Kessler Quoted on NHL Lockout in Various Publications

Winston & Strawn partner Jeffrey Kessler was quoted in the December 17, 2012 Sports Business Daily article, "NHL Lockout, Day 93: NHLPA Begins Voting On Disclaimer Of Interest." Similar articles appeared in New York Daily News and ESPN.

According to the articles, NHL players are expected to vote to give the union's executive board the authority to file a disclaimer of interest, which will effectively disband the players' association and open up the NHL's owners to individual antitrust lawsuits. "The league will be responsible for three times all the salaries it owes to the players – that will be billions of dollars," Mr. Kessler said. "If you were faced with a billion-dollar liability, what impact would that have on your desire to settle?"

NBA and NFL players have used this threat of decertification and costly court proceedings in the past as leverage to reach a settlement. Mr. Kessler, who represented both the NBA players and NFL players during their respective 2011 labor disputes, said that in "both cases the players received more concessions after dissolving the union than they otherwise would have," despite NBA commissioner David Stern's insistence that the move was not what caused the settlement.

Mr. Kessler said the evidence suggests otherwise, as the players were losing ground in negotiations at the moment the players disclaimed. A settlement was reached shortly after, with "dramatically different and more favorable offers for the players that [the league] had said it would never even have considered before."