Morgan Lewis served as lead counsel to the United States Soccer Federation in collective bargaining negotiations that culminated with first-of-their-kind equal pay agreements between the federation and players associations representing its women’s and men’s national teams. This history-making resolution ends years of labor conflict between the federation and its national teams and negotiations that have been ongoing since 2018. US Soccer is represented in labor negotiations by partners Nicole Buffalano and Dana Gross, and associates Drew Gniewek and Geoff Rosenthal.
“Resolution required cooperation and consensus on a wide range of complex compensation, benefit, and intellectual property issues, from both players associations, whose needs and interests were not always aligned and who had never before bargained jointly with the United States Soccer Federation,” Nicole said in a Law360 article. “The negotiation and ratification of these agreements achieves equal pay and paves the way for final resolution to the equal pay lawsuit.”