The Law In Sport Podcast

Sports lawyer, barrister and arbitrator, John Mehrzad KC discusses his recent move to Fountain Court Chambers, and what this means for the potential for increased competition in sports law, and improved representation in the sports law market. John shares his view on the value of sports clients (international federations, governing bodies, clubs, athletes, coaches, etc) having a range of expertise...

Brendan Schwab has spent his career helping, and leading, players and sports organisation to be better prepared to face the challenges they face. In this episode, Brendan reflects on his career to date and provides a fascinating insight into sport, law, industrial relations, human rights and leadership. In this interview Brendan talks about: How and why he started working in sport. The biggest cha...

Massimo Coccia is founding partner of Coccia De Angelis & Associati law firm. He holds a J.D. degree cum laude from the Law School of the University of Rome Sapienza (1981) and a Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) from the University of Michigan Law School (1984), which he attended with a Fulbright fellowship. It is universally recognized that Mr. Coccia has an extensive experience of, and is an author...

In July 2022, after a delay due the pandemic, the CAF Executive Committee adopted a new regulatory framework for the CAF Club Licensing System and Stadiums framework. The new regulations are the first major reform of CAF's club licensing system and stadiums since first introduced in 2012, which include regulations on men's club licensing, women's club licensing and stadium regulations. We are join...

Our guest for this show is Paolo Lombardi, founder of Lombardi Associates. He has had an illustrious career in football and law. In this show Paolo talks about his time at the start of the FIFA's legal department, meeting Diego Maradona in a disciplinary case, starting a sports law firm and more. Paolo Is the founder and managing director of Lombardi Associates, a boutique sports regulatory firm w...

Professor Kenneth Shropshire is a pioneer in the development of the sports law sector. He has had a distinguished career in sport, business and law over the last 40 years as a professor, business consultant, author, and lawyer. He has experience in a wide range of sports related issues such as race and discrimination issues, leading a global sporting event, stadium and arena construction and finan...

As a $300 billion industry, it is hard to overlook the contribution equine sports law makes to the sports sector and the global economy. In this episode you will hear from leading specialists in equine law about the breadth of interesting, and at time unique, legal issues that arise for owners, trainers, riders and horses. Luc Schelstraete & Piotr Wawrzyniak are lawyers at Schelstraete Equine Lawy...

This podcast focuses on a new law in Brazil that is encouraging investment in Brazilian football. The new allows for clubs, to incorporate and receive investment while maintaining control of its identify. It is an innovative new approach. In this episode we speak to the drafter of law José Francisco Manssur who is a partner at Ambiel, Manssur, Belfiore, Gomes, Hanna Advogados and his colleague Tia...

Mohit Pasricha is a Partner and Head of the Sports & Entertainment Team at Mackrell. Solicitors. He advising and representing a variety of sporting clients within the industry. He provides comprehensive advice on commercial and intellectual property matters in sport. His clients, among which include professional sport clubs, commercial sponsors, sports agents and individual sporting professionals...

Bobby Sharma is a special adviser to the Sports & Entertainment Group at Foley & Lardner LLP. He has nearly 20 years of sports, media, and entertainment industry experience. Bobby is founding partner of Electronic Sports Group (ESG), a market-leading esports advisory firm which helps investment and business leaders navigate and operate in the burgeoning billion-dollar esports industry. He is also...

Caroline McGrory is the Chief Legal Officer for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. She started off her career in private practice before moving in house to IMG (the global sports marketing agency) in 2000. She then moved back into private practice to become the inaugural Head of the Sports Group at Charles Russell Speechlys LLP (then Charles Russell). After this, Caroline joined what was then...

Daan Buylaert & Sven Demeulemeester are founders and Partners of ATFIELD, a collaborations between of full service law firm Altius and the tax law firm Tiberghien, which provides a single point of contact for sports sector. Their clients include football clubs inside and outside of Belgian, investors in acquiring clubs, players, cyclists and cycle teams, Olympic athletes and sports federations. Re...

In 2020, Azeem Rafiq publicly spoke about the alleged racism faced at him while he played for the Yorkshire Country Cricket Club (YCCC) between 2008-2014 and 2016-2018. Eventually, YCCC launched its own investigation and Rafiq also appeared before a UK Parliamentary Committee to elaborate on his allegations against the club.  In November 2021, two partners at DLA Piper of South Asian descent sat d...

Ricardo de Buen Rodríguez is the founding and Managing Partner of the Law Firm DE BUEN LAW in Mexico City. He is also a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport since 2002 and was part of the ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport during the Olympic Games London 2012.   He is a professor at different Universities in Mexico, and visiting professor lecturing Sports Law in Law Scho...

Mark Kurtenbach represents private and public companies and private equity and venture capital investors in mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings, securities offerings, joint ventures, strategic relationships, and general corporate matters. He is a partner at Hogan Lovells in their Denver office. His practice spans a variety of industries, including sports and entertainment, media,...

Reyes Bellver is the Founder and Attorney-at-Law at Bellver Sports – Legal boutique (Madrid, Spain). She started her legal career at EY, but since 2009 she has been working in Sports Law and focused on football issues, defense of players, coaches and clubs before the dispute resolution bodies of FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), as well as in advising intermediaries and other spor...

Ben is the Senior Director, Legal at International Tennis Integrity Agency. He is a barrister and solicitor with 12+ years’ experience at top-tier firm and in-house, previously leading World Rugby’s Integrity Unit and now heading the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s new legal department. Ben has a significant amount of experienced in sports law, with experience across corruption, betting, a...

In August 2021, Stats Perform partnered with data-ethics brand Signify to launch an AI and data learning project with the aim of detecting and monitoring online abuse aimed at athletes, organisations, sporting bodies and more. Stats Perfrom CEO Carl Mergele branded the partnership as a headline project for Stats Perform, and stated: “Sports integrity needs to be expanded to include online abuse, g...

Oliver Hunt is a founding partner of Onside Law. Before establishing Onside Law, Oliver worked in-house at IMG and has since gone onto to advertise some of the world’s top professional athletes, particularly in golf and football. He has acted for Sir Nick Faldo for over 20 years, as well as for Rory McIlroy on his ground-breaking Nike deal in 2012 and advising Ryder Cup Europe on the bidding proce...

As part of our AMA series earlier in the year, we recorded a session with Daniel Geey (Partner, Sheridans) and Cynthia Mumbo (Founder & CEO, Sports Connect Africa) on how to develop your sports and legal network. This session was designed to help people develop the human skills (Simon Sinek), which are often mistakenly referred to as "soft skills". The topics which were covered were: What are the...

In this two-part series, Andrew L. Lee of counsel and a litigation and business attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP talks about his 20 years of experience in the sports, media, and entertainment industries, both in-house and as an outside advisor. Andy began his legal career working at a prestigious New York City law firm and was a member of its distinguished Sports Law Practice. Subsequently, he se...

In this two-part series, Andrew L. Lee of counsel and a litigation and business attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP talks about his 20 years of experience in the sports, media, and entertainment industries, both in-house and as an outside advisor. Andy began his legal career working at a prestigious New York City law firm and was a member of its distinguished Sports Law Practice. Subsequently, he se...

This episode highlights the work Hogan Lovells & Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDIH) and other partners are doing to support the fantastic project, Para Sport Against Stigma, a four-year collaborative project that will include free-to-air (FTA) broadcasting of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games to 49 Sub-Saharan African countries provided by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and led in...

Alastair is an experienced litigation lawyer for LEVEL, who acts on behalf of sophisticated clients in all forms of dispute resolution, with a particular focus on sports law and arbitration. He has acted on a broad range of commercial disputes, advising clients on complex issues – from contractual matters to questions of public law – across multiple jurisdictions. He has experience in advisory wor...

Mark Conrad is Associate Professor of Law and Ethics at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, where he directs its sports business concentration. In addition to his full-time responsibilities at Fordham, Professor Conrad has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s master’s program in Sports Management where he teaches international and comparative sports law. Mark is als...