The NFL has access to the best and brightest lawyers in the country.
Hiring Loretta Lynch was not by mistake. Bringing in a high-profile black attorney to shoot down a lawsuit about racist hiring practices was not a coincidence.
Lynch chose a check over her race.
That isn’t uncommon in our society.
The National Football League has hired former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to defend it in a high-profile race discrimination case filed earlier this month by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores.
Lynch, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, is working with the law firm’s chairman Brad Karp on the litigation, according to four sources familiar with the situation. The Dolphins, also named as a defendant in the Flores case, and their real estate billionaire owner Stephen Ross have turned to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan litigator William Burck, the sources said.
Flores, who is Black and Hispanic, was fired by the Dolphins in January and was not subsequently chosen to fill several NFL head coach openings. His complaint cited statements from some league executives, including attorney and chief diversity and inclusion officer Jonathan Beane, about the NFL needing to do more for minorities.
Lynch ran the Justice Department for two years during the Obama administration and joined Paul Weiss in 2019. She was tapped by the New York-based NFL in late 2020 to work on an inquiry into claims of misconduct involving owners of what was then called the Washington Football Team.
That team, controlled by Daniel Snyder and formerly known as the Redskins, adopted the Commanders nickname earlier this month. The Washington Commanders and Snyder are also now the subject of another NFL investigation into allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace.
This is going to get uglier before it gets resolved and sadly I don’t think much will change even if Flores wins or the case is settled.
Flip the pages for the latest on the lawsuit.