Bird & Bird LLP

Media, Entertainment & Sport

Partner

I am a partner in our Sydney office, working in the Media, Entertainment and Sports group.

I provide specialist advice and represent sports clients in a wide range of matters, in particular when it comes to their regulatory, integrity, governance, and contractual affairs.

Working alongside Rich Hawkins, our Sydney team provides a full-service offering for all sports commercial and regulatory/contentious matters, servicing clients in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region, and further internationally. I also work closely with our market leading sports team in London on their international matters.

Prior to joining Bird & Bird, I worked for many years at a leading arbitration firm in Geneva. Located in the international sports hub of Switzerland, I advised numerous international federations as well as elite level athletes, clubs, and other sports bodies and individuals. As part of that work, I appeared regularly before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, as well as other international sports tribunals.

I have significant experience with sport regulatory, governance, and contentious matters, including (for example) anti-doping, anti-corruption and match-fixing, safeguarding, other misconduct, and best practice in governance. I have assisted clients at each stage of the legal process, from the drafting and day to day implementation of their regulations, to the enforcement of (and challenges to) such regulations. When it comes to sports clients, I believe we should proactively implement practices and procedures to protect the integrity, reputation, and interests of not only the governing bodies in question, but of all the stakeholders who invest so much time and passion into their respective sports.

In addition to my counsel work, I sit as a permanent arbitrator on the closed list of the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal (BAT), where I resolve contractual claims between international basketball stakeholders. I am a member of the Ethics Board of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), a Director of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association (ANSZLA), and a member of the editorial board of the LawInSport international sports law publication. I am co-author or editor of several publications concerning international sports arbitration and regularly speak at sports law conferences and deliver lectures for university and post-graduate legal programs.

As a dual Australian and Swiss citizen, I speak English and French, and also have a basic knowledge of Spanish.

Admissions

Law Society of New South Wales, Australia in 2007

2011 LL.M International Sports Law, Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economia, Spain 2007 LL.B (Hons), University of Canberra, Australia 2004 BASc, Sports Management, University of Canberra, Australia