Anita B. Brody

Brody was born in Brooklyn, New York. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College[1] in 1955, and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 1958. Brody was a deputy assistant state attorney general in New York from 1958 to 1959. From 1973 to 1981 she was in private practice in Philadelphia. In 1981 Brody was appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh, and then elected a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, which is part of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area.[2]

Brody was nominated by President George H. W. Bush on November 22, 1991, to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to a new seat created as a result of the passage of 104 Stat. 5089. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 2, 1992, and received her commission on October 2, 1992.[2]

Brody presided over the case to decide whether a group of lawsuits by former NFL players against the NFL would be heard in federal court or whether the cases would be heard by an arbitrator in accordance with the league's collective bargaining agreement, as the league has requested. In an April 9, 2013 hearing, the NFL's lawyer, Paul Clement, admitted it would be difficult for the NFL to make the argument that an arbitrator should hear the cases of former players who never signed the collective bargaining agreement. The medical condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (sometimes referred to simply as CTE) resulting from concussions is a factor in the suits.[3]

• Anita Blumstein Brody at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.