Howard Jacobs has been identified by leading national and international publications as one of the leading sports lawyers in the world. He is an athlete’s lawyer and not a sports agent. He represents athletes in all types of disputes, with a particular focus on the defense of athletes charged with doping and other disciplinary offenses. He has represented over 250 professional athletes, Olympic athletes and amateur athletes in disputes involving doping, salary issues, team selection issues, SafeSport issues, endorsements, unauthorized use of name and likeness, and other matters. Howard Jacobs has been consistently listed by the Chambers Guide as one of the top ranked lawyers in the United States for athletic disputes.  In addition to his law practice, Howard Jacobs is an Adjunct Professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, where he teaches sports law.

As an athlete advocate, Howard provides a voice for athletes and others in all types of disputes; he has argued many landmark cases for athletes, winning cases that have set precedents and established better and more fair practices. Because of this, Howard Jacobs is a sought after expert on sports law issues.

Howard graduated from Florida State University and William and Mary Law School. He ran cross country and track & field for Florida State University and competed as a professional triathlete during law school. He currently resides in Southern California with his wife, two children, a gentle giant of a ridgeback mix, an aussiedoodle puppy and a garage full of bicycles.

Ian Mill KC is a leading silk, who has appeared frequently in substantial, high profile contractual and intellectual property disputes in the Chancery Division, the Commercial Court, the Court of Appeal, offshore in the BVI, Bermuda and Cayman and in international and domestic arbitrations.

Ian also sits regularly as an arbitrator in relation to high value commercial and company disputes, including disputes in the areas of media and entertainment and sport, and in relation to regulatory and disciplinary actions brought domestically and internationally by various sporting Governing Bodies. In particular, since 2014 he has acted as an Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer for world tennis; he sits as a Steward of Appeal of the British Boxing Board of Control; he has chaired International Tennis Federation Anti-Doping cases, PGA Disciplinary Panels, WPBSA Disciplinary Commissions and ECB Child Protection appeals, as well as numerous FA Rule K and FA Premier League Panels.

Jaime is a partner at Cavaliero & Associates where he joined in 2022 after having worked for more than seven years in the FIFA legal affairs division.

Jaime became the organization’s first Head of Litigation in 2018. In such role, Jaime lead a team entrusted with the defence of all decisions passed by the different bodies of FIFA that were challenged before the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

During this period, Jaime participated in -and oversaw- over 400 arbitral procedures on a wide variety of disputes on several topics: contractual, employment-related, governance, doping, ethics violations, match manipulation, third party influence (TPI) and third party ownership (TPO), sporting succession, etc.

Between 2014 and 2018, Jaime worked at FIFA’s Disciplinary department of which he became the Head in 2017. In that role and as Secretary to the FIFA Disciplinary and Appeal Committees, Jaime was responsible for supervising disciplinary procedures related to breaches of several FIFA regulations, including infringements related to match incidents, match manipulation, international transfers of minor players, failure to comply with FIFA or CAS decisions, doping, third party influence and ownership, etc.

Prior to joining FIFA, Jaime worked for an international law firm in Spain, specializing in corporate law. 

Jaime was admitted into the Madrid Bar Association after obtaining his Law Degree from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE) in Madrid, Spain where he also obtained a Diploma in International Relations. He also holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the Instituto de Empresa (IE) in Madrid, Spain.

Aside from having lectured in several sports law programmes such as ISDE, University of Lausanne or FIFA’s Diploma in Football Law, Jaime is regularly invited to participate as a speaker in conferences and he has published articles on international sports law.

Jaime is an arbitrator at the Qatar Sports Arbitration Tribunal (QSAT), a member of the Disciplinary Panel of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and clerk of the Tribunal of the Equestrian International Federation (FEI). He is also a member of the Club Español de Arbitraje (CEA).

James is recognised as a leading advocate in a total of nine practice areas by Chambers and Partners UK, Chambers Global, Legal 500, JUVE Patent Rankings and Who’s Who Legal.  He was recently named one of the "Hot 100" lawyers in the UK in 2023 by The Lawyer magazine. Appointed to Queen's Counsel in March 2020 at the age of just 38, he has argued cases at all levels of the judicial hierarchy, including in the UK Supreme Court.

He is regularly instructed in some of the largest litigation in the UK, including numerous of The Lawyer's Top 20 cases of recent years (such asJane Street v London Metal Exchange (cancellation of nickel contracts in March 2022);ENRC v SFO (a closely-followed 47-day Commercial Court trial in 2021);Canary Wharf v European Medicines Agency (whether Brexit had frustrated the EMA's lease);Unwired Planet &Conversant v Huawei (Supreme Court proceedings establishing the global FRAND jurisdiction);Breyer v DECC (damages claim under the HRA 1998);Tchenguiz v SFO (alleged misfeasance in public office);Autostore v Ocado (foreign law on confidentiality); andSFO v ENRC (legal professional privilege in solicitors' investigations)).  He won an award from Global Investigations Review for his advocacy inSFO v ENRC. 

He practises in regulatory, commercial and public law, with sector expertise in competition, telecoms, sport, media and entertainment, procurement and intellectual property.  Prior to taking silk, he was on the Attorney General's "A" Panel and was featured in Legal Week's “Stars at the Bar” and The Lawyer's “Rising Stars”.

Attorney-at-law specialising in the fields of sports law, civil and procedure law, and business law.

Senior Associate, Lewis Silkin

Senior Associate, RPC

Karena Vleck is the General Counsel at World Athletics. 

Prior to that she was the Legal and Governance Director at the Rugby Football Union for 12 years where she was a member of the Executive Team and has also been the interim head of legal at the Lawn Tennis Association. Before that, she was a partner and head of the Sports Group at Farrer & Co.

She was appointed a British Rowing Director and member of the Finance Committee and Nominations Committee in October 2019. She also sits on the British Rowing Safeguarding Committee.

In her non-executive capacity, she sits on the Cambridge Alumni Advisory Board Society and is a trustee of the Middlesex Sports Foundation.

Barrister, 4 New Square

Associate, Law Offices of Howard L. Jacobs

Barrister, Outer Temple Chambers

Barrister, Littleton Chambers

Matthew D. Kaiser is an associate at Global Sports Advocates and has worked with and represented athletes in a variety of legal issues from challenging disciplinary sanctions and doping violations to protecting athletes’ intellectual property rights.

Michele Colucci, Ph.D., LL.M., D.E.S., member of the Bar in Italy, is a civil servant of the European Union, Brussels.

Founder and Honorary President of the Italian Sports Lawyers Association (www.avvocatisport.it), he is the Scientific Director of the Sports Law and Policy Centre (www.slpc.eu) and Director of the Executive Programme in International Sports Law - SLPC (Ravello).

He is the Editor of the International Encyclopaedia of Sports Law (www.ielaws.com), currently composed of 39 national monographs and published by Kluwer Law International.

He is the Scientific Director of the Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport (www.rdes.it), the European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin (www.sportslawbulletin.com) and co-ordinator of the International Sports Law Journals Platform (www.sportslawjournals.com).

He has been lecturing in sports law in several universities and LLM programmes (MESGO  UEFA, ISDE Madrid, SLPC - Rome, College of Europe Bruges and Parma, Tilburg, Leuven and Naples, CEU Valencia).

He has been member of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber for two mandates (from 2001 to 2011) and Arbitrator of the European Handball Federation Court of Sport.

He edited 6 books and he wrote extensively in the field of Sports Law, namely on:

Contractual Stability in Football,
Training compensation,
Employment relationship in Sport,
International and Comparative Sports Justice,
FIFA Intermediaries,
Disciplinary Procedures in Football.

See here the complete List of Publications.

He is particularly proud to have conceived and promoted in 2010 the idea of an Erasmus Sports Programme for all amateur athletes in the European Union (www.erasmusandsport.eu).

Partner, Fisher Phillips & Attorney, Field-R Law Offices

Natalie is a Special Counsel for Sports Integrity at Genius Sports. 

Natalie St Cyr Clarke is a New York-qualified lawyer specialising in sports arbitration and dispute resolution. Natalie obtained a double degree (LL.B/J.D.) from King’s College London, UK, and Columbia Law School in New York, USA, and also has an LLM in International Sports Law from the Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía in Madrid, Spain.

Paolo Lombardi is the founder and Managing Director of Lombardi Associates, a boutique

sports regulatory firm founded in 2010, which acts for a range of football stakeholder clients

including clubs, players, coaches, intermediaries, associations, leagues and investors.

Paolo graduated from the University of Padova with a degree in Law. He undertook the FIFA

Master (MA) in Management Law and Humanities of Sport in 2002. In 2010 he was named

Honorary Professor of the International Sports Law ISDE Masters, Madrid.

Paolo began his career in the football industry when he joined the FIFA Players’ Status

Department in 2002, becoming Deputy Head in 2006. He was personally active in many

important cases, which impacted significantly on the existing jurisprudence on contractual

stability (Mexes, Mutu, Matuzalem among others) and, as of 2005, was in charge of all

agent-related matters. As well as handling FIFA’s football tribunals proceedings, Paolo also

represented FIFA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a number of cases.

During his time at FIFA, Paolo was involved in the working groups for the drafting and re-

drafting of various FIFA regulations, including the Statutes, the Regulations on the Status

and Transfer of Players, the Players’ Agents Regulations, the Disciplinary Code and the

Code of Ethics. In addition, Paolo conducted discussions with WADA during the creation of

the FIFA Anti-Doping Regulations.

In 2007 he was appointed Head of FIFA Disciplinary and Governance. In this role, he

oversaw all disciplinary and governance matters both in-house and at various FIFA

tournaments such as the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South

Africa.

After leaving FIFA following the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Paolo founded Lombardi Associates.

His work includes advising over one third of clubs in the Italian Serie A, and a number of

clubs across the UK and Europe. Paolo advises clients on transfers, dispute resolution,

breach of contract, training compensation and solidarity mechanism, registration of minors,

eligibility and more. With the increasing impact of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play Regulations,

he has also assisted clubs with both UEFA and national licensing issues, including in front

of CAS. Paolo’s activities for clients include consulting and providing expert opinions on

aspects of national and international regulations and regulatory interpretation for investors.

Paolo has been involved in a number of landmark cases, which have shaped the recent

jurisprudence of CAS1. Including his time with FIFA, Paolo has been involved in hundreds

of CAS proceedings.

Paolo lectures on an ad hoc basis for a range of Universities, Masters programmes and

conferences and sits on boards and committees of various institutions. Lombardi Associates

have also staged the very successful Edinburgh Sports Conference.

He speaks English, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

Patrick has particular expertise in mesothelioma claims, clinical negligence and sporting injuries.  Most of his claims involve catastrophic injuries.  He also has extensive experience in defending fraudulent claims.

He is a member of the Northern Irish Bar and has provided expert evidence on English and Welsh law for other jurisdictions.

Patrick also runs a charity which funds Research Fellowships at the Royal Marsden Hospital (lecure.org).

Founder, Global Sports Advocates

Peter is a leading competition and regulatory lawyer and is a partner at Winston & Strawn LLP. Clients in the sports, technology, telecommunications, energy, financial services, and other sectors rely on his guidance in a wide range of investigations and disputes.

In addition to his merger clearance work, Peter handles highly contentious litigation around the world, including multi-jurisdictional cartel defence work.  Clients praise his technical excellence, clear communications, and willingness to go over and above what is necessary to provide the best possible service.

Peter is a frequent writer and speaker who for many years authored a chapter ofButterworths Competition Law. He is the managing editor and coauthor of the sixth edition of Lexology’sGetting The Deal Through: Competition Compliance. In addition, Peter has lectured at leading business schools, including the London Business School, the Copenhagen Business School and the Kellogg School of Management.