A., Wesleyan University, 1977
Associations
Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
Member, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Member, National Association of Defense Lawyers
Member, Adjunct Faculty, Harvard Law School
Member, DC Sentencing and Criminal Code Commission
Member, Board of Directors, Robert A. Shuker Scholarship Fund
Member, Board of Directors, JusticeAid
Member, Board of Directors, The Washington Ballet
Government Service
Chief of Trial Division, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia
Related Practices
Litigation
International Litigation and Arbitration
Mass Torts, Insurance and Consumer Litigation
Securities Litigation
Class Action Litigation
Events
PLI's Trial by Jury 2014
PLI’s Current Developments in Federal Civil Practice 2013
------
NBA players' union elects attorney Michele Roberts as executive director
Adrian Wojnarowski
By Adrian Wojnarowski 15 minutes ago Yahoo Sports
The National Basketball Players Association elected Michele Roberts, a prominent Washington civil litigator, as its executive director.
Roberts, an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, is the first woman to lead a major North American sports league union.
Roberts was the recommendation of NBPA president Chris Paul and the nine-member executive committee, winning with 32 of 34 votes among committee members and team player representatives, sources said.
Roberts won over the players with a strong background as a civil criminal litigator and an unblemished character. She'll be replacing the deposed Billy Hunter, whose tenure was marked with labor negotiation failures, corruption and ethical entanglements.
The players passed on a career NBA executive with strong ties with the league office, Dallas Mavericks CEO Terdema Ussery.
"I liked her labor law experience," one player representative told Yahoo Sports in a text message. "That was a priority for me."
The process was littered with the NBPA's usual dysfunction, including a late bid by player agents to push back the vote and further study the finalists – or possibly dump them all together. Nevertheless, the vote played out on Monday in Las Vegas and the union will start to move forward with a leader again.
Michele A. Roberts
Partner
Litigation
Washington, D.C.
Michele Roberts is a renowned trial lawyer and a member of the firm’s Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on complex civil and white collar criminal litigation before state and federal courts and in administrative proceedings. Ms. Roberts has tried more than 100 cases to jury verdicts, representing clients in a wide variety of areas, including products liability, white collar, racketeering, securities regulation violations, Title VII issues and premises liability. She has been called the finest pure trial lawyer in Washington, D.C. by Washingtonian Magazine. Ms. Roberts is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Ms. Roberts also served for eight years in the office of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where she was named Chief of the Trial Division. She served as counsel in more than 40 jury trials.
Prominent Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, Jr. commended Ms. Roberts’ courtroom presence, stating “she becomes the 13th juror, capable of seeing the case as the jury sees it, and therefore able to revise strategy, as necessary, mid-trial to address the jury’s concerns.” (The Legal Times, March 2011)
Ms. Roberts repeatedly has been ranked in the top tier for Litigation: Trial Lawyers in both Chambers Global and Chambers USA. She was the recipient of the Business Trial Lawyer of the Year at the 2011 Chambers USA Awards of Excellence. Ms. Roberts also was named a finalist in the “Litigator of the Year” category at the inaugural Chambers USA Women in Law Awards 2012. She was named one of Benchmark Litigation’s “Top 250 Women in Litigation” in 2013, was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2013-2014 and was included in the list of “Top Guns” in the Ethisphere® Institute’s 2012 “Attorneys Who Matter” rankings. In addition, she has been included in Who’s Who Legal – Business Crime Defense 2013 and Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2013. When the Washington Business Journal was looking for innovative and inspiring leaders, they named her to their 2010 “Women Who Mean Business” list. In 2007, she was recognized as one of Washingtonian’s “Big Guns: Top 30 Lawyers in Washington, D.C.,” and since 2003, Washingtonian Magazine has named her to its top lawyer rankings, including 2009’s list of Washington’s “100 Most Powerful Women.” In 2006, The Legal Times also listed her among the top 10 white collar lawyers in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Roberts is a frequent lecturer and presenter to both the bench and bar on a variety of topics related to litigation and trial practice. She serves as an adjunct member of the faculty at Harvard Law School, teaching a Trial Advocacy Workshop and is an instructor with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy.
Bar Admissions
District of Columbia
Education
J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law (University of California at Berkeley), 1980
B.A., Wesleyan University, 1977
Associations
Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
Member, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Member, National Association of Defense Lawyers
Member, Adjunct Faculty, Harvard Law School
Member, DC Sentencing and Criminal Code Commission
Member, Board of Directors, Robert A. Shuker Scholarship Fund
Member, Board of Directors, JusticeAid
Member, Board of Directors, The Washington Ballet
Government Service
Chief of Trial Division, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia
Related Practices
Litigation
International Litigation and Arbitration
Mass Torts, Insurance and Consumer Litigation
Securities Litigation
Class Action Litigation
Events
PLI's Trial by Jury 2014
PLI’s Current Developments in Federal Civil Practice 2013
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