Promoting complex wage and hour lawsuit against MLB and teams

Brief

Infinite Global was engaged by the law firm Korein Tillery LLC to help promote a lawsuit it filed on behalf of thousands of current and former minor league baseball players against Major League Baseball (MLB) and MLB teams. The suit alleged the defendants failed to pay minor league players minimum wage and overtime pay.

After becoming involved following a summary judgment hearing, we faced many challenges in securing media attention. Among them were communicating the underlying claims to sports reporters, who often lacked basic legal knowledge. In addition, the eventual settlement was incredibly complex, requiring us to distill each case milestone down to essential takeaways.

Solution

We spent hours on the phone with some of the nation’s leading baseball reporters, demystifying wage & hour law, explaining the civil procedure, and walking them through the many ways that the outcome of this case would fundamentally change the lives of baseball players past and present. The groundwork was crucial to getting them interested in the litigation.

Outcome

After a favorable summary judgment ruling, we secured extensive media interest in national business, sports and legal publications. In the lead-up to the trial, we kept the media abreast of the case, proactively developing talking points and answering questions about the potentially enormous damages faced by MLB if the case were to proceed to trial.

Ultimately, the plaintiffs agreed to a $185 million settlement—which we promoted with a comprehensive media plan designed to take advantage of the MLB All-Star game and a critical moment for labor relations in baseball.