Since 1998, Robert D. Manfred, Jr. has served as Executive Vice President of Labor Relations for Major League Baseball.  His primary responsibility is Baseball’s collective bargaining relationship with the Major League Baseball Players Association.  He served as the chief negotiator for the Clubs in both 2002 and 2006.  Mr. Manfred is also responsible for the collective bargaining relationship with the World Umpires Association and the human resources function in the Commissioner’s Office in New York.

Mr. Manfred graduated from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University in 1980.  He received his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1983, where he was an articles editor of the Harvard Law Review.  While at Harvard, he wrote a Note concerning contribution limitations under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.  Following law school, Mr. Manfred served as a clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro in the District of Massachusetts.

Following his clerkship, Mr. Manfred joined the Labor and Employment Law Section of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP resident in the Washington, D.C., office.  He became a partner in the firm in 1992.  At Morgan, Lewis, Mr. Manfred represented employers in numerous industries, including transportation, healthcare, professional sports and airlines.  He participated directly in the formulation and negotiation of economic and non-economic proposals for Major League Baseball in two separate rounds of collective bargaining (1990 and 1994-96).  He represented individual teams in salary arbitrations and in grievance arbitrations and provided advice to teams on their individual salary negotiations with players.  Outside the professional sports context, Mr. Manfred negotiated agreements with nurses, operating engineers and service employees on behalf of the Washington Hospital Center.

In addition to this collective bargaining experience, Mr. Manfred represented a number of clients in employee-benefit related matters.  He served as counsel to the employer trustees on a number of jointly administered pension and health and welfare funds.  He also represented multi-employer funds in federal court litigation under the Multi-Employer Pension Plan Amendments Act.

Mr. Manfred’s other litigation experience includes the representation of employers in actions brought under the Railway Labor Act and various federal anti-discrimination statutes.

Active in professional organizations, Mr. Manfred is a member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, is a member of the Labor Section of the American Bar Association and is a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia Bar Associations.