| Biography:
Howard Ganz is co-chair of Proskauer’s Labor and Employment Law Department, which numbers over 150 attorneys in offices in the United States and abroad. Howard is also co-chair of the Firm's Sports Law Group, the clients of which include Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the Women's National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, the ATP and WTA Tours, the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Jets.
Howard has served as principal outside labor counsel for the NBA for over 20 years, advising the NBA in connection with collective bargaining negotiations between the League and the unions representing both players and referees, and he has similarly assisted the WNBA in the negotiation of its collective bargaining agreements with the union that represents WNBA players.
Howard also has represented the NBA in a number of major litigations resulting from labor disputes between the League and NBA players -- a string of cases named after those who were presidents of the National Basketball Players Association, such as Oscar Robertson, Bob Lanier, Junior Bridgeman, Buck Williams and Patrick Ewing -- and in a variety of other matters, including the unsuccessful effort of some NBA players to decertify their union, numerous disputes over the operation of the salary cap system, and the "lockout-pay" case in which NBA teams were found not to be liable for the salaries of players with so-called "guaranteed" contracts during the work stoppage that led to the cancellation of almost one-half of the 1998-99 NBA season.
In addition, Howard has represented the NBA in a number of cases in which players were disciplined for alleged misconduct, both on and off the playing floor -- including those involving the suspension of a number of New York Knickerbockers and Miami Heat players for an on-court altercation during a crucial NBA playoff game, and the season-long suspension of Latrell Sprewell for the "choking" incident involving his coach, P.J.Carlesimo.
Howard has represented Major League Baseball in its collective bargaining negotiations with the Major League Baseball Players Association and in a variety of other matters (including the case involving the suspension of John Rocker for the statements he made to Sports Illustrated, the dispute over MLB’s right to contract the number of Major League clubs, and the litigation challenging as discriminatory MLB’s provision of certain payments to former Negro League players); and Howard represented the American and National Leagues in connection with the "mass resignation" of the umpires during the summer of 1999 and in the proceedings that led to the certification of a new umpires' union.
When not practicing sports law, Howard has represented and counseled some of the best-known companies in the United States with respect to a wide variety of labor and employment matters, such as employment discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, defamation, breach of contract, and large-scale reductions-in-force; and his litigation experience has run the gamut from single plaintiff lawsuits to major class actions in federal and state courts in New York and elsewhere.
Howard is a graduate of Colgate University and Columbia Law School, where he was Articles Editor of the Columbia Law Review, spent two years as a law clerk for a federal district judge in New York before joining the Firm, and has lectured widely on sports law and employment law matters. He is a former Chair of the Sports Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and has been recognized in Chambers USA 2008, named as one of the “World’s Leading Labor and Employment Lawyers,” one of the “Ten Most Powerful Employment Attorneys in the United States” by Human Resource Executive/ Lawdragon, one of “The Best Lawyers in America,” one of “500 Leading Lawyers in America,” and as one of the “100 Best Lawyers in New York.”
|
