Caution: Checking a Winger May Risk a Lawsuit

Corporate lawyers hit the ice recently, literally. A team from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom faced off against lawyers from Proskauer Rose in the sky rink at Chelsea Piers for a charity event to raise money for the group Ice Hockey in Harlem.

Early action in crowded the Proskauer goalie, Domenick Vitaliano, a brave senior paralegal from Proskauer's New York office, who was able to defend the net through a scoreless first period.

The Skadden team, bruisers clad in white with the firm's name in its trademark true red, seemed to dominate and the Proskauer team's general manager, L. Robert Batterman, rooting from the sidelines, explained why:

The Skadden team plays in a regular league that plays at the Chelsea Piers, while Proskauer put its Bad News Bears together especially for this contest, the first benefit for Ice Hockey in Harlem.

"We flew half the team down from Boston!" said Batterman, who in his day job is a Proskauer partner who represents the National Hockey League in all of its labor matters. Wearing the Proskauer team's black jersey with orange lettering, Batterman added proudly that his team boasted the only female player on the ice, Elizabeth Flanagan, a recruiter from the firm's Boston office.

Skadden's team appeared to have no general manager in uniform. Its leader, J. Gregory Milmoe, a bankruptcy partner who handled a very slippery situation with the bankruptcy of the commodities broker Refco, was on the ice, playing left wing.

In the bleachers, however, Shepard "Shep" Goldfein, a partner in Skadden's litigation department, carried an inflated Skadden baseball bat in the pocket of his trench coat. When not cheering the Skadden team, he chatted with David Zimmerman, general counsel of the National Hockey League.

This charity affair was all in the family: Skadden handles all of the NHL's antitrust matters, and Goldfein is currently representing the league in a case against Madison Square Garden, owner of the New York Rangers. Goldfein won the first face-off in that case last November, when a federal judge denied an MSG motion. The case lives on, as MSG continues to attack the NHL's joint sale of telecast rights and intellectual property.

But enough law already! Back to the game: Skadden's first goal came with 9:21 left in the second period, and the team followed with a second two minutes later. Hockey is a contact sport, and you might imagine a bunch of combative litigators to dominate the list of players, but Goldfein set the record straight: "Actually, I think most of them are corporate lawyers," he said. "They're M&A types."

Indeed. Skadden, with its obvious advantages over the poor Proskauer team, still pushed for every advantage. It sent in players from its offices in Toronto and Chicago, cities known for cold climates and hockey.

For this game, Skadden also called in a ringer: Eric Cochran, an M&A partner who founded a Skadden hockey team in the 1980s when he was an associate. When that team disbanded, Cochran, who played hockey as an undergraduate at Williams College, joined other teams in the Chelsea Piers league and now plays against Skadden as a member of Sports Illustrated magazine's team.

Apparently, Skadden was prepared to stop at nothing to win, and the score proved it: Skadden won 7-2. Proskauer fans proved a hearty bunch, beating the benches loudly with each of their team's pair of goals.

"That's the last time we play against a law firm with offices in Toronto and Moscow!" harrumphed one Proskauer believer after the game ended.

At a reception after the game, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, a former law partner from Proskauer, awarded the winners the coveted, if previously unknown, "Lawyers' Cup" trophy. Betttman's deputy, Bill Daly, a former associate from Skadden, assisted in the ceremony.

The event raised about $20,000 for Ice Hockey in Harlem.

Alas, there was no checking. Milmoe said later that the teams agreed the only checking allowed would be on paper—no fights, no calls to the penalty box. No blood, no broken teeth. No breakups by the referees.

And they call themselves lawyers?

by Karen Donovan

_{Photograph of the victorious Skadden skaters courtesy of Brian Fountain/Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP}