Roger Kaplan has been a full-time arbitrator since 1981. A graduate of the University of Maryland in 1965, Mr. Kaplan received his Juris Doctor Degree from the George Washington University Law Center in 1968. Prior to becoming an arbitrator in 1981, Mr. Kaplan was Chief of the Labor Law Branch of the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service for six years. From 1971 to 1974, he served as General Counsel of the National Association of Government Employees.
Mr. Kaplan is a former adjunct professor at the graduate school of George Washington University. The Sports Lawyers Association elected him to their Board of Directors in May 2008. Mr. Kaplan is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators. He is on the National Labor Panels of the American Arbitration Association, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the National Mediation Board.
He has substantial experience in both the public and private sectors.
In the private sector, Mr. Kaplan was the Grievance Arbitrator for the National Basketball Association and the NBA Players Association from 1999-2004. He served on the arbitration panel of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1996-2004. Mr. Kaplan previously served as an arbitrator for the Arena Football League and the East Coast Hockey League and their respective unions. He currently serves as a permanent arbitrator on many arbitration panels in the private sector including US Airways and the US Airline Pilots Association; AK Steel Corporation and the International Association of Machinists; New York City Department of Education and United Federation of Teachers; Hotel Association of Washington, DC and UNITE HERE Local 25; Children’s Hospital and the District of Columbia Nurses Association; Kaiser Permanente and OPEIU, Local 2; Also, he is the Permanent Umpire for disputes arising between National Football League players and their agents.
In the Federal Sector, Mr. Kaplan currently serves on numerous panels of arbitration. These include the Department of Homeland Security and the National Treasury Employees Union; Office of Personnel Management and the AFGE; and the General Services Administration and the AFGE. Mr. Kaplan formerly served as the Chair of the Personnel Appeals Board of the General Accounting Office. He was a Hearing Board Member for the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices. He also served as the Permanent Umpire for internal disputes with the Association of Flight Attendants. He was born in 1944 in New York City and currently resides in Alexandria, Va.
