George Fleming

Assistant General Counsel at the National Basketball Association

New York, New York, United States

About

I'm an Assistant General Counsel at the NBA, where I head the commercial litigation team. From 2022 to 2025, I was an in-house Counsel at BNY Mellon, where I was part of the Civil Litigation team. From 2018 to 2022, I was an Associate in Patterson Belknap’s Litigation department, where I worked on a wide range of complex commercial litigation matters. During my time at Patterson, I was an active contributor to the firm's Second Circuit Criminal Law Blog, served on the Associates and Diversity committees, and undertook a number of pro bono matters. From 2016 to 2018, I served as a law clerk to the Hon. Raymond J. Lohier, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and to the Hon. Denise Cote of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. From 2014 to 2015, I was a litigation Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. I was co-founder of SkaddVets, Skadden's veterans affinity group. Prior to practicing law, I served as a United States naval officer, specializing in Surface Warfare. I deployed to the Persian Gulf, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and to South America, where my ship trained with the navies of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. I'm a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law School. At Duke, I worked as a Resident Assistant and served in several positions in Duke Student Government. I was also a member of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. At Harvard, I was a member of the Harvard Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review. I grew up in Kennesaw, Georgia and currently live in Queens, NY with my husband and pet hedgehog, Coco.

Experience

  • Assistant General Counsel, Litigation at National Basketball Association (NBA)
    Mar 2025 - Present · 1 yr 4 mos

  • Counsel, Litigation at BNY
    Jun 2022 - Mar 2025 · 2 yrs 10 mos

    Responsible for overseeing a diverse litigation portfolio across BNY Mellon’s business lines (corporate trust, asset servicing, wealth management, investment management, treasury services, technology, and clearance and collateral management).

  • Associate at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
    Feb 2018 - Jun 2022 · 4 yrs 5 mos

  • Law Clerk at United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
    Jan 2017 - Jan 2018 · 1 yr 1 mo

    Law Clerk for Judge Raymond J. Lohier, Jr.

  • Law Clerk at U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
    Jan 2016 - Jan 2017 · 1 yr 1 mo

    Law Clerk for Judge Denise Cote