The International Academy of Sportslaw Practioners & Executives (ASPE)
http://www.aspeweb.comContact:
Jeanette Bartholomew
Post: Harley House, 2 St John Street, Hereford HR1 2NB
E-mail: jeanette@activerights.com
ASPE Mission Statement
ASPE is an organization of lawyers and sport executives practicing in different jurisdictions throughout the world who can demonstrate genuine experience and interest in developing the body of law relating to conduct of the international sports business.
The primary function of ASPE is to support the international sports community in its understanding of legal principles that may apply to their respective organizations.
ASPE achieves its objective through assisting the Executive of SportAccord (the global gathering of the international sports community including International Federations, the IOC and multi-sport games) develop the specific “LawAccord” conference programme featured as an annual event within the SportAccord meetings as well as contributing topics and speakers, where requested, for legal issues arising from within the general SportAccord event.
ASPE may, on occasion, also put on other conferences, seminars, or other educational events, independently of SportAccord. ASPE will, from time-to-time, publish reports of these prodeedings and other topics as well as an annual digest for the sport community of important global legal trends and developments.
The interim Executive Council for ASPE consists of:
Stephen Townley
Stephen Townley has nearly 30 years’ experience of the international sports business. His experience in the field is widely regarded and he is regularly involved in an advisory/consultancy capacity in relation to the strategic planning of sport at the highest national and international levels. He has produced strategic business and commercial plans for events and organisations and government bodies throughout the world.
Stephen is co-founder and Chairman of Active Rights Management Limited (arm). arm specialises in creating and delivering exceptional value from intellectual property. This includes content, rights and venues. Clients include: Ascot Racecourse, the International Olympic Committee, Football League, The British Horseracing Board and numerous others. arm is one of the two partners in NetResult, the Internet monitoring and compliance service for sports used by many rights owners around the world.
Stephen was the founding partner of Townleys, which he established in 1983, and was widely recognised as the pre-eminent sports law firm in Europe. Townleys merged with a global 100 law firm Hammonds in August 2001. He is a member of the panel of arbitrators for CAS - the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland - and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Stephen also sits on the board of the Sports Lawyers Association (US), is Acting Chairman of the International Academy of Sportslaw Practitioners and Executives (ASPE) and is a board member of the International Association of Sport Cities (IASC).
In addition, Stephen holds various non-executive positions. He is non-executive Chairman of IFSA Strongman, the world governing body of the strongman sport, a director of World Sport Football and non-executive director of IMS, which is the marketing arm of UK motor sports. He is the honorary legal advisor to the General Association of International Sports Federations and is an Honorary Member of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in recognition of his support for the NSPCC’s work for children.
Active Rights Management Limited
Head Office: Harley House, 2 St John Street, Hereford HR1 2NB
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8896 7060
www.activerights.com
Gary Roberts
Deputy Dean & Sumter Davis Marks Prof. of Law &
Director of the Sports Law Program at Tulane Law School (US)
Gary R. Roberts is the Deputy Dean, Sumter Davis Marks Prof. of Law & Director of the Sports Law Program at Tulane Law School. He graduated from Bradley University ('70) and Stanford Law School ('75). In 1975-76 he clerked for Judge Ben C. Duniway of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. In 1976 he joined the then largest law firm in Washington, DC, Covington & Burling, where for over seven years he engaged in antitrust, international trade, labor, contract, and trademark litigation. In 1983 Dean Roberts joined the Tulane Law School faculty. He was vice dean from 1990-95, and has been deputy dean since 2001.
In 2001, he received the Felix Frankfurter Distinguished Teaching Award from the graduating class. He developed and directs the first sports law certification program in the U.S. He teaches Sports Law, Antitrust, Labor Law, and Business Enterprises. He has written several major law review articles and book chapters and has co-authored the leading text on sports law used in U.S. law schools.
Outside Tulane, Dean Roberts has since 1987 been an officer and a member of the board of directors of the Sports Lawyers Association, for which he served as president from 1995-97. He has since 1987 edited the SLA's newsletter, The Sports Lawyer, and he created and supervises publication of the SLA's annual law review, The Sports Lawyers Journal. He also owns and operates a consulting business whose clients have included, among others, Minor League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, UEFA (the European soccer federation), FIBA (the world basketball federation), the English Premier Football League, the English Football League, the Sugar Bowl, the Baltimore Orioles, the Seattle Mariners, the Continental Basketball Ass'n, the American Horse Shows Ass'n, the National Hot Rod Ass'n, and Bally's Casinos.
Massimo Coccia
Founding Partner
Coccia De Angelis & Associati (Italy)
Born in Rome (Italy) in 1957, he obtained a J.D. cum laude from the University of Rome Law School and, as a Fulbright Fellow, an LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School (USA). He is both a professor and a practitioner. He currently teaches International Law at the University of Viterbo. He is founding partner of the firm 'Coccia De Angelis & Associati', specialized in transnational legal and tax matters. He has published extensively on issues of public and private international law, EU law and sports law. He is one of Italy's best known experts of sports law. He is arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and member of the Italian Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration for Sport. He is Secretary General of the Italian Society of Sports Law and Editor of the sports law journal Rivista di diritto sportivo. In August 2006, Massimo was appointed as the Vice-Commissioner of the Italian Football Association (FIGC).
Dr. Dirk-Reiner Martens
Dr. Dirk-Reiner Martens is a partner in the German law firm Beiten Burkhardt and resides in Munich, Germany.
His practice areas are corporate and commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, sports law and international arbitration. He speaks German, English, French, Italian and Spanish.Dr. Martens has particular expertise in the legal management of large transactions, privatisations and company acquisitions.Dr. Martens has particular expertise in sports law. He has been legal adviser to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) for more than 20 years where he has responsibility for all matters with a legal and sports-related implication. He has litigated important sports related cases before the regional and appellate courts in Munich and has been an active member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne for many years. In the year 2002 alone, he was involved in 15 CAS-cases, in 8 of which he acted as president of the panel. Furthermore, Mr. Martens has acted as Ad-hoc arbitrator for the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney and the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City and has also been nominated for this position for Athens 2004.
Dr. Dirk-Reiner Martens
Beiten Burkhardt
Ganghofer Str. 33
80339 Munich
Germany
Phone: ++49 (89) 35065-00
Fax: ++49 (89) 35065-123
dirk-reinermartens@bblaw.de
Brian Doyle
Consultant
Turnbull Hill Lawyers (Australia)
Brian is a consultant for Turnbull Hill Lawyers, the firm acting for a large number of leading Australian athletes in a variety of sports. The firm acts for two former Australian cricket captains and two Australian Rugby League captains. The firm was the base for the World Rugby Corporation attempt in 1995 to set up a world wide rugby competition, an enterprise that did much to push rugby to full time professionalism. Brian is:
• the former president of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association
• former chairman of the National Sports Disputes Centre
• a lecturer in sports law at Newcastle University
• a consultant to the Hunter Sports Academy
• a member of the advisory board of the International Sports Law Journal
• Member of the teaching faculty of the Griffith University/Asser Institute International Sports Law Program
He has appeared in a number of cases involving leading sports identities in Australia and obtained through the High Court in New Zealand the release of a rugby league international to play in Australia, that leading to the exchange of players between the two countries. He acted in a large number of selection disputes leading up to the Sydney Olympics. Brian has spoken at conferences and seminars overseas and in Australia.