Jeffrey L. Kessler

Kessler led the Winston & Strawn team that secured a landmark ruling on behalf of college athletes when Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in March 2019 that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was in violation of the antitrust laws by limiting the amount of compensation that college basketball and football players could receive.

All three of these cases earned Kessler “Litigator of the Week” recognition by The American Lawyer: March 2019 for his antitrust victory on behalf of college athletes against the NCAA; March 2018 when he defeated plaintiffs’ second attempt to obtain class certification in an antitrust action against Panasonic; and September 2015 for his victory on behalf of Tom Brady and the NFL Players Association in the “Deflategate” matter.

In addition, The Legal Aid Society presented Kessler with its 2019 Servant of Justice Award for his lasting impact on New York’s legal community, recognizing his devotion to the protection of the economic and social justice rights of athletes and their communities.

Kessler currently represents the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team  players in their proposed class and collective action against U.S. Soccer that contends that they have been denied their legal right to equal pay with the members of the Men’s National team. The case has received global attention as Kessler’s clients repeated their performance as World Cup Champions while still earning much less than the men.

Jeffrey L. Kessler is a partner at the international law firm Winston & Strawn, where he also serves as Co-Executive Chairman and Co-Chair, Antitrust/Competition & Sports Law Practices. Until May 2012, he was the Global Litigation Chair at the international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf where he was also the co-chair of the Sports Litigation Practice Group and served on the firm's Executive and Leadership Committees. His major clients include the National Football League Players Association, the National Basketball Players Association, William Morris Endeavor, NTN Corporation, the players on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, and Panasonic Corporation (formerly, Matsushita Electric).

In May 2012, Kessler left Dewey & LeBoeuf and joined the firm of Winston & Strawn. Dewey had experienced mass partner defections starting in March 2012 for a variety of reasons, and despite his best efforts in conjunction with several other of the firms most prominent and successful partners to save the firm it proved to be unmanageable. Thus, Kessler led a group of over 20 other Partners, over 40 Associates, and a large group of support staff with him to Winston where he currently is a Partner and Co-Executive Chairman of the firm. In total, over 75 people went with him from Dewey to Winston as he brought over his entire practice.

Kessler has been recognized by numerous publications, including Chambers USA - America's Leading Lawyers for Business and Best Lawyers in America. He is recognized by Guide to the World's Leading Antitrust Lawyers and Who's Who of Competition Lawyers and has been included in Super Lawyers, Corporate Counsel Edition 2009, The Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2005, 2006 and 2008 through 2011 and Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America 2006. Kessler is named in the 2011 edition of The Best Lawyers in America and as a New York Super Lawyer in 2006 through 2012, and he has been named as one of The 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business by Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal and that publication has named him one of the 20 Most Influential People in the NFL numerous times including most recently in 2011. Kessler has also been named a National General Commercial Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation.

In 2003 Kessler left Weil to join the law firm Dewey Ballantine. Dewey Ballantine later merged with the Law Firm LeBoeuf & Lam and Kessler was at the newly created "super firm" Dewey & LeBoeuf where he was the chairman of the firm's Global Litigation Department, co-chairman of the Sports Litigation Practice Group, and a member of its Executive and Leadership Committees. He has also recently done work on behalf of the National Invitation Tournament, CAA Sports, Wasserman Media Group, SCP Worldwide, and Pro Bono work for South African Amputee Sprinter Oscar Pistorious and Castor Semanaya. Both runners were successfully represented by Kessler and allowed to continue their careers despite challenges from the IAAF. Kessler negotiated the current free agency/salary cap systems in the NFL, NBA, and successfully represented Michael Vick in his roster bonus arbitration, Plaxico Burress in his Signing Bonus arbitration, and numerous other players in successful arbitrations and "special master cases".

Kessler began working at Weil, Gotshal & Manges as an Associate in the Anti-Trust Department full-time in 1977, after working there as a Summer Associate in 1976. He went on to become a Partner in 1984. From 1976 to 2003 he was the lead counsel in various complex antitrust, sports law and IP law cases, including major jury trials. He represented a number of US and international companies in criminal and civil investigations in the antitrust and trade areas and was part of the team that successfully defended Matsushita Electric and JVC against claims of a worldwide conspiracy in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Zenith v. Matsushita. He became regarded as a leading commentator on international antitrust law. He also was the lead counsel in several intellectual property cases involving frontier issues of IP law.

Kessler has been married to his wife Regina since 1977, and has two children. He has lived in New York City for his entire life.

Kessler was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1954 to Edith and Milton Kessler. He grew up in a community in Brooklyn near Coney Island called Sea Gate with his parents and his older sister Linda. He went on to Columbia University graduating summa cum laude from the College in the class of 1975 and then Columbia Law School. He graduated there as a Kent Scholar and editor of the Law Review in 1977. He was one of five Columbia alumni who received the college's 2016 John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement.