DeMaurice F. Smith is a former Chief Executive Officer and Partner at two major law firms, business innovator, trial lawyer, and prolific author with over three decades of distinguished leadership in high-profile roles where he excels in executive game strategy and the management and leverage of corporate risk. In 2009, he was unanimously elected as the head of the NFL Players Association, taking on what ESPN called the toughest job in all of sport, and served until 2023. During his tenure, he negotiated two ten-year labor and business agreements with the NFL, delivering over $100B in value to the players. He is the author of the bestselling Turf Wars: The Fight for the Soul of America’s Game. He co-authored a scathing critique of the NFLs hiring practice for The Yale Law School: The Rooney Suggestion: How the “Rule” Has Failed to Defeat Institutional Barriers to Equitable Hiring Practices in the NFL and Recommendations for Meaningful Reform.

As CEO of Players Inc., the NFLPA’s wholly owned for profit subsidiary, he led a team that tripled operating revenue, added a six-fold increase in business partners, created several new business lines, and developed the organization’s first equity portfolio. He secured the first professional sports apparel deal with Fanatics and the first sports wearable deal with WHOOP and secured equity in those companies for the Players. In 2020, he co-founded the startup OneTeam Partners which combined the group name, image, and licensing rights of players in MLS, USWNT, NWSL and MLB, now valued at over $1B. During his tenure, he led the players through a contentious lockout, secured the first an only lockout insurance policy, coordinated high profile investigations including Deflategate, the Saints Bounty scandal, represented Colin Kaepernick and negotiated a standstill agreement with the NFL over the Anthem. A lawyer who excels in game-strategy he coordinated aggressive litigation, congressional and public relations programs, developed strategic partnerships with labor unions, associations and corporations, was the chief negotiator and spokesperson for the NFL Players, to secured dramatic increases in salaries, pensions and post career benefits for current and former players all while revolutionizing the approaches to concussions and player health and safety across all sport.

Recognized as one of the best trial lawyers in the country, Smith is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, was awarded the US Attorneys’ Office Trial Advocacy Award, and has tried over 150 jury trials to verdict. As a partner at Latham & Watkins and Patton Boggs, he was the co-head of the White-Collar and Congressional Investigations Practice as well as representing clients in high-profile civil trials. He had a distinguished ten-year career as an Assistant US Attorney in the Homicide, Violent Crimes and Transnational (Terrorism) Sections and was awarded the US Department of Justice’s Attorney General Award in 1999.

Smith’s negotiation of two 10-year Collective Bargaining Agreements secured the players with the highest share of sports revenue for players in any sport, gave players the right to control the number of games played and provided the economic environment to maximize record-breaking sports revenues. His final CBA negotiation, during the Covid pandemic, secured payments for players who chose not to play and provided those who did with unmatched safety protocols thereby achieving the only uninterrupted sports season during the pandemic. Smith is a sought-after corporate keynote and graduation speaker and is a frequent lecturer at the country’s top business and law schools, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the New York Stock Exchange and commencement speaker for the University of Virginia School of Law, the Howard Law School, and Delaware State University. His critique of the NFL’s diversity efforts, The Rooney Suggestion, was published in the Yale Law and Policy Review. In 2011, he partnered with the Harvard Medical School to create the only comprehensive longitudinal health study of football players in history. He has received numerous awards, including the Legal Aid’s Servant of Justice Award and the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, and has been inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges and Universities. A frequent network commentator on sports, law and culture, he has been profiled in dozens of outlets including the Wall Street Journal, How The Player Led Venture Changed Trading Cards and USA Today, DeMaurice Smith’s legacy: Right man at right time to lead NFL players union; Earn Your Leisure Podcast and HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was awarded both the UVA Law Trial Advocacy Award and Virginia Trial Lawyers Award. He sits on the Regional Council of the Smithsonian Institute, the Board of the Living Classrooms Foundation, and the Board of Harlem Lacrosse. He recently completed a seven-year term on the board of ULLICO Insurance Company. 

After two years as a Visiting Professor at the Yale Law School, he is currently a Professor in Residence at the Pepperdine School of Law and teaches an annual International Sports Licensing Seminar at the University of Miami School of Law in London.