Jeffrey Mishkin

Jeffrey Mishkin, the former Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of the National Basketball Association, is now devoting full time to the arbitration and mediation of sports disputes.  Before transitioning to a full-time ADR practice, 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 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.  Mr. Mishkin also frequently serves as an arbitrator for domestic sports disputes. 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. 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. In addition, Mr. Mishkin 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)