Eric Harrington

As General Counsel, Harrington serves as the MLSPA’s chief legal officer and leads the Legal Department. The Department negotiates and enforces the Collective Bargaining Agreement with MLS, handles all grievances and arbitrations, provides advice to the PA and players on legal issues, coordinates health and safety issues, including workers compensation claims, provides support and training to players’ agents, and provides legal counsel to the PA on intellectual property and publicity rights issues.

Before joining the MLSPA, Harrington spent over two decades fighting for workers – in labor unions, the federal government, and private practice. He has led organizing drives that added tens of thousands to union ranks, and governmental reform efforts that expanded the civil rights of millions and provided billions of dollars of relief for teachers and healthcare workers. And he has litigated on behalf of individuals, employees, and unions in state and federal trial and appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

Harrington is a cum laude graduate of Binghamton University and a high honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as Managing Editor of the Texas Law Review. After law school, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. A. Wallace Tashima of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.