Sports Law
Leathes Prior’s growing Sports Law team is headed by Partner Dan Chapman, who also runs the firm's boutique Sports Law, Advisory and Management business Full Contact - see www.fullcontactlaw.co.uk .
Bringing together the firm’s established expertise in dispute resolution, employment, intellectual property, brand protection, defamation, immigration, regulatory and disciplinary matters, the Sports Law team act for a wide array of athletes and other sporting professionals across a variety of different sports, including football, rugby and motor sport.
The Leathes Prior Sports Law team manages the full range of legal advice that you might require and will ensure that you receive expert advice, tailored to take account of the particular requirements you have as a sporting professional. As opposed to a traditional agent, the Sports Law team is able to provide reliable, specialist advice in all of the following areas:
- Negotiation of contracts with professional sports clubs
- Disciplinary and other sporting tribunals
- Image rights, endorsements and sponsorship contracts
- Property law
- Wills and Probate
- Employment law
- Personal injury
- Immigration/ Work Permits
- Family law (including pre-nuptial agreements and divorce)
In recent times, the Sports Law team has been involved in the following work:
- Acting for an England international footballer in relation to his contract with a Premiership football club
- Advising a professional footballer in relation to a dispute with his former agent
- Providing immigration advice in respect of an overseas rugby player
- Acting for a high profile individual in relation to a dispute with his Formula One GP team
- Advising a professional footballer in relation to complex overseas property investment matters
- Advised a Technical Director of a Formula One GP team as to contractual matters with his team
The Sports Law team at Leathes Prior is able to offer a range of flexible and innovative options in respect of our charges relating to the assistance and advice we can provide with the negotiation of professional contracts with sports clubs, or sponsorship contracts with potential commercial sponsors. These include fixed fee options as well as traditional hourly rates. Unlike agents, unless you would prefer us to do so, we will not take a percentage of the money due to you under any deal. This is often the most expensive approach for you to take.
As we do not take a percentage of your contract, we have no interest in the value of your deal. Unlike traditional agents, you can rest assured that we are offering you impartial advice as to what is best for you and not simply what will make the most money for us as your agent. The approach taken by agents represents a potential conflict between your interests and that of the agent, who might have an interest in advising you to accept a deal that you might otherwise reject, simply because this deal generates more income for him. Sports men and women across the country are starting to realise that sports lawyers provide a cheaper and more reliable service than agents. This is what Gary Neville, Manchester United and England footballer, had to say in relation to the matter in October 2010:
"[Players] need good advice, from a solicitor or an accountant – but they don't need people taking hundreds of thousands off them."
As solicitors, we are heavily regulated and we owe a professional duty to ensure that the advice we give is always in your best interests. In addition we work within a network of trusted advisers and we are able to refer you to reliable third parties such as accountants and financial advisers where appropriate.
The Leathes Prior Sports Law team is headed by Partner Dan Chapman.
Dan is one of the few solicitors nationwide to have obtained the Registered Lawyer under the FA Football Agents’ Regulations status, which enables him to act for players or clubs in contact negotiations or transfers. Dan is also one of a small group of solicitors in the country who has provided representation before Sports Tribunals – bringing to bear his wealth of experience as an advocate before the Employment Tribunals where he is a recognised leader in the field. In 2010 Dan was the lead advocate for Norwich City Football Club in the Football Disciplinary Commission dispute with Colchester United Football Club concerning the recruitment of Paul Lambert, and he has also acted in FA Arbitration proceedings.
Dan’s Sports Law team is ably assisted by Partners and lawyers who specialise in Commercial Litigation, Mediation, Corporate Law, Immigration, Intellectual Property and Commercial Law.
The 2010 edition of Legal 500 praised how Leathes Prior was "successfully building its sports practice" and, recently, the 2011 edition ranked the Sports team as one of the few leading teams in East Anglia commenting that Dan Chapman has a "great understanding of the realities of a professional sports business, and continually impresses with answers tailored to the specific needs of clients".
If you have any enquiries, please contact Dan Chapman – or alternatively please call us on 01603 610911.
