Frank Rothman

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom

Specialty: Antitrust and entertainment

Law School: USC, 1951

Frank Rothman represents two of the nation’s three most prominent professional sports leagues against two of their most notorious figures.

Rothman is defending the National Football League against a lawsuit filed by Oakland Raiders owner and L.A.-exile Al Davis, who claims he owns the rights to any future franchise in L.A., where the Raiders once played.

In addition, Rothman has signed on with the National Basketball Association in its legal fight against Latrell Sprewell, whose lawsuit alleges that the league wrongfully suspended him after he choked his former coach while with the Golden State Warriors.

During his 48-year career, Rothman has represented every major athletic league in the country from baseball and hockey to indoor football. “I think I’ve covered all the sports,” he says.

But sports isn’t his only legal venue. In about a month, he will challenge the constitutionality of the November ballot proposition that legalized Indian gaming in California.

At 72, Rothman is a senior statesman of L.A. law. John Argue, business litigator with Argue Pearson Harbison & Myers, says Rothman might be best known for his longtime association with billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who once owned MGM Studios. “Rothman has had a lot of important cases, but I think he gained the most fame representing Kerkorian,” Argue says.

In fact, Rothman took a break from the law to serve as chairman and chief executive of MGM from 1982 to 1985. He says it was an interesting experience but didn’t want to go into detail about it.

His passion for litigating, which he calls “the combat that involves two lawyers going at each other,” brought him back to the courtroom after the studio was sold to Ted Turner.

“In the motion picture industry, you have to depend on lots of other people,” he says. “In law, you’re your own boss and you make your own mistakes.”

Joan Osterwalder