Finance • North West
Mills & Reeve LLP
Lawyers
Mark Hovell
Mills & Reeve LLP, North West
- Phone0161 234 8810
- Email[email protected]
- Social
Work Department
Sport.
Position
Mark’s role as an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the last couple of decades has seen him involved in some high-profile cases, including his appointment to the 2016 Olympic ad hoc Division in Rio. He has now been involved in over 300 arbitrations. Mark was also re-appointed as an arbitrator on the Sport Resolutions Panel (Chairpersons List) in 2021 and is also a member of the National Anti-doping Panel. Mark continues to advise various sports union organisations including The Professional Footballers’ Association, The PGA and The Professional Players Federation. Mark has also represented a number of clubs, leagues and Governing bodies. He represents a number of high-profile sport and entertainment clients in negotiations relating to their image rights and marketability. Mark is a qualified insolvency practitioner and has been involved in over 60 formal and informal professional football, rugby and rugby league club insolvencies, including Portsmouth FC in 2010 and 2012. Mark was awarded the title Partner of the Year at the 2013 Manchester Legal Awards and received a special recognition award at the 2013 NW Football Awards. More recently he was the WWL International Sports lawyer of the Year in 2020. He is a lecturer/visiting professor on Sports Law and finance at numerous Universities and colleges around the world.
Career
Trained George Davies Solicitors LLP; qualified 1993; former head of corporate George Davies Solicitors LLP; licensed insolvency practitioner since 1999; arbitrator Court of Arbitration for Sport since 2002; managing partner George Davies Solicitors LLP 2007-13; Head of Sports at M&R since 2013; chair of Sports Industry Group (Pro Manchester) since 2013. Current directorships: Pro Manchester; the Manchester Football Association; the James Milner Foundation; The Factory Youth Zone.
Memberships
R3 (fellow); ICArb; RexSport.
Education
Hymers College, Hull; UMIST (1989 2(1) (Hons) Management Sciences); MMU (1991 CPE and LSF); BPP (1999 Insolvency Practitioner Finals).
Leisure
Running, football, golf and parenting.