Arbitration in Professional Sports
This is a unique symposium. With the assistance of Eugene D. Orza
'73, former Chief Operating Officer of the Major League Baseball
Players Association, the Center has assembled a truly stellar cast
of the principal actors in the world of sports arbitration. A
luncheon address by Donald Fehr, the preeminent sports union leader
in the country, and a “fireside chat” with George Nicolau and John
D. Feerick, internationally renowned arbitrators, headline the
event, but it also includes sessions in which today’s leading
practitioners of both salary and grievance arbitration, on both
sides of the labor and management aisle, will describe how those
processes work, what interested students need to know about the
demands of both, and how the arbitration process has affected labor
management relations in their sports. There will also be a closing
plenary session with any final observations that conference
participants may wish to offer, followed by questions from those in
the audience.
In no other industry have the arbitration process and its results
helped shape the contours of the labor management relation more
than they have in professional sports. This symposium represents
nothing less than a not-to-be missed chance to meet, hear, and,
most important of all, learn from the people who have been
responsible for that, and who know the most about it.
Hosts and Sponsors
Co-Sponsors
In Collaboration With
Moderator
Eugene Orza ’73, Chief Operating Officer, MLBPA (ret.)
Date
Friday, April 19, 2013
Time
8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Location
St. John's
School of Law
Belson Moot Court Room | Second Floor
8000 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY 11439
Full Symposium Agenda
8:30 – 9 a.m.
Registration and Light Breakfast
9:15 – 9:30 a.m.
Welcome
- Michael A. Simons, Dean and John V. Brennan Professor of Law
and Ethics, St. John’s School of Law
- David L. Gregory, Dorothy Day Professor of Law; Executive
Director, Center for Labor And Employment Law, St. John’s School of
Law
- Gene Orza ’73, Chief Operating Officer, MLBPA (ret.)
9:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Panel I: Salary Arbitration Practitioners
Moderator: Jeff Fannell, ’92 C and ’96 L , Deputy Director, LL.M.
in International and Comparative Sports Law; Adjunct Professor of
Sports Law, St. John’s School of law
- Daniel Dumais, Partner, Norton Rose
- Paul Mifsud, Senior Counsel, MLB
- Ian Pulver, Agent, Pulver Sports
- Rick Shapiro, Senior Advisor, MLBPA
10:45 – Noon
Panel II: Salary Arbitration Arbitrators
Moderator: Gene Orza ’73, Chief Operating Officer, MLBPA (ret.)
- Ralph Berger, Arbitrator
- Elliott Shriftman, Arbitrator
- Carol Wittenberg, Arbitrator
Noon
Lunch
12:45 PM – 1:15 PM
Keynote Address
Introduction: Jeff Fannell ’92 C and ’96 L,Deputy Director, LL.M.
in International and Comparative Sports Law; Adjunct Professor of
Sports Law, St. John’s School of Law
Address: Donald Fehr, Executive Director, National Hockey League
Players’ Association
1:30—2:30 p.m.
Panel III: Grievance Arbitration
Practitioners
Moderator: Gene Orza ’73, Chief Operating Officer, MLBPA (ret.)
- Richard Berthelsen, Former General Counsel, NFLPA
- Dennis Curran, Senior Vice President/General Counsel, NFL
- Dan Halem, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Labor,
MLB
- Ronald Klempner, Interim Executive Director, NBPA
- David Prouty, General Counsel, MLBPA
2:45-3:45 p.m.
Panel IV: Grievance Arbitration - A Conversation with the
Arbitrators
Moderator: Rosemary Townley, Arbitrator
- John Feerick, Norris Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
- George Nicolau, Past President, National Academy of
Arbitrators
3:45 PM – 5 p.m.
Panel V: Closing Panel
Moderator: Gene Orza ’73, Chief Operating Officer, MLBPA (ret.)
- All panelists and speakers
Continuing Legal Education (CLE)
The full-day Symposium qualifies for 4 non-transitional CLE credit
hours. The CLE fee is $100. No partial credit will be awarded.
Hardship tuition reduction is available. For CLE credit, please
complete and submit the
CLE Payment Form.
Registration
There is no fee to attend the symposium, but registration is
required. To register, please complete and submit the
online registration form by Wednesday, April 17, 2013.
More Information
Paula Edwards
Centers Assistant
edwardsp@stjohns.edu
(718) 990-6653
The Symposium will be printed in a special symposium issue of the
St. John’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal.
The Center for Labor and Employment Law and the Labor Relations and
Employment Law Society are very grateful to all of the speakers and
symposium attendees. Special thanks to Gene Orza ’73, a cofounder
of the St. John’s Labor Relations and Employment Law Society more
than 40 years ago. Gene and his successor, Andrew Midgen ‘13,
current co-President of the Labor Relations and Employment Law
Society, are the driving forces of this symposium. Special thanks
also to Jeff Zaino, Vice President of the American Arbitration
Association, and Professor Sam Estreicher, Director of the Center
for Labor and Employment Law at NYU Law, for collaborating with us
on this extraordinary event. We also thank the symposium
co-sponsors: The Hugh Carey Center for Dispute Resolution, the
Dispute Resolution Society, and the Entertainment, Arts and Sports
Law Society at St. John’s School of Law.
Very special thanks to Frederick Braid ’71 and Ronald Russo
’73 for generously underwriting some of the costs of the
symposium.