A thirty-five-year career that included being a partner at two major law firms, a former Assistant US Attorney, Counsel to the Deputy US Attorney and nearly fifteen years as the head of the NFL Players Association. DeMaurice Smith is currently a visiting professor and board member. He was a founding partner of OneTeam, Inc a company now valued at over $2B. His recent book, Turf Wars: The Fight for America’s Game, is a gritty behind the scenes look at sports and business in America. He also co-wrote The Rooney Suggestion, a historical and legal analysis of the Rooney Rule for the Yale Policy and Law Journal.

He is a 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.

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. 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 $2B. During his tenure, he quarterbacked the players during a contentious lockout, high profile investigations including Deflategate, the Saints Bounty scandal, and represented Colin Kaepernick. As a lawyer, chief negotiator and spokesperson for the NFLPA, he excelled in advance game-strategy and risk transfer by coordinating aggressive litigation, congressional, public relations and insurance programs while developing strategic partnerships with business partners across the world. His work changing the health and safety landscape with respect to concussions in football have been replicated on every level of sport. In 2011, he partnered with the Harvard Medical School to create the only comprehensive longitudinal health study of football players in history.

He was a partner at Latham & Watkins and Patton Boggs where he co-chaired the White Collar and Investigations Practice for more than fifteen years and as an Assistant US Attorney in the District of Columbia he focused on Homicide, Violent Crime and Terrorism Cases. 

Recognized a 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; the U.S Department of Justice’s Attorney General Award; US Congressional Award; The Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award; Keeper of Dream Award; Legal Aid’s Servant of Justice Award and he has been inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges and Universities.

His creative and bold strategy as Executive Director of the NFLPA secured the only union-side risk transfer insurance policy in history and the first comprehensive transition program for professional athletes. The concussion health and safety protocols created during his tenure have become the industry standard from professional to youth sports.

Smith is a sought-after corporate keynote and 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; Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, Georgetown Business School and USC Business School.