What Minorities And Women Can Learn From Michele Roberts, Leading Litigatrix Turned NBA Union Chief
How did Michele Roberts become such an influential figure in the legal profession, and what lessons does her inspiring career offer?
Ed. note: This post was originally published on January 23, 2015. With the new NBA season getting underway, we thought that today might be a good time to republish it.
“I’m the black sheep but Chris Farley wears the crown / And I know life is just a game in which the cards are facing down.” – Drake
In Michele Roberts’s senior yearbook, she quoted Malcolm X and Nikki Giovanni: “Joy is finding a pregnant roach and squashing it.” Roberts was born and raised by a single mom in a low-income housing development in the Bronx. She attended public schools before earning a scholarship her sophomore year to a boarding school. She received her undergraduate degree from Wesleyan (1977) and law degree from UC Berkeley (1980). Roberts could be considered a real-life example of the script from Finding Forrester. Last July, she was named Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA).
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Roberts is the first woman to be in charge of a major North American professional sports union. Prior to being elected the NBPA Executive Director, Roberts was a trial lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (2011-2014), Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (2004-2011), and Shea & Gardner (n/k/a Goodwin Procter). At one point in her career, she even headed her own firm (Rochon & Roberts; Rochon, Roberts, & Stern). Prior to this, she spent eight years in the Public Defender Service for D.C. (rising to chief of the trial division). Just as Jamal Wallace in Finding Forrester found a mentor in William Forrester, so too Roberts found a mentor in Charles Ogletree at the Public Defender’s office. Miss Elsy, Roberts’s mother, was also a strong figure in her life. As ESPN writes, “When other families in the neighborhood accused Miss Elsy of thinking her kids were better than everybody, she would respond, ‘No, I just think they’re better than everyone thinks they are.’”
Last week, ESPN aired a special Outside the Lines segment titled “Content of Character: Union Leaders Roundtable.” The host, Jay Harris, began the discussion by asking the panel, “What does the color of your skin mean for your roles as union heads?” Roberts answered, “We’ve had to deal with the fact that when we walk into a conference room or a courtroom or wherever that there are presumptions that are going to be made about us because we are African-American, and then added to that is the audacity of my being a woman in the world of sports. Having said all that, I allow myself to be troubled by it for about a millisecond and then we all just go on and do what we have to do.”
During the interview process, Roberts proclaimed to the NBPA Executive Committee: “My past is littered with the bones of men who were foolish enough to think I was someone they could sleep on.” Throughout her career, Roberts has focused on controlling the narrative. Because of the last collective bargaining agreement, where many feel the players got their ass handed to them, Roberts fully understands that she will be fighting an uphill battle during the next round of collective bargaining discussions in 2017. It is no coincidence that controlling the narrative and shifting public perception are high on Roberts’s agenda.
Unlike most of us, Roberts spent a significant portion of her childhood attending trials with her mother, a domestic worker. They enjoyed the drama and the entertainment was free. But like many of us, Roberts pursued a legal career because of the injustices she witnessed in the system. Roberts credits her success to “paying attention to detail” and “preparation.” Roberts recommends for young attorneys to ask questions and seek out proper guidance, supervision, and training early in their careers. Roberts believes asking questions early in one’s career is critical because “you are not Johnnie Cochran, even Johnnie Cochran wasn’t Johnnie Cochran for many, many years… I’m still learning from other lawyers, even bad lawyers if nothing else you learn what not to do.”
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Roberts began her legal career as a public defender because she wanted to provide a voice for the voiceless. Because of Roberts’s resolve, attitude, and experience, she became too good to ignore. Roberts was a long shot for the executive director position, to be sure; “she had no background in labor relations and no experience working in sports.” Her credentials certainly made her a strong candidate, but her personal background may have helped to ultimately seal the deal.
Last August, Roberts articulated her story and what motivates her:
‘I’m not a man, I’m not in my 20s, and I have no basketball skills whatsoever, but many of these players came through some fairly tough times to make it, and they know I did too. I think my upbringing struck a chord with them, and allowed us to begin creating a relationship of trust. I’ve received an unbelievable outpouring of support from the players, and I’m driven to affirm their faith in me….’
‘I stopped many years ago worrying about carrying around an extra burden of being an African American woman in a mostly white male corporate world,’ she said. ‘Look, I’ve certainly been inspired by women in my life, and to the extent I can inspire women and girls, that’s great. But I’d want to be the best executive director in the history of the union regardless.’
Roberts reiterated this view to the New York Times: “I don’t live my life saying, ‘What ceiling am I going to crack tomorrow?’ What I have done, and what I tell my nieces to do, is not to worry about whether you’re the only one, but worry about whether you’re the best one.”
Last November, Roberts was asked, “So much has been said about the history of being the first female union chief in North American pro sports. Are you tired of talking about that yet?” She responded, “Not yet. I’m not tired. I’ll say what I’ve always said — I’ve never not been cognizant of the fact that I’m a woman. Or black. Those are things you can’t wake up in the morning and really ignore. But I’ve always never allowed either of those things — being a woman or African-American — to determine my future.”
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Just as Roberts developed her skills and passion in the law to become an influential figure, so too can minorities (as well as women) work on honing their craft to become so good they can’t be ignored. Just as Roberts was awarded the position because of her resolve, attitude, and experiences, so too can we use our resolve, attitude, and experiences to our advantage. The NBPA elected Roberts as executive director because she sagaciously pitched a compelling story and perspicaciously crafted a framing narrative of why an “outsider” made sense to lead the organization. To stand out, we should also be prepared to pitch a compelling story of how we, as “outsiders,” can uniquely contribute to an organization’s future success. Your sui generis experience is your competitive advantage.
As Kate Fagan of ESPN concludes, “To be certain, nothing about Roberts and nothing she does is happenstance or inadvertent. It’s all a part of her own personal narrative, including the story about how she became one of the most interesting power brokers in sports.” As law students, we should also work hard on crafting our personal narratives because we never know where they may guide us.
Renwei Chung is a 2L at Southern Methodist University School of Law. He has an undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Golden Rule: How Income Inequality Will Ruin America (affiliate link). He has been randomly blogging about anything and everything at Live Your Truth since 2008. He was born in California, raised in Michigan, and lives in Texas. He has a yellow lab named Izza and enjoys old-school hip hop, the NBA and stand up paddleboarding (SUP). He is really interested in startups, entrepreneurship, and innovative technologies. You can contact Renwei by email at [email protected], follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.
