Fladgate has boosted its sports practice with the hire of a team from Pinsent Masons featuring partner James Earl and former Irish international rugby player Dave Quinlan.
Earl, whose clients include London 2017 World Athletics and Monster Energy Drinks, is joining Fladgate as head of its sports business group. The firm said he will lead the next phase of development as the team targets areas of high value and investment in the sports sector.
Fladgate chairman Charles Wander said the firm already had a cross-departmental sport group but that Earl would bring expertise in areas such as sponsorship and events agreements.
“This is a major extension of our existing sports practice and fits well with other areas we’ve been building recently such as construction, litigation and infrastructure,” said Wander.
Quinlan, a senior associate who spent time on secondment to both the Rugby World Cup and Olympics, played twice for Ireland before retiring due to injury in 2007. The third member of the team is associate Muhammed Bhaimohmed.
Fladgate’s enlarged team of ten partners and associates will focus on commercial rights exploitation, sport investment and finance, events, governance and dispute resolution and infrastructure and stadia.
The firm’s existing sports sector experience spans a range of sports including motor racing, notably Formula 1, A1 GP, World Rally, Cart, Indy Car and Moto GP, football, cricket, golf and cycling.
Earlier in this year, Fladgate led the legal team advising shareholders who sold a majority stake in Swansea City FC to a consortium of US investors led by Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan.
Other transactions the Fladgate team has advised on include Gareth Bale’s world record £85m transfer from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid and his multi-million pound football boot and merchandise agreement with Adidas.
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