The Cleveland Browns have been a disaster both on and off the field this season, and while the team sought to usher in a new era by hiring Mike Holmgren as its new general manager this week, an arbitration claim by his predecessor, George Kokinis, will weigh over the star-crossed franchise in the months ahead.
After signing a four-year contract before the season, Kokinis was fired on November 2, with the Browns floundering on several fronts. But after the team refused to honor his contract, Kokinis got litigious, hiring Dewey & LeBoeuf global litigation cochair Jeffrey Kessler for an arbitration claim filed this week before NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. A provision in Kokinis contract calls for disputes between him and his employer to go to arbitration.
Kessler, no stranger to sports litigation battles, especially in football, says that Kokinis turned to him after consulting with a few NFL colleagues. Kessler expects the arbitration proceeding to occur sometime in the next few months at the NFLs corporate legal department in New York. Current NFL general counsel Jeffrey Pash, a former Covington & Burling partner, or former league GC Jay Moyer will likely hear the case, Kessler says.
Kokinis is seeking more than $4 million in compensation and damages from the team. Kessler says his legal adversary in the arbitration is still a bit up in the air. The Browns have long turned to Frederick Nance, the managing partner of Squire, Sanders & Dempseys Cleveland office, for outside counsel. Nance was advising the Browns early in the process, Kessler says, but earlier this month he was named the teams general counsel.
via The George Kokinis Chronicles: A Disgruntled Look at Sports and the Law.
