Sponsored by
Sportcal is delighted to announce the creation of a new panel session on Sports Law and Governance for 20 Years of Sport, or 20YS for short, which will be held at Clifford Chance’s state-of-the-art offices in Canary Wharf in London on May 11.
The last 20 years of sport mark a period in which sports law has come to be seen as a legal discipline and specialisation in its own right, as the growth of sport as an industry has created its own range of often highly complex and specific contractual, employment, regulatory and competition law issues.
So what will be the legal issues that dominate the next 20 years of sport and how should sport prepare itself to address them?
Doping, illegal and irregular betting and corruption are all surely set to continue to grab the headlines, but sports lawyers, working both in-house and externally, must also continue to grapple with the fragmenting and increasingly complex worlds of sports media rights and sponsorship.
Meanwhile, sports service companies look set to think twice in future about their involvement in events such as last year’s Delhi Commonwealth Games, where several foreign companies have become bogged down in a wide-ranging and bureaucratic corruption investigation, while the tender process for the future use of London’s Olympic Stadium has also raised an interesting set of legal issues.
Listed events remains an area fraught with legal pitfalls, and an English publican’s case against the Premier League could potentially force a dramatic change in the way in which broadcast rights are sold on an exclusive territory-by-territory basis in Europe.
And do Uefa’s plans to centralise the sale of rights for qualifying matches for the European Championships and World Cup violate European competition law, as one top German anti-trust lawyer has claimed?
What can sport do to ensure that it continues to govern itself?
Tackling these and other issues will be:
Rana Dershowitz – General Counsel and Chief of Legal and Government Affairs, U.S. Olympic Committee
Rana Dershowitz was named general counsel and chief of legal and government affairs for the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) in March 2008. In her current role, Dershowitz oversees the organization’s legal and government affairs teams and assumes all necessary functions as corporate secretary for the USOC board of directors. She also serves as the USOC’s ethics officer, coordinating with the USOC Ethics Committee, which was established by the board. Dershowitz first joined the USOC in April 2007 as deputy general counsel, and the following month she was named interim general counsel.
Howard Stupp – Director of Legal Affairs, International Olympic Committee
Howard Stupp, Canadian (by origin) and Swiss, has been working at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since December 1984 and, since June 1985, has been its Director of Legal Affairs. He did his law degrees (B.C.L. and L.L.B) at Mc Gill University in Montreal, where he also obtained an Engineering degree.
Yves Wehrli – Partner, Corporate/M&A, and Managing Partner, Paris, Clifford Chance
An Avocat at the Paris Bar, Yves has been a partner since 1988 and the Managing Partner of the Paris office since 2000. Yves is also a member of Clifford Chance worldwide Management Committee. He is specialised in corporate law with a focus on media and sports law.
20 Years of Sport promises to be one of the key events of 2011 and many senior executives have already booked their place to be part of 20YS and to share their views on the future of sport.
The Live Lounge area of the event will feature an ‘Interviews’ area where senior executives will be asked for their opinions and comments on the latest trends in the sports industry and the interviews will then be posted on the event website.
Book your place today to be part of a unique day for sport
To register for 20YS click on the links below or contact the sales team:
W: 20ys.sportcal.com
E: sales@sportcal.com
T: +44 20 8944 8786