Jeffrey Kessler
Partner
Co-Executive Chairman
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Co-Executive Chairman of Winston & Strawn, Jeffrey is one of the world’s leading antitrust, sports law, and trial lawyers. He has served as lead counsel in some of the most complex antitrust, sports, and intellectual property litigations in the country, including major jury trials, and has represented a number of U.S. and international companies in criminal and civil investigations in the antitrust, sports law, trade, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) areas.
Key Matters
Some of the experience represented below may have been handled at a previous firm.
- Jenkins v. NCAA and Alston v. NCAA, et al. – Successfully represented classes of Division 1 college football and basketball players in a landmark antitrust case and successful trial, culminating in a verdict that struck down anticompetitive NCAA rules barring player compensation. Both the Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court later affirmed the trial win, with the Supreme Court issuing a heralded, unanimous decision, after Jeffrey presented oral argument to the Court on the players’ behalf. The American Lawyer (Am Law) recognized both the trial and Supreme Court wins with its highly coveted “Litigator of the Week” (LOTW) honor. Jeffrey is currently representing college players in the House litigation against the NCAA, asserting antitrust claims against NCAA restrictions on athlete compensation for rights to their names, images, and likenesses.
- Zenith v. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. – Successfully defended Matsushita in a landmark antitrust conspiracy case, in which the Supreme Court established new summary judgment standards
- McNeil v. NFL – Won jury verdict for NFL players striking down free agency restrictions under the antitrust laws, a victory which led to the Reggie White class action that resulted in a settlement establishing the free agency/salary cap system in the NFL
- Thales Avionics, Inc. v. Matsushita Avionics Systems Corp. – Won summary judgment for Matsushita against monopolization charges in the avionics industry
- U.S. Women’s National Team Equal Pay Litigation – Achieved a groundbreaking, widely reported, and globally acclaimed equal pay class action settlement for the USWNT players in their equal pay and working conditions litigation against the United States Soccer Federation (USSF)
- Panasonic Corp. of North America class action defense – Represented Panasonic in its defense of various nationwide consumer class actions in New Jersey and California courts
- NFL Discipline Cases– Represented the NFLPA for Tom Brady (in “Deflategate”), Ray Rice, the “Bountygate” players, Ezekiel Elliott, Adrian Peterson, and others in challenging NFL discipline
- JVC Americas Corp. class action defense – Represented JVC in national consumer class action defense
- MDL proceedings – Has represented and continues to represent Panasonic, Sanyo, NTN, Nippon Seiki, Corning, and other major companies in complex MDL class actions
- Axcess Global v. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. – Successfully defended Matsushita in a nine-week jury trial involving claims of breach of contract and fraud, in which the plaintiffs sought US$750 million and the jury awarded a complete defense verdict
- NBA Player Class Actions – Successfully represented various classes of NBA players in different antitrust actions, leading to the current free agency/salary cap system in the NBA and the end of the 2011 NBA lockout
- DVD Copy Control Association v. Bunner – Successfully obtained preliminary injunction for DVD Copy Control Association in watershed case challenging theft and distribution of DVD trade secrets over the internet
- Brady v. NFL – Successfully represented a class of NFL players in an antitrust action that led to the end of the 2011 NFL lockout
- Players Inc. v. Gridiron and Athletes First – Successfully prosecuted two frontier IP litigations challenging the group use of NFL player images on websites
- J.F. Feesers v. Serv-A-Portion – Successfully represented plaintiff in major Robinson-Patman Act litigation
- City of Oakland and Alameda County v. Oakland Raiders – Obtained summary judgment on behalf of the City of Oakland and Alameda County requiring Raiders to honor the team’s stadium lease and remain in Oakland
- Minolta and Matsushita State Attorneys General Antitrust Litigation – Successfully settled separate multi-state antitrust actions alleging resale price maintenance
- Samsung v. Panasonic – Represented Panasonic and the SD-3C patent pool against antitrust claims challenging industry standard-setting and patent pool licensing provisions
- Sprewell v. NBA – Successfully represented Latrell Sprewell and the NBPA in arbitration reducing controversial suspension and reversing guaranteed contract termination
- Rowe v. Creative Artists Agency – Obtained summary judgment for CAA in defense of alleged conspiracy case
- Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association v. NCAA –Successfully represented the NIT in antitrust litigation and jury trial against the NCAA, leading to settlement that protected the future of the NIT
- Telesat Cablevision, Inc. v. The Nashville Network – Successfully defended the Nashville Network and Westinghouse Broadcasting against antitrust claims by cable company
- NBA and NFL arbitrations – Represented the players associations in numerous arbitrations involving player free agency rights, circumvention claims, collusion claims, salary caps, and various other collective bargaining agreement issues
- North America Soccer League v. NFL– Successfully represented original NASL in an antitrust case striking down NFL ownership rules
- Matsushita Electronics Corp. v. Loral Corp. – Successfully represented Matsushita in obtaining summary judgment to establish a license defense against patent infringement claims
- Guidry v. AFL – Successfully represented class of AFL players in an antitrust case that established free agency in the AFL
- Belichick v. NFL – Represented NFL Head Coach Bill Belichick in litigation relating to changing teams from the Jets to the Patriots
- Matsushita v. Mediatek – Lead Counsel for Matsushita in major patent litigation
- Hygrade Milk and Cream Co. v. DiGiorgio – Successfully defended company in Robinson-Patman Act litigation
- City of Oakland v. Oakland A’s – Successfully represented the city in franchise valuation arbitration with the Oakland A’s baseball team
- Honeywell v. Victor Company of Japan Ltd. – Successfully defended JVC against claims of willful patent infringement
- NFLPA v. NFL – Successfully represented NFLPA in challenge to provisions of the NFL TV contracts used to fund the NFL 2011 Lockout
- Ovalar Makine Ticaret Ve Sanayi, A.S. v. Applied Industrial Materials Corp. – Successfully vacated arbitration award in landmark Second Circuit decision on the standards for determining arbitrator bias
- Cinram v. Matsushita– Obtained summary judgment in defense of antitrust claim against the DVD6C patent pool
- Global Cartel Defense– Represented major international companies in more than a dozen global cartel investigations, including in the United States, Canada, the EU, Brazil, Mexico, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, UK, and China
- Oscar Pistorius v. IAAF – Won landmark arbitration for Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee runner, enabling him to compete against non-disabled athletes and to realize his dream of competing in the Olympics
- North American Soccer League v. USSF – Represented the new NASL in antitrust litigation against the USSF
- Successfully represented college athletes at Stanford University and Robert Morris University to restore their varsity sports teams
- Continental vs. Avanci – Successfully defended Avanci in antitrust litigation against its patent licensing platform, and preserved the win on appeal to the Fifth Circuit
- William Morris Endeavor v. Writers Guild of America – Represented WME in major antitrust litigation against WGA
- Representing class of elite swimmers in antitrust litigation against Fédération Internationale De Natation (FINA)
- Representing MLBPA in various litigations and grievances
- Representing Relevent Sports Agency in antitrust litigation against the USSF and FIFA
- Representing leading sports agencies, including Endeavor, MVP Sports, Wasserman, and Klutch in litigations and arbitrations over agent movement