Adam I. Dale
Partner
Recognized as a “Rising Star,” Adam focuses his practice on sports, antitrust, and labor law. He regularly counsels and represents athletes, agencies, Players Associations, and other high-profile sports industry clients.
Key Matters
- House v. NCAA: secured landmark $2.75 billion dollar back-pay damages settlement for hundreds of thousands of current and former college athletes that resolved three pending lawsuits challenging the NCAA’s limits on compensation and benefits that athletes can receive and opened the door for billions more in revenue sharing payments that will be shared with athletes going forward.
- Alston v. NCAA: successfully represented a class of college football and basketball players in a landmark antitrust suit at trial, appeal and before the Supreme Court against the NCAA and ten member-conferences that struck down unlawful compensation restraints imposed by the NCAA on Division I Men’s and Woman’s basketball and FBS Football programs.
- Relevent Sports v. United States Soccer Federation and Fédération Internationale De Football Association (FIFA): represents soccer promoter Relevent Sports in a federal antitrust lawsuit seeking to enjoin the United States Soccer Federation from continuing to block official season international soccer matches from being played in the U.S.
- Guden et al. v. Stanford University: secured a settlement reinstating eleven varsity sports at Stanford University that were scheduled to be discontinued following the 2020-21 school year.
- USA National Sled (Paralympic) Hockey Team: served as lead negotiator on behalf of the members of the USA Paralympic Hockey Team to secure substantial increases in the players’ compensation and benefits from USA Hockey and the United States Olympic Committee.
- Elliott v. NFL: served as counsel for Dallas Cowboys Running Back Ezekiel Elliott and the NFL Players Association in arbitration and federal court proceedings challenging the six-game suspension imposed on Elliott by the NFL for an alleged violation of the League’s Personal Conduct Policy.
- Green Bay Packers v. Bennett: successfully represented NFL Tight End Martellus Bennett in an arbitration brought against him by his former Club, the Green Bay Packers, for alleged breach of the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement.
- Kerley v. San Francisco 49ers: Adam achieved complete victory for NFL Wide Receiver Jeremy Kerley in an arbitration against the San Francisco 49ers.
- Major League Baseball Player Agent Arbitrations: Adam frequently represents high-profile Major League Baseball Player Agents and agencies in arbitrations before the MLBPA arbitration tribunal.
Adam maintains an active pro bono practice. He represented two clients serving life sentences for drug-related crimes in their successful petitions to the President of the United States for sentence commutations. Adam also successfully filed and argued a Habeas petition on behalf of a client to correct the Bureau of Prisons’ miscalculation of his client’s sentence. He negotiated a five-figure settlement for a state prison inmate in a civil rights action and secured asylum for a transgender torture victim from Honduras.
In recognition of Adam’s commitment to pro bono he has received multiple Empire State Counsel Awards and the Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Publico Award.
He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law in May 2015, where he was Senior Editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law and the Chair of the NYU Sports Law Society. He received a B.A. in Political Communication, cum laude, in May 2012 from The George Washington University.