Dear Fellow NBA Officials:
Just wanted to know what our legal counsel has done on our behalf during the recently concluded contract negotiations.
First off, he has held the NBA to the letter of the law with regard to our CBA. Lee Seham taught us that, unless a union aggressively enforces its contractual rights, the CBA is not worth the paper it’s written on. By filing and prosecuting the necessary grievances, Lee has given new life to our CBA, made us a credible Union, and put money in our members’ pockets.
He has also changed the way we negotiate with the NBA. In the past the NBA would NEVER discuss non=economic issues until the economic issues were settled. Unfortunately, our past history was that, once the economic issues were put on the table, we forgot as a group about the non-economic part of the contract.
Lee demanded that the NBA address our non-economic issues and filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board when the League shirked its duty. Lee’s strategy not only enabled us to achieve many of our non-economic goals, but provided enormous leverage during the economic negotiations as well.
In sum, Lee Seham has changed the culture at the NBA. Our group is now accorded a level of respect that we have never seen before.
Lee is a stand up guy not afraid to take on anyone on his clients’ behalf and in our opinion one of the hardest working and intelligent attorneys we have ever met.
The hours he has put into our negotiations, we could not pay him for. He is tireless and he fights for the little guy.
The best thing our union has done has been to hire Lee Seham and we truly believe in the years to come with Lee’s help and guidance this union and our CBA will be something we all will be proud of.
Sincerely,
