She is the Deputy Director General at PVF Football Academy.

A well-known sports lawyer renowned by his peers as a leader among the world’s best sports lawyers. 

He was nominated as an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport, chosen by FIFA and UEFA as Pro-Bono Legal Counsel and serves as lecturer at the Arison School of Business at the reputed Reichman University.

Founder & Managing Director, patrice.brunet.avocats

Professor of Law, Rikkyo University

As an Of Counsel and a member of Bird & Bird’s sports team in Düsseldorf, I am an expert sports lawyer, with decades of experience behind me. I'm also a certified specialist lawyer in employment law.

You'll find me listed in the leading legal guides. The JUVE Handbook of German Commercial Law Firms rates me as one of the most recommended lawyers in sports law, and in 2009 I was named as one of the World's Top 20 Most Influential Lawyers in sport by SportBusiness International magazine.

As a former member of the German national basketball team, I began my career advising athletes, sports associations and unions in amateur and professional sport at national and international level. I was a member of the Legal Committee and the Anti-Doping-Commission of the German Basketball Federation as well as a member of the Arbitration Body of the German Ice Hockey League.

Since 1999, I have been an arbitrator of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne and was a member of the CAS Ad Hoc Divisions during the London 2012 and PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games. For many years, I was the Chairman of the Sports Law Commission of the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA). Additionally, I am a member of the International Sport Lawyers Association and of the advisory board of the German Association for Sports Law (DVSR) as well as member of the executive committee of the 'Sportrecht' working group of the Deutschen Anwaltverein (DAV). I am also a member of the FISA Ethic Group, which I joined in 2015.

Ulrich Haas is Professor of Civil Procedure and Civil Law at the University of Zurich. Ulrich's work and research focus on international civil procedure (including arbitration), company insolvency law, and sports law. He is the editor of numerous publications in these areas and has worked for many years as a consultant and arbitrator.

Ulrich has been Chairman or party-appointed arbitrator on more than 200 sports-related arbitral tribunals, including the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Deutsche Institution für Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit eV in Cologne and the FIBA Basketball Arbitral Tribunal (BAT) in Geneva.

He also sits as a judge for some association tribunals such as the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal in Aigle, and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) International Court of Appeal (ICA) for Formula One related disputes. He was also Arbitrator for the ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Recently, he chaired the WADA Working Group on Governance Matters that proposed changes to the governance structure of WADA. The proposals were adopted by WADA’s Executive Committee and Foundation Board in November 2018.

Li Zhi is a professor of international law and the director of International law Institute, Fuzhou University. His major research fields cover International Private Law, International Sports law, International Arbitration Law. He is the standing director of the Chinese Society of International Private Law, and he is an arbitrator and senior lawyer as well. He was nominated as an arbitrator of the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in 2016.

Partner, Barandun AG & Alternate Judge at Appellate Court of Valais/Wallis

Founder & Managing Partner, de Buen Rodríguez Abogados, S.C

Judge, NDRC/CNRD, Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) & Head of Research. CBF Academy

Partner of CRA – Coelho Ribeiro e Associados – Portuguese Law Firm (since 1998); Founder Partner of CRA Timor – Timorese Law Firm; Associate of Coelho Ribeiro e Associados-Law Firm (1993-1998); Invited as Lecturer for the Master in International Sport Law (LLM) in Instituto Superior de derecho y Economia in association with the Compultense University of Madrid about Dispute Resolution Matters (2007); Invited as Lecturer for the post-graduation course in Nova Forum, Instituto de Formacão de Executivos in the School of Economics at University Nova of Lisbon in Insolvency Subject (2003-07) and Dispute Resolution Subject (2004); Director of PortOil – Energia e Recursos Naturais, SA (since 2006); Vice-President a TV Cable Channel-Spanish corporation (since 2002-06); Collaborator of the newspaper “Semanário Económico” (1994-2004); Chairman of the General Meeting of Somincor – Sociedade Mineira de Neves Corvo, SA (since 2004); Director of the Portuguese mining Company Pirites Alentejanas SA (since 2006); Director of a Portuguese Companies Group in aggregates (1992-99); Legal Advisor of Lisbon Town hall-Department of Tourism (1992-1993); Secretary of the General Meeting of General Electric Portugal (1993-2005) and Chairman of the General Meeting of General Electric Portugal, SA (since 2006).

Russell F. Sauer, Jr. retired from the partnership at Latham & Watkins LLP in December 2019. He is the former Chair of the Litigation & Trial Department in Los Angeles and practiced with the firm since 1980. Mr. Sauer was a litigator with an extremely diverse practice. He has extensive experience in the areas of:

• Shareholder derivative litigation and directors and officers defense
• Insolvency litigation
• Sports and entertainment litigation
• White collar criminal matters with civil overtones
• Trade secret and restrictive covenant litigation
• Employment litigation (including wage and hour class actions, wrongful termination, whistle blower, and discrimination actions)
• Other areas of general commercial litigation

He has represented numerous companies and individuals in various types of internal investigations ranging from embezzlement to financial misreporting fraud to the infiltration by organized crime.

Mr. Sauer has tried cases to conclusion before:

• Both state and federal courts
• Numerous federal agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board and the US Department of Labor
• Both domestic and international arbitral bodies including the American Arbitration Association, JAMS, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Switzerland)

He has also successfully argued appeals before both state and federal appellate courts.

At the time of his retirement, Mr. Sauer was a member of the Litigation Section of the American and California Bar Associations, a member of the ABA’s Sports and Entertainment Forum and a graduate of the Sports Law Institute.

He was also a frequent guest lecturer on trial advocacy techniques and sports law at numerous law schools (UCLA Law School, Loyola (Chicago) Law School, Duke Law School).  

Stephen Townley is a lawyer, businessman and seasoned ADR professional with extensive expertise resolving high-value legal and business disputes in Asia, the Middle East and North America. Mr. Townley’s diverse litigation and transactional background includes the founding of Townleys, the first and largest international sports law and media boutique outside the United States, in 1983. It merged in 2001 with global 100 law firm Hammonds (now Squire Patton Boggs), where Mr. Townley served as head of international. Mr. Townley also served as general counsel and foreign law consultant for a number of firms.

Mr. Townley is an arbitrator and mediator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport and a mediator for the World Intellectual Property Organization. He is known for his ability to de-escalate existing disputes and overcome obstacles to settlement by leveraging his extensive legal, investigatory, business and technology skills in situations of conflict.

Mr. Townley is recognized as a trailblazer in sports and media rights. He worked on the legal structures and agreements for the first commercial programs for FIFA, UEFA, the IAAF and the IOC. He was involved in the creation of the Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup, World Games and European Rugby Champions Cup. He delivered groundbreaking commercial tour programs with artists like the Rolling Stones and David Bowie. In film, he established a legal right for directors in the production of music videos, pioneered in Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” music video.

Mr. Townley has been a founder, board member and investor, operating at a senior level in commercial organizations, governments and sports federations. He set up and invested in NetResult, a technology and artificial intelligence service provider specializing in protecting proprietary content, which was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2013. He was a director of World Sport Football Ltd., the largest football rights owner in Asia, holding the Asian Football Confederation rights. This business was acquired as part of a transaction with Lagardère Sports and Entertainment in 2008. Since 1998, he has chaired Active Rights Management Ltd., a consultancy that provides advice to clients during periods of change and stress.

As a strategic adviser, Mr. Townley has chaired Synchro Arts, an international market leader in software production for music editing and recording, which in 2018 was honored with a National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Technical Emmy. He has advised law firms, charities, sports agencies and national and international sports federations. A champion of progress and innovation, he is the founder of LawAccord and was involved in the creation of the SportAccord Conference, two significant developments in the international sports marketplace.

Partner, Squire Patton Boggs

Founder & Managing Partner, Field-R Law

lad Novak’s practice focuses on EU and global foreign direct investment control, EU, U.S., and international competition law/antitrust, including complex merger control proceedings, cartel investigations, abuse of dominance cases, antitrust counseling, and litigation before EU Courts, as well as a wide range of issues under EU law and sports-related matters.

Vlad Novak co-leads the Cleary Gottlieb’s EU FDI practice and regularly advises on complex global FDI matters across a wide range of sectors, leading a team of our broader FDI practice and local counsel.

His experience covers a range of industries, including steel, metals, energy, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, payment card systems, IT, finance, consumer goods, and sports. Since 2015, he regularly co-authors an annual publication on developments in EU merger remedies.

Vladimir is an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, London Court of International Arbitration, and Vienna International Arbitral Centre.

Vladimir joined the firm in 2012 and was resident in the Washington, D.C. office in 2015 and 2016.

Wouter is a former Attorney-at-law at FC Barcelona and former Head of Legal at the European Club Association. He was also a Judge at the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber. 

Managing partner of Grandall Law Firm