About

Having always possessed a passion for sports due to his prior spell as an athlete, Michael Napoli knew he ‘wanted to forge a career as a sports lawyer, as it would be challenging and exciting’. As a student, he completed a summer clerkship at Gadens lawyers in Sydney, was promoted to graduate lawyer, and in 2013, he was admitted as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of NSW and worked in the commercial litigation department at Gadens, dealing with a range of multi-million dollar disputes. ‘During this time, still having a passion for sport, I volunteered at my local football association as chairman of the Disciplinary Tribunal, hearing disputes involving player misconduct. An opportunity arose as an in-house lawyer with Football NSW (FNSW), which is Australia’s largest sporting organisation’. FSNW manages 200,000 football players and 32 member-football associations and during Napoli’s time there he was appointed by the national governing body for Australian football, Football Federation Australia (FFA) to administrate over disciplinary matters on football tournaments. In 2018, he decided to take his career further by becoming an in-house lawyer at Supercars, which manages the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, the premier motorsport category in Australasia. At Supercars he prepares and negotiates commercial transactions, which involve multi-million dollar sponsorship agreements for the series and individual races while also assisting the events department in securing suppliers, including negotiating agreements for musicians, such as Simple Minds and KISS, to perform at races. Supercars also incorporates an e-sport video game competition entitled “The Supercars E-series”. Here, he regularly provides legal advice concerning issues of intellectual property and exclusivity. ‘This is very exciting as the traditional perception of being an “athlete” is being challenged’, says Napoli. When reflecting on what kind of support is best received from his peers, he explains: ‘The best advice I received from more senior lawyers is being a team player. Being a team player is not easy for some lawyers working in a corporate environment. Most of the time, corporate lawyers seem more concerned with meeting individual targets. In an in-house environment, that is not the case. If you wish to embark on a career as an in-house lawyer, you must work with others and realise that you require the skills and expertise of those assisting you to achieve the organisation’s goals’.