The Sports Consultancy Legal, a new generation of law firm, launches today as an integral part of London-based specialist sports and events agency, The Sports Consultancy.
The launch of a standalone, regulated legal practice is the next step in the evolution of the business’ offering and comes in response to increasing sophistication of client needs across the sports industry and The Sports Consultancy’s diverse client base. The establishment of The Sports Consultancy Legal provides the opportunity for the business to offer a far wider range of commercial, operational, governance, contentious and investigatory legal support to the agency’s impressive collection of rights holder, major event, venue and city clients.
The new legal practice will be headed by The Sports Consultancy’s General Counsel, Ashley Blake, who will be supported by a team of experienced sports lawyers from international private practice and major sports events in-house teams.
Commenting on the launch Ashley Blake said: “The launch of The Sports Consultancy Legal provides a truly unique offering within the market. By embedding a law firm within our market-leading agency of commercial consultants and salespeople, we will enable our clients to benefit from expert legal services incorporating our deep understanding of their commercial, operational and regulatory challenges and those of the wider sports industry”.
“As far as we are aware, The Sports Consultancy is the first sports marketing and consulting agency to launch its own specialist law firm. We are really excited to be able to offer this unique service to our clients”.
Co-founder and joint Managing Director, Robert Datnow added “Legal expertise has always been central to The Sports Consultancy’s offering with lawyers fully integrated across the business allowing us to combine technical excellence with unrivalled commercial and strategic know-how and expertise in the sports industry.
“Our expanded offering further showcases our innovative approach to providing smart solutions to the complex commercial challenges of our clients.”
The launch of the Sports Consultancy Legal has also been welcomed by our clients:
Paul Hardy, Competition and Events Director at the IAAF commented, “The legal team at The Sports Consultancy have combined technically excellent legal advice with an in-depth understanding of sport and the issues facing major international events. Their experience, commitment and practical approach has been a real asset in our recent project concerning a number of the IAAF’s 2020 events.”
Carsten Couchouron, Marketing & Commercial Director at European Professional Club Rugby, said, “The Sports Consultancy’s lawyers have an exceptional breadth of knowledge within rugby and this, coupled with their top class legal backgrounds, has proven to be of significant value and is reflected in the quality of hosts and hosting agreements that they have helped us to secure”
Antonio Bolaños, Managing Director of longstanding client, the Volvo Ocean Race, also commented, “The legal team at The Sports Consultancy offer a unique combination of world class legal skills and the ability to assist us in robust commercial negotiations with sponsors, hosts, promoters, broadcasters, suppliers, teams and other event stakeholders around the world. Their pragmatic approach to complex legal issues and their excellent understanding of our business have been invaluable to us over the last eleven years”.
