US Soccer’s Pay Equity Fight Brought Law Firms Millions in Fees

A landmark US Soccer Federation pay equity deal last year was a boon to some law firms, federal disclosures show.

Williams & Connolly took in nearly $1.5 million from the US men’s team, while Washington’s Bredhoff & Kaiser got almost $326,500 from the women’s team, according to filings with the US Department of Labor.

The union for players in the National Women’s Soccer League also disclosed that it paid $86,500 to Willig, Williams & Davidson in 2022. The Philadelphia-based firm advised the union on its first-ever collective bargaining agreement and helped nearly two-dozen veteran league players secure the right to free agency.

The $24 million pay discrimination deal and related labor accord, which runs through 2028, involved the US Soccer Federation and associations representing US men’s and women’s national soccer team players. The settlement resolved a class action lawsuit filed by US women’s team members and provided a framework for collective bargaining pushes for equal pay in other industries.

Rebecca Roux, a former Cooley summer associate, earned more than $282,700 in her role as executive director of the US women’s team, the federal disclosures show. Williams & Connolly partner Mark Levinstein drew no salary in his role as acting executive director and general counsel for the US men’s team.

Litigators representing US women’s players were awarded $5.5 million in legal fees by a US federal court earlier this year. A separate tab for the federation hit roughly $5 million during 2022 with outside counsel earning more in prior years.

The women’s soccer players association paid $165,500 to executive director Meghann Burke in 2022. Burke, a former goalkeeper tapped to lead the organization in 2021, is a litigator and of counsel with Asheville, NC-based Brazil & Burke.

Men’s Soccer Payments

Another union representing players in Major League Soccer, the top tier US men’s league, disclosed its own payments to three firms and a new legal chief.

Eric Harrington, a longtime former senior counsel for the National Education Association hired last year to be the first general counsel for the Major League Soccer Players Association, was paid almost $270,000 in 2022, per a financial statement.

Washington’s Sherman Dunn, where partner Jonathan Newman has been longtime outside labor counsel to the Bethesda, Md.-based union, was paid roughly $28,600 last year.

The MLS Players Association also paid $20,300 to Brown Rudnick, almost $17,000 to Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, and more than $444,300 to its executive director Robert Foose, who once worked at a Dentons predecessor. Other lawyers on the union’s payroll include deputy general counsel John Andris, who earned about $190,300 last year.

Women Soccer’s Surge

The success of the US women’s team at the collective bargaining table and on the field has helped the National women’s soccer, which announced April 4 a league-record $125 million deal to award an expansion team in San Francisco’s Bay Area to an investor group that includes former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg and four ex-US women’s team players, including Brandi Chastain and Aly Wagner.

Latham & Watkins advised the new ownership group on the deal, while ArentFox Schiff took the lead for the National Women’s Soccer League. Last year the league hired former ArentFox Schiff partner William Ordower—who spent over two decades working for MLS, 17 as the league’s general counsel—to be its chief operating and legal officer.

The NWSL is building out its legal team under Ordower. A spokeswoman confirmed the league’s recent hire of Cole, Scott & Kissane associate Sanya Dhermy as an associate counsel reporting to legal counsel Lacey Mencl.

The league is also looking to hire a vice president of legal, a New York-based position that pays between $190,000 and $210,000 per year. The NWSL employs two other attorneys—Aaron Salsberg and Ashley Beth—in non-legal roles.

The NWSL, which recently levied bans and fines related to a probe last year into misconduct claims involving some of its clubs, coaches, and players, has tapped former Paul Hastings associates-turned-team legal chiefs Heather Davis and Michelle Hull Hyncik to take top executive roles.

Davis, a former NFL lawyer, was named CEO of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns and MLS’s Portland Timbers in January. Utah Royals FC, returning to the NWSL after a four-year hiatus, in March named Hyncik its president. Hyncik, general counsel for MLS team Real Salt Lake, said she’ll be legal chief for both clubs.