Lawyers Reap Olympic Gold
"The important thing in life is not the victory but the contest; the essential thing is not to have won but to have fought well." That century-old quote from the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, may inspire athletes, but certainly not lawyers. Still, as we noted here earlier this week, lawyers are as integral as athletes to the Summer Olympics kicking off in Beijing tomorrow. We are reminded of that again today by The Times of London, which puts it bluntly: Without lawyers, the Beijing Olympic Games would not exist. "The reality is that lawyers are as much a part of the sporting landscape as athletes," says The Times.
Solicitor Robert Datnow, who practices sports law with Keystone Law in London, explains the bond between lawyers and sports:
"The law confers no protection for an idea, which is what the Olympic Games is. It and other leading events exist on their present scale only because of continued funding, but you can create significant and lasting revenue streams only through the sale and control of rights. The contractual framework governing rights -- from television and sponsorship to ticketing and merchandise -- is essential to the existence of each sporting event. Without lawyers creating and policing this framework, there is no commercial proposition and no global audience."
That "commercial proposition" produces a flood of legal work leading up to and even during the competition. While contracts and licensing agreements made up the bulk of the legal work in advance of the games, any number of legal issues can come up once the games have started. "These might involve ambush marketing, unauthorized broadcasts, ticket touting, eligibility disputes, disciplinary and anti-doping cases," Max Duthie, a sports lawyer with Bird & Bird, tells The Times. "Some of these will be dealt with under local law, but many others will not."
Many of these disputes that arise from here on in will be handled by the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, which will operate from a temporary office in Beijing until Aug. 24. The CAS can handle cases involving doping, qualifications and even misbehavior.Twelve lawyers who serve as arbitrators on the CAS panel will be on-call during the games, ready to handle cases as they come up. By the time it is all over, a select few athletes will return home with gold in their pockets, as will a select few lawyers.
Sphere: Related ContentPosted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 7, 2008 at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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