Michele A. Roberts

Lawyer and association executive Michele A. Roberts was born on September 14, 1956 in New York, New York to Elsie and Fred Roberts. She earned her B.A. degree in government from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1977, before earning her J.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1980.

Roberts joined the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia as an attorney in 1980, where she rose to the position of chief trial deputy. Then, in 1988, Roberts joined Perazich & Wynn as a partner. That same year, she became an instructor at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. She opened her law firms, Roberts & Moore, in 1991 and Rochon & Roberts in 1995. In 2005, Roberts became a partner at the law firm of Shea & Gardner. The following year, she joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and remained there until 2011, when she was hired as a partner with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. She left Skadden after being hired as the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association in 2014, where she remained until her retirement in 2021. In 2023, she served as co-founding principal of the Free Fair Litigation Group and subsequently joined JAMS in 2024.

During her career, Roberts served as a board director for the Robert A. Shuker Scholarship Fund, JusticeAid, and The Washington Ballet. She also served as a board member of the Bronx Defenders from 2017 to 2024, Cresco Labs from 2020 to 2024, the Marshall Project from 2021 to 2024, and the Southern Center for Human Rights beginning in 2024. Roberts is a member of the Council on Criminal Justice, a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and an advisor to the Pro Sports Assembly. She has served on the board of trustees of her alma mater, Wesleyan University, since 2023.

Roberts has received numerous awards and honors including the Stars of the Bar Award from the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia in 2003; Business Trial Lawyer of the Year from Chambers USA in 2011; ESPNW’s “Impact 25” in 2014; the Metropolitan Black Bar Association’s Trailblazer of the Year Award; the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce’s Outstanding Achievement Award; and the Citation Award from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2015. She received the National Association of Black Journalists Sports Task Force’s Sam Lacy Pioneer Award and the National Bar Association’s Achievement Award in 2016; Wesleyan University’s Distinguished Alumni Award and the Black Entertainment & Sports Lawyers Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017; and the Bronx Museum’s Achievement Award in 2018. In 2019, she received the Legal Aid Society’s Servant of Justice Award, the Gamechangers’ Leadership & Service Award, Southern Company’s Trailblazer Award, and the Women in Sports & Events’ Women of Distinction Award. In 2023, Roberts was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of San Francisco and was inducted into the Bronx Basketball Hall of Fame.

Roberts resides in New York, New York.

Michele A. Roberts was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on May 15, 2025.