Dates: January 12 - 14, 2025
Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
The Steering Committee welcomes up to 44 preeminent private practice sports lawyers who represent the interests of athletes, teams, leagues, associations, governing bodies, sponsors and broadcasters to explore common concerns, exchange ideas and resolve challenges faced on behalf of these clients.
Using candid, seminar-style discussion, the group identifies trends and developments in their varied jurisdictions for meaningful dialogue on the most interesting and provocative issues of the day.
This elite group, comprised of experts in the field, personally nominates all invitees and develops the Agenda, which forms the basis of our discussions.
As the Principal of Soubliere Sports Law, Janie has been working in sports law for over 20 years and acts as Legal Consultant to various international clients in matters concerning anti-doping, safeguarding, governance, eligibility, anti-corruption, policy review, etc., practices arbitration and is regularly sought out to conduct investigations. A Chartered Arbitrator, she sits on sport dispute resolution panels including the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Ordinary and Appeals), Ultimate Fighting Championships, Zwift ESports and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada. Janie is also an Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer for the International Tennis Integrity Agency and is a trained investigator actively involved in various sport-related misconduct allegations.
Janie has taught Sport Law at Carleton University and regularly guest lectures internationally in University Sport Law courses, has acted as athlete-agent to Canadian athletes, is an Executive Board member of the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame (Legal and Governance) and is a North American representative of Women in Sport Law (WISLaw). WISLaw peers voted Janie Best Arbitrator of the Year 2021 and Best Lawyer of the Year in 2022. She also competed in NCAA Division 1 Tennis in College.
Ian’s practice spans a wide range of transactional and regulatory areas of sports law. He is recognised by the legal directories as a leading “commercial dealmaker” “who has become a clear leader in the UK” and “an excellent lawyer, whose knowledge of the sports industry is unparalleled”. His expertise includes the financial regulation of sport (including salary caps and financial fair play), mergers and acquisitions, financing, governance, integrity, rules and regulations, sponsorship agreements, player transfers, player contracts and image rights.
He has a particular expertise in the use of data in the sports industry, has spoken widely on the subject, advises a number of companies in the area and sits on the board of STATSports as a non-executive director.
Ian’s recent work highlights include advising Chelsea FC on its acquisition for £4.25 billion by the Boehly/Clearlake consortium, advising Spotify on its first-of-its-kind partnership with FC Barcelona and advising Elliott Advisors on the sale of AC Milan to Redbird Capital Partners for €1.2 billion.
Emma is Senior Forum Director and Financial Services Lead at Cambridge Executive Connections (CEC), a subsidiary of Cambridge Forums, Inc. Naturally curious and a lifelong learner, Emma has developed and managed a variety of meetings in both the profit and non-profit sectors. Before joining Cambridge, Emma was Assistant Vice President, Global Marketing at State Street in Canada, where she spent close to two decades of her career, offering her a great depth of knowledge and understanding of the financial and investment sectors. In Emma’s current role, she leads CEC’s Financial Services portfolio, including programs for institutional investors, banking, private funds, risk, and governance professionals.
Built on genuine interactions and spontaneous connections, the Forum is a unique opportunity for timely and practical discussions while creating meaningful connections among preeminent leaders in sports law.
"The quality and the limited number of the participants, as well as the active involvement of everyone in the discussions, makes this a unique and extremely valuable conference for sports law practitioners."
Howard L. Jacobs Attorney Law Offices of Howard L. Jacobs Westlake Village, United States"This Forum is not a conference and not a seminar. It is a second to none Forum for exchanging thoughts, opinion and ideas among the top lawyers of the world within sports."
Martin Dahl Pedersen Partner Kromann Reumert Copenhagen, Denmark"The International Forum on Sports Law: a forum for exchange on current and future trends in the world of sports law in the presence of leading practitioners from 5 continents."
Pierre Bydzovsky Partner Charles Russell Speechlys Geneva, SwitzerlandHear how our participants describe the practical benefits of our forums.