Manatt Prevails for Retired Professional Football Players in Federal Court

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 11, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, the national law and consulting firm, today announced that a federal jury returned an historic verdict against the National Football League Players Association in the amount of $28.1 million (including $21 million in punitive damages) and in favor of the firm's clients, a class of more than 2,000 retired NFL players. The jury found that the union breached its contract with the retirees, violated its fiduciary obligations, and deliberately acted contrary to the interests of the retirees that the union promised to represent.

Manatt litigation partners L. Peter Parcher, Ronald S. Katz, and Chad Hummel led the trial team in this victory, which also included members of the Texas-based law firm, McKool Smith, to produce a result that class representative, former Green Bay Packer and Dallas Cowboy, and professional football Hall of Famer, Herb Adderley called "bigger than my two Super Bowl victories, because of the number of players involved."

"We are extremely gratified and pleased for the thousands of former NFL players - heroes, really, who built the game of pro football - who were betrayed by their union," said Katz. "The jury saw through the smoke screen that the union put up at trial and sent a clear message that, for years, these retired players were shamefully disrespected and ignored by their own union. We were very proud to be a part of setting things right."

This trial victory comes close on the heels of Manatt's $700+ million award for client ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited against The Boeing Company and its Boeing Satellite Systems International subsidiary, which is the largest jury verdict to date in 2008.

"This is another significant victory on behalf of the firm's clients and is a testament to the skill and dedication of our firm's trial group, led in this case by Peter and Ron. The entire team did an amazing job in standing up to the resources of the most powerful union in professional sports and proving the case on behalf of the retired players," said Hummel, chair of Manatt's firm-wide litigation division. "The verdict speaks yet again to the high quality of Manatt's national litigation practice."

The class action, Herbert Adderley v. National Football League Players Association (07-943, U.S. District Court, San Francisco), was initiated by Adderley, 69, who played in the 1960's and 1970's. Adderley led the class of retired players, who contended that they signed agreements entitling them to shares of licensing revenue from deals negotiated by the union. Over the years, the union actually paid little if anything to the players and ignored significant marketing opportunities, including Electronic Art's wildly successful Madden Football videogame franchise, that could have been extremely lucrative for retired players, favoring instead the financial interests of the union and its for-profit licensing subsidiary Players Inc.