Adolpho Birch III ’91 has joined the Tennessee Titans as chief legal officer and senior vice president of business affairs. Birch previously spent 24 years working for the National Football League, most recently as senior vice president of labor policy and league affairs.
His appointment was announced June 25 by the Titans organization.
He joined the NFL’s legal staff in 1997 to focus on the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, including such issues as player and club contract and injury grievances, benefits matters and salary cap disputes. As the NFL’s senior vice president of labor policy and league affairs, he oversaw the development, administration and enforcement of the league’s critical policies on substance abuse, performance-enhancing drugs, gambling and criminal misconduct. During his tenure at the NFL, he worked with federal, state and local officials on key league issues such as youth concussion laws, the league’s tax status and the FCC’s blackout rule. He also previously directed programs designed to support player and employee off-field success, focusing on continuing education, financial education, career development and clinical assistance.
Prior to joining the NFL, Birch was in private practice in Houston, Texas, initially with Fulbright & Jaworski and later with a boutique firm specializing in labor, insurance defense and municipal finance. Preceding his firm affiliations, he served as judicial law clerk to Judge Thomas A. Wiseman Jr. ’54 (BA’52), Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Birch was a Patricia Roberts Harris Scholar at Vanderbilt Law, where he served on the editorial board of the Vanderbilt Law Review and earned his J.D. in 1991. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard University.
Birch was elected to the Vanderbilt Board of Trust in 2014 and currently chairs an ad hoc committee formed to recommend policies of equity, diversity and inclusion.
Birch was raised in Nashville. He is actively involved in a number of professional and philanthropic organizations, including the Sports Lawyers Association, Partnership for Clean Competition and the National Bar Association. In October 2010, he was chosen as one of the top 100 leaders of the African- American community by The Root, a media collaboration between scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the Washington Post.
