NFL Players’ Association leader shoulders complex legal challenges

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DeMaurice Fitzgerald Smith already had a packed resume in 2009 when he went after the position of executive director of the National Football League Players’ Association.

But after years of wooing big-name clients as a partner at the Washington, D.C., firms of Latham & Watkins LLP and Patton Boggs LLP, he knew he needed more.

“As any partner will tell you,” Smith said, “business development is as, if not sometimes more, important than actually practicing law.”

So he wrote a 280-page business plan about how the players should prepare for what was beginning to look like an inevitable lockout.

He landed the job March 16, 2009, and was ready when the lockout began in 2010.

The challenge was part of what drew him to the job, Smith said.

“When you’re a partner at a large law firm, and don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but my job was mostly high-stakes litigation, criminal investigations, entirely episodic,” he said. “By comparison, this was an issue where you’re obviously dealing with the No. 1 sport in the country. There’s 32 billionaires on the other side and a relatively young group of players who typically are not engaged in Fortune 500 business.

“Part of the beauty of looking at a complicated legal public organization effort is the puzzle is multidimensional, so the chess game is multidimensional. This was the first time there were so many pieces to what I thought was the right way to do things.”

Now in his second term as executive director, Smith was in Milwaukee on Thursday to speak at the Wisconsin Association of African-American Lawyers’ annual scholarship dinner. The former assistant U.S. attorney said he’s not yet sure if he’ll run for re-election next year, but if he does, it’ll be because his wife gives him the OK.

Though he’s held court for years in front of corporate clients, federal judges and, lately, massive football players, Smith said that at his house, “there’s only one boss.”

Wisconsin Law Journal: You spent a decade working for the government, first as assistant United States attorney and later as counsel to then-Deputy Assistant General Eric Holder. Was it hard to make the switch back to private practice when you left for Latham & Watkins?
DeMaurice Fitzgerald Smith: It was. I loved being a prosecutor. In some respects there probably isn’t an assistant U.S. attorney who won’t tell you it’s the best job they ever had. It truly was the best job I ever had. Being a prosecutor, you’re relatively young, you grow up as a lawyer. There’s all sorts of personal, family, job and career milestones that typically intersect with the time that you are a young prosecutor. It’s when you truly understand what it is to be a lawyer. But by the time I’d left, I had done 10 years. The last four were in the violent crime/homicide section. There wasn’t anything I had not seen.

WLJ: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Smith: I wanted to play for the Redskins. I grew up in Washington. The team is inextricably tied to the community. I’m not sure there are many young boys or girls who grew up in Washington and didn’t love the team. The only problem I had was a complete dearth of athletic ability.

WLJ: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be?
Smith: Washington, D.C., born and raised. My wife is from Richmond, Va., though, so that’s a very close second (laughs).

WLJ: Have you ever seen a game at Lambeau?
Smith: I have. It was in probably early September of ’05, long before I had this job. A bunch of my buddies and I had a little reunion, met up there.

WLJ: What word or phrase do you tend to say too much?
Smith: ‘Explain that to me.’ I’m a philosophy major, so words are very important. I like unpacking things, the intellectual pleasure of pulling apart intricate puzzles.

WLJ: You appear to be quite the smart dresser. Is that something you take special pride in?
Smith: I take pride in my careless, reckless pocket square (laughs). … My dad worked for the federal government, and every day he left for work he looked great. He took pride in his appearance and that was his expectation for me. Shoes should always be shined, tie always tight, firm handshake.

WLJ: What’s something your colleagues would be surprised to know about you?
Smith: That I’m actually much taller than I appear (laughs). No, my wife is fond of saying, ‘You’re not nearly as mean in person as you appear to be on TV.’ I probably couldn’t say it any better.