John Langel ‘74 was not always a likely candidate to be the champion of women’s sports that he has become. Now retired from Ballard Spahr where he served for decades as a partner, Langel spent much of his career representing clients in the sports industry. But for his first twenty years of practice, Langel’s experience was representing male athletes like Philadelphia legends Ron Jaworski, Reggie White, and Doug Collins. Langel’s two sons played Division I basketball, one of whom, Matt, is now the head men’s basketball coach at Colgate. His firm, Ballard, had a long-standing relationship with the Philadelphia Phillies. As Langel said in an interview for Marietta College in 2017: “I had only known a man’s world. In the man’s world, you are treated very well. I learned pretty quickly that it wasn’t the same way for the women.”[1]
Langel’s education came when the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) enlisted his help in the late 1990s. The women of the National Team were embroiled in a fight with U.S. Soccer over unfair treatment. For many years, the Men’s National Soccer Team had more money directed to their program, despite the Women’s Team’s greater success on the field and many would say higher popularity globally. Langel answered the call. Over the next decade and a half, he represented the USWNT, architecting agreements that significantly increased the amount of money and quality of treatment received by the players. With Langel working for decades to lay the groundwork for their watershed deal, the Women’s National Team ratified a new collective bargaining agreement last year with U.S. Soccer that guarantees equal pay and bonuses and sharing of pooled tournament money from the 2022 and 2023 World Cups with the Men’s Team.
Twenty years after the start of his work with the USWNT, when the U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team faced similar issues regarding inadequate pay and treatment, the call was again made to Langel. Once again, he delivered, securing a deal that would see each player earn tens of thousands of dollars more than they had previously made — life-changing money for many of them. The deal also saw the Women’s Team finally achieve some parity with the Men’s Team in travel and insurance accommodations.
And now, Langel has done it yet again. Members of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association (PWHPA) recently ratified a new collective bargaining agreement ahead of the launch of a new, as yet unnamed, women’s professional hockey league that will begin its inaugural season in January 2024. The initial season will have six teams equally divided between the United States and Canada as the league explores future expansion. The landmark CBA includes minimum salaries, performance and playoff bonuses, travel, living and relocation expenses, health insurance, a retirement plan, provisions for maternity leave and other terms designed to create a fair and sustainable league environment for the players. Although Langel was not an official member of the PWHPA bargaining committee, he was deeply involved in the negotiation process.
Not surprisingly given his achievements, Langel has received widespread accolades and recognition for his significant contributions to women’s athletics. His accomplishments have been widely reported in such media outlets as The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, ESPN, and USA Today, among many others. In 2016, he was honored by the Temple Law Review with their Alumni Award of Merit for his contributions to the Law School and his impact on the Philadelphia community. A long-standing member of Temple Law’s Board of Visitors, former adjunct professor, frequent panelist and lecturer on sports law topics, and sponsor of a scholarship for an incoming law student who played college sports, Langel’s connections to Temple Law School run long and deep. We salute him for his unwavering commitment to providing gender equity in amateur and professional sports.
[1] https://www.marietta.edu/article/langel-labor-deals
