A New Field of Expertise: Some Attorneys Have Traded Suits for Stripes

Attorneys tend to dress professionally and conservatively. But for some who have moved on to a different kind of field, dressing up like a zebra is the required uniform.

Presenting a convincing argument in a court of law can be difficult, but does it compare to making a split-second decision in front of 75,000 screaming people, all of them self-appointed judges?

Both active and retired attorneys have found their way into a different kind of adjudicating as officials for the National Football League (NFL). What sort of skills makes those in the legal profession well-suited for keeping control and order between 22 players at a time?

Earning Your Stripes

For success as an NFL referee, it’s important to have a flawless working knowledge of all the rules and be able to explain how they’re applied in the appropriate situation. It’s easy to see how a person skilled in law would be adept at explaining and applying rules in an NFL game, as well. 

While it may not use any phrases in Latin, the NFL Rulebook is an imposing tome. It contains 19 rules with hundreds of subsets and clarifications. Unlike attorneys who can focus on their area of law, officials need to be experts on every rule.

Being a football official also means being able to interpret and explain the rules when there's some ambivalence involved. Whether or not to make a pass interference call is based on guidelines provided by the rules, but often mitigating factors garner consideration as well.

Two former attorneys achieved the pinnacle of officiating in the NFL by serving as the referee in a Super Bowl. Ed Hochuli of Jones, Skelton & Hochuli, P.L.C. had the honor twice. Ron Torbert, who was a full equity partner at Dykema Gossett before retiring, served in the lead officiating position in the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans. This was also his second time at the big game, although his first as the lead referee.

Three active or former attorneys and one judge served as NFL officials during the 2024-2025 season. Most NFL officials are part-time employees. However, this doesn't mean it's not a lucrative job.

A Different Kind of Judgment

Officials working in NFL games average about $205,000 per year. That doesn't sound too shabby for working 18 days a year, but it's not quite that simple. Like any other sport, football officials start their career at the bottom, working peewee and high school. Those that prove worthy move up to the college level.

In addition to putting their lawyer brains to work, officials must be in proper physical shape. Working a football game requires a good deal of running. While you're not expected to be as fast as the players, your knowledge of how the game flows and where you're supposed to be means you should always be in the right position to make a call. Continuous training helps to make that second nature.

The longer you've worked as an NFL official, the more you'll be paid. Working playoff games carries additional pay, and those who've earned the right to officiate the Super Bowl can expect a bonus of $50,000. The competition for those spots is as fierce as the battle for legal internships.

NFL games use a total of nine officials in a crew. Crews tend to stick together for the entire season. In addition to the referee as the head of the crew, there's an umpire, a down judge, a line judge, a field judge, a back judge, and a side judge. The replay official and the replay assistant are off-field officials who round out the crew.

Stripes Look Good on You

Criminal defense attorneys do their best to keep their clients from ending up in the horizontal black and white stripes of the classic prison uniform. But vertical black and white stripes apparently go well on retired attorneys. While tossing penalty flags during a peewee game may not be as exciting as delivering a stirring closing statement, at least there's a lot more fresh air involved.

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