England - London • TMT (technology, media and telecoms)
Mills & Reeve LLP
Mills & Reeve LLP advises an array of sports sector clients - namely across football, sailing, boxing, golf, sports tech and eSports - on regulatory and commercial mandates. Football expert and co-head of the team Carol Couse assists footballers with personal endorsements, private client matters and investments. She also supports football clubs on player and coach transfers and hires. Julian Moore frequently works on sponsorship agreements, while team co-head Mark Hovell is noted for his experience as a president of CAS panels in important boxing decisions. Phil Hutchinson is recommended for his expertise in anti-doping rules. Richard Santy is also recommended.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Mills & Reeve have recently assisted us with a matter and quickly picked up the detail and legal complexity of the work in a very cost-effective manner. We would certainly look to go to them again.’
‘Mark Hovell is very knowledgeable in many of the specialist areas that we operate. His experience and support is invaluable. He is also a great point of contact for any non-football matters that we may require assistance with, and is very attentive in this way.'
- 'Carol Couse is very personable and a good communicator with our non-legal staff. She is skilled at unravelling complicated legal and regulatory topics to make them digestible for non-lawyers.’
Key clients
- UK Sport
- Kevin De Bruyne
- Super League
- Jockey World Championships
- British Cycling, Bradford, Huddresfield
- Divock Origi
- Lucy Bronze
- James Milner
- Kieran Trippier
- Leah Williamson
- Court of Arbitration for Sport
- Professional Cricketers’ Association
- Rangers Football Club
- Burnley Football Club
- Cambridge United Football Club
- Norwich City Football Club
- Podium Analytics
- Eleven Sport
Lawyers
Rising stars
Leading individuals
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.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Carol Couse, Mark Hovell