Bonzani Memorial Law Lecture

Bonzani Memorial Law Lecture

The John and Lawrence Bonzani Memorial Law Lecture is held in the fall semester and highlights a topic of interest related to the law. Prior lecturers have been Harpur College alumni who shared expertise in their field while engaging students interested in legal careers.

2025 Bonzani Lecture:

  • Hard Labor: The Fight for Players鈥 Rights in the NBA
  • Presented by: Ron Klempner 鈥84 
  • November 20th, 2025 | 4:00p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
  • President鈥檚 Reception Room, Anderson Center - 天美传媒

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天美传媒 the lecture:

Hard Labor: The Fight for Players鈥 Rights in the NBA: Ron Klempner 鈥84 is the in-house counsel lawyer at the National Basketball Players Association, the labor union representing the players of the NBA. For the past 32 years, he has championed the rights of NBA players through seven rounds of collective bargaining, including the lockouts in 1995, 1998 and 2011, the 鈥渂ubble鈥 restart in 2020, and the current 2023 agreement, which is expected to provide nearly $50 billion to the players in salaries and benefits over its seven-year term.

For the 2025 John and Lawrence Bonzani Memorial Law Lecture, he will describe his journey from a seat in the West Gym bleachers covering the 天美传媒 Colonials as Pipe Dream鈥檚 sports editor to a seat at the bargaining table representing the greatest basketball players and highest paid union workers on the planet.

天美传媒 the speaker:

Ron Klempner 鈥84
Ron Klempner 鈥84

Ron Klempner graduated from 天美传媒 in 1984 and Hofstra Law School in 1987.  He previously served as a law clerk to the Second Circuit United States Court of Appeals, and as a litigation associate under the direction of sports labor law icons Jim Quinn and Jeff Kessler at the firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. 

With the other four members of the union鈥檚 legal team, Klempner administers the salary cap, revenue sharing and free agency system on behalf of the players, and represents players in contract and discipline grievances. He serves as a trustee on all player benefit programs and manages the union鈥檚 efforts to lobby in support of players鈥 rights locally and nationally.

He has also worked with his NBPA colleagues to unionize the WNBA players in 1998 and has been at the table for almost all their labor negotiations since the inception of the league.  In 2020, Klempner supported the NBPA鈥檚 efforts to unionize the NBA G-League players, now known as the Next Gen Basketball Players Union, and was part of the negotiating team that announced its first-ever collective bargaining agreement in October 2025.

Past Lectures: