Michele A. Roberts

Michele A. Roberts (born 1956) is an American attorney and former executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. She was the first woman to hold that position and the first woman to head a major professional sports union in North America. Previously, she was an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Early life Roberts grew up in a housing project in the South Bronx neighborhood of The Bronx in New York City.

Roberts built her reputation as a trial lawyer. She worked for Akin Gump from 2004 to 2011. In 2011 she was hired by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Roberts was named executive director of the National Basketball Players Association in July 2014.

Roberts is an adjunct faculty member at Harvard Law School and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. The Washingtonian once referred to her as the "finest pure trial lawyer in Washington."

In 2021, Sports Illustrated included Roberts' in "The Unrelenting", a feature on women in sports. Worth named her one of the "21 Most Powerful Women in the Business of Sports". That same year, Crain's New York included her on its list of "Notable Women in Law".

Roberts retired as the NBPA executive director in January 2022.

Since 2025, Roberts has served as a lecturer in the HELEGS Executive Program on the Law, Economics, and Geopolitics of Professional Sports, specializing in the legal and sociopolitical aspects of the North American Sports Model. .