JP Kernisan practices in the areas of government and regulatory litigation, sports litigation, white collar defense, investigations, and commercial litigation.
Mr. Kernisan’s practice focuses on solving clients’ most difficult legal issues. JP routinely litigates significant disputes against federal and state authorities on behalf of corporations and individuals, in addition to representing companies and executives facing corporate crises involving difficult legal and regulatory challenges, with particular experience advising companies related to allegations of corruption, discrimination and harassment and/or executive misconduct.
Government & Regulatory Litigation
Mr. Kernisan has significant experience defending companies and C-suite executives in complex civil government and regulatory litigation. Mr. Kernisan has successfully litigated matters involving federal and state government agencies, navigating complex statutory or regulatory schemes, and successfully arguing threshold jurisdictional and constitutional challenges to proposed government enforcement actions.
White Collar, Investigations & Government Enforcement
Mr. Kernisan is a trial lawyer who represents companies, boards of directors and senior executives in investigations, corporate crises, litigation and other sensitive matters involving U.S. federal and state government law enforcement and regulatory agencies, as well as foreign regulators.
Mr. Kernisan has conducted internal investigations for large multinational companies, financial institutions and universities. He routinely represents organizations and executives facing significant government and/or regulatory investigations by U.S. authorities, including but not limited to the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the New York Department of Financial Services. Mr. Kernisan has extensive experience defending clients in multi-jurisdictional investigations and litigation conducted cooperatively by U.S. and foreign government authorities.
Sports
Mr. Kernisan’s professional sports practice consists of providing crisis strategy and litigation advice and counsel to numerous professional sports franchises in the National Football League and National Basketball Association, athletic departments of large universities, and senior executives in the sports industry. He has over a decade of experience representing professional sports teams and other sports business organizations in high-profile investigations and litigations, which have often been the subject of significant media coverage. JP successfully represented a large public university in an NCAA enforcement action and related matters regarding the university’s football program and student-athletes ability to exercise their name, image and likeness (“NIL”) rights. This representation resulted in unprecedented changes to the NCAA’s approach to enforcement actions related to NIL.
Based on his extensive involvement in significant matters in the sports industry, JP was recognized by Law360 as a “Top Attorney Under 40 – Sports & Betting” in 2020.
Employment & Commercial Litigation
Mr. Kernisan has significant employment litigation and counseling experience representing domestic and international employers and senior executives in various industries, including retail, sports, media, financial services, in federal and state court and in arbitration. JP also has particular experience representing start-up technology companies and venture capital funds in this context. He has defended employers in state and federal courts, including at the appellate level, in all stages of single plaintiff, multi-plaintiff and class and collective action litigation and arbitration against claims of breach of contract (including non-compete issues), wrongful discharge, discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
JP has also led several internal investigations related to executive misconduct in various organizations across several industries, including but not limited to sports, retail, automotive and financial services industries.
JP is a 2009 graduate of New York University School of Law and a 2006 graduate of the University of Maryland – College Park.
- Represents the world’s largest luxury goods company in various litigation and strategic matters.
- Has led dozens of internal investigations for professional sports franchises, sports business organizations and other large companies related to employee misconduct including but not limited to alleged sexual assault, sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
- Represented NFL team during organizational crisis arising from allegations of sexual and racial harassment of former employees. Part of a team that developed and implemented a short-term crisis strategy that was later referred to in Sports Illustrated as “a brilliant stroke of crisis management.”
- Boeing 737 MAX — Represents several Boeing employees in connection with the investigations by U.S. authorities of the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
- Represents one of Scandinavia’s largest financial institutions before various U.S. authorities related to ongoing regulatory and criminal investigations.
- Representation of witnesses in various high-profile investigations conducted by various government authorities (DOJ, SEC, FTC) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
- Represented one of the largest companies in the automotive industry, providing crisis management an employment law advice related to government investigations and the removal of the CEO of one of the automaker’s subsidiaries.
- Represented a large university in an internal investigation of sexual misconduct spanning decades involving the university’s athletic department and implicating members of the athletic department and university administrators.
- Recommended and implemented long-term organizational changes focused on improving organizational culture and environment for employees of NFL team, including but not limited to employment audit, review of policies, procedures and practices with respect to diversity and inclusion and hiring, retention and promotion.
- Provides advice and counsel on broad range of litigation and business issues to various professional sports clubs, including but not limited to contract negotiations for team executives and providing advice and counsel on various litigation and employment law issues. JP was involved in negotiating one of the most lucrative coaching contracts in NFL history.
- Represented large national retailer against an investigation by state and federal authorities into employment, security and surveillance practices related to customers.
- Part of a trial team for large international fragrance company that successfully defended employer against claims of age discrimination.
- New York University School of Law
(J.D., 2009) - University of Maryland
(B.S., Accounting, 2006)- Dean’s List
- The State Bar of New York
- The District of Columbia Bar
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America: Government & Regulatory Litigation, White Collar, Commercial Litigation, 2025
- Law360 Top Attorney Under 40 – Sports & Betting (2020)
- New York Metro Area Super Lawyers “Rising Star” (2015-2024)
- Member, Sports Lawyers Association
- 2017 Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) Fellow
- New York City Bar – Enhance Diversity in the Profession Executive Committee (2017 – 2019)