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For further information regarding our team of neutrals, call Meghan Lettington at 949-760-5280, or email MLettington@phillipsadr.com
Area of expertise:
Jeffrey Mishkin, the former Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of the National Basketball Association, is a member of Phillips ADR’s distinguished panel of neutrals. Before transitioning to a full-time mediation and arbitration practice with Phillips ADR, Mr. Mishkin was the head of the Sports Practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for more than twenty years. He has particular expertise in complex sports-related disputes concerning antitrust, intellectual property, labor, gambling, and a wide range of other business and commercial matters.
As Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of the NBA, Mr. Mishkin oversaw every aspect of the NBA’s legal affairs, including all litigation, labor relations, commercial transactions, legislation and enforcement of the league’s intellectual property rights and its anti-drug program, personally trying and arguing the NBA’s most important cases. He was involved in every round of collective bargaining negotiations between the NBA and the union and directed the NBA’s legal effort in its 1998-1999 labor dispute with NBA players.
At Skadden, in addition to representing the NBA, Mr. Mishkin’s practice expanded to include representation of the PGA TOUR, National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Collegiate Athletic Association, United States Tennis Association, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Collegiate Licensing Association, Madison Square Garden, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat, St. Louis Cardinals and many other sports organizations. Mr. Mishkin also represented high-profile athletes, including the then number-one-ranked golfer in the world in a dispute against his former sponsor.
Mr. Mishkin now devotes full time to serving as an arbitrator and mediator of sports disputes. He has served for many years as an arbitrator on the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, the leading international arbitral forum for sports-related legal issues. He has resolved disputes involving all aspects of sports law, including business and commercial disputes, employment matters, eligibility issues, and matters involving the interpretation of various sports organizations’ rules. These disputes have included, among many others, disputes regarding the worldwide application of FIFA rules on promotion and relegation, employment disputes between football clubs and their players, disputes between boxers regarding mandatory challenger status to contend for the World Heavyweight Championship, and countless anti-doping disputes. Mr. Mishkin was a member of the arbitration panel that resolved appeals filed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), and International Skating Union (ISU) against Kamila Valieva, an elite Russian figure skater, regarding whether Ms. Valieva had committed an anti-doping rule violation, thereby disqualifying her Olympic results. Mr. Mishkin also served as the chair of the arbitration panel for the 35th America’s Cup, resolving numerous disputes among competing yachts from the United States, New Zealand, Britain, France, Sweden, and Japan.
Mr. Mishkin frequently serves as an arbitrator for domestic sports disputes as well. He has served as the designee of the Commissioner of the National Football League to arbitrate a high-profile dispute between an NFL team and a former executive. He also has served as the arbitrator in several major disputes involving sports agents, including as chair of an arbitration panel that resolved contract and tort claims arising out of a leading MLB agent’s departure from his prior agency and the formation of his own agency. In addition, Mr. Mishkin has served as an arbitrator in numerous domestic anti-doping disputes and has been appointed as one of eight arbitrators to hear all doping disputes in U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Sport.
Mr. Mishkin is recognized as one of the most preeminent sports practitioners in the United States and throughout the world. He has been listed repeatedly for sports law in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Best Lawyers in America, including being named four times (2025, 2020, 2018 and 2012) New York Sports Law Lawyer of the Year. He also was named as a Thought Leader in Sports by Who’s Who Legal in 2023 and 2024, as a Sports MVP by Law 360 in 2015, as a leading lawyer in The Legal 500 in 2015 and 2016, and as a Power Player in sports law in 2016 by Sports Business Journal. He was named as one of the Most Highly Regarded Individuals by The International Who’s Who of Sports & Entertainment Lawyers 2013 and was included in Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America.

© 2025 PHILLIPS ADR | 2101 East Coast Highway, Suite 250, Corona Del Mar, California 92625 | (949) 760-5280 | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions