DEFINING LEADERSHIP

Congratulations to Michael Buchwald for his exceptional leadership with the NFL.

We are proud to partner with him to craft effective, strategic legal solutions that drive the legal profession and the NFL forward.

Pro (Football) Bono

“One of the payoffs in working at a larger firm is the ease of access to pro bono work,” Michael Buchwald says. “In-house, there’s often less of those connections and opportunities unless you really make the effort.” In 2017, the then head of Buchwald’s litigation group reached out to Lawyers Alliance for New York, which helps represent community groups in a multitude of legal capacities. “It’s the type of organization where some of our expertise that we apply on a daily basis can be relevant in a very different way,” Buchwald says. “I think these partnerships are a great path for other in-house lawyers who are looking for these sorts of opportunities.”

“He is an effective and well-informed advocate for his clients, invariably asking hard questions and seeking constructive solutions.”

In working to distill complex ideas, Buchwald says he’s trying to build relationships one department at a time. “Because of what is often pure happenstance, I have a very close working relationship with some departments and am working to build that same relationship with others,” Buchwald says. “Success to me is that internal network growth; working with a new department is sort of like starting over and building trust with a new group of people.”

As the senior counsel cultivates relationships, he says that he continues to be invigorated by the sheer number of different people and ideas he encounters on a daily basis. Such richness and variety of experience make the NFL a fruitful working environment for any professional.