Jessica Berman | |
|---|---|
 Berman in 2023 | |
| Commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League | |
| Assumed office April 20, 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Marla Messing (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1977 (age 45–46) New York City,U.S. |
| Spouse | Brad Berman |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | |
Jessica Berman (born 1977) [1] [2] is an American lawyer who has served as the commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) since 2022.
Berman grew up in a Conservative Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. [3] She attended East Midwood Jewish Center. She was the manager of the boys' baseball team at James Madison High School. [4] She then earned a bachelor's degree in sports management from the University of Michigan, [3] where she was an assistant manager of the men's hockey team. [4] [5] After Michigan, Berman attended Fordham University for law school, and graduated in 2002. [5]
After graduating from Fordham, Berman joined the law firm Proskauer Rose as an associate working in the labor and employment department. [5] At Proskauer Rose, she was a member of the team that negotiated an end to the 2004–05 NHL lockout and a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement between the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association. [4] [6]
In 2006, Berman moved in-house to the NHL after more than 3 years at Proskauer Rose. [6] Over her 13 years with the league, she rose to become the NHL's deputy general counsel and vice president of community development. [5] Her responsibilities included the league's corporate social responsibility efforts and running the NHL Foundation. [3] [7] During Berman's tenure in the NHL, she was viewed as a candidate to eventually become the first female commissioner of a men's professional sports league, [4] and she was named a "Forty under 40" by Sports Business Journal in 2014. [6]
In 2019, she was named the deputy commissioner and executive vice president of business affairs of the National Lacrosse League (NLL), becoming the first female deputy commissioner of a men's professional sports league. [3] At the NLL, Berman was responsible for the league's growth and legal affairs. [5]
On March 8, 2022, Berman was named commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the highest professional women's soccer league in the United States, for a 4-year term that began on April 20. [1] [3] The NWSL had been without a permanent commissioner since the resignation of Lisa Baird in October 2021. Berman's hiring process was the first to include player interviews, a demand in the wake of the 2021 NWSL abuse scandal. [7]
Jessica Berman lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband and two children. Her family belongs to the Westchester Jewish Center. In 2023, Berman was awarded the David J. Stern Leadership Award by the UJA-Federation of New York. [3] [4]
Proskauer Rose LLP is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1875 and currently employs more than 800 attorneys in twelve offices worldwide.
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The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. Headquartered in New York City, it is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federation.
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The expansion of the National Women's Soccer League began with the league's sophomore season in 2014, when the league expanded to a ninth team in Houston, and is an ongoing process that currently has seen five expansions, three direct or indirect relocations, and one contraction. The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) was established as the top level of professional women's soccer in the United States in 2013 in the wake of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association and Women's Professional Soccer.
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