Sports
Litigation, arbitration and regulation As a sports lawyer, Katie gets involved in a broad range of cases: “In a general sense, I work on contentious regulatory and commercial matters, with a focus on the sports industry. That gives you a wide experience of High Court litigation, as well as arbitration – both domestic and international, including the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is in Switzerland.”
Sports law involves the legal issues at play in the worlds of both amateur and professional sport. Although perhaps now a distinct area of law (‘ lex sportiva ’), it draws in particular on employment, contract, competition, commercial and intellectual property, public and tort law. With an undergraduate degree inClassics and English and a PhD in earlymodernwomen’s writing, it’s fair to say that Katie Smith’s journey into lawwas ameandering one. “I always had law inmind as a potential career option,” she explains. “But I wasn’t in a rush to go straight into it!” As is the casewithmany non-law graduates, Katie’s academic backgroundmight not seemdirectly relevant to her legal career, but there are plenty of transferable skills she has been able to apply. These include her ability to research and analyse. As Katie describes, “PhDs are often predicated on amoment of inspiration, and being able to solve problems, both of which are very applicable to law.”
But it’s not just disputes, litigation and arbitration that Katie works on.
“Because sports law is such a niche area, I have developed an expertise in sports regulation, so I often advise clients on regulatory aspects of sports law too. That means working with different teams and departments. For example, it could mean working on a banking or corporate matter with sports clients, or another matter that intersects with my regulatory knowledge.” And who exactly are these sports clients? Katie explains: “My regulatory expertise can be applicable to all sports and we advise clients in various sports, whether that be clubs, athletes, brands or governing bodies (national or international).” Project manager role On a day-to-day basis, the job of a junior lawyer entails a lot of drafting. Katie describes her “project manager role”, which involves “working directly with clients to work out the problem, give advice, offer solutions, and find out further information where necessary.” There’s a strategic side to the job too, as well as the work that is undertaken with counsel and lawyers in different offices, jurisdictions and departments – “you’re really part of a bigger team.” In addition, Katie’s work includes negotiations, mediations and preparing for trials or arbitration hearings. What drives Katie in all these aspects? “Ultimately, I most enjoy helping the client to succeed or find a solution.”
Sports lawtouchesonmany different aspectsof the law
Katie’s specialism in sports litigation was honed during her training contract at Squire Patton Boggs, where she completed seats in both commercial litigation and sports litigation. The firm’s six-seat rotational training contract enabled her to experience various practice areas, before coming to the decision that it was the contentious areas of law that most appealed. But Katie is quick to clarify that sports law is by nomeans an isolated practice: “Sports law touches on many different aspects of the law, and skills that I learned in seats such as employment, and restructuring and insolvency still assist me.” For Katie, this is proof that aspiring and junior lawyers should be as flexible and open-minded as possible, even if you end up specialising at a relatively early stage as she did.
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