The Sports Attorney

Although in constant development, the status of Sports Attorney remains unknown to a large number of sports players. The status of Sports Attorney, created by the law on the modernization of the legal and judicial professions of 28 March 2011, allows a lawyer, in his capacity as an agent, to represent one of the parties interested in the conclusion of a contract. This law, the case law applicable in the field and the practice of this activity therefore raise a number of questions:

To what extent is a lawyer a sports representative? What differentiates a sports agent from a sports lawyer? Who are the contacts of the Sports Attorney? How are the fees of the Sports Attorney paid? This list, which is not exhaustive, of the numerous questions inherent to this theme does not necessarily require unanimous answers insofar as the practice of this activity highlights differences in the assessment of the applicable rules of law. Also, in view of the extent of the subject, this article will be written in several parts.

This first part focuses on the lawyer's status as a sports agent. It is therefore appropriate to focus on: obtaining the title of Sports Attorney (I.); the role of the Sports Attorney (II.).

Obtaining the title of Sports Attorney

The Bar Association maintains a register of Sports Lawyers. Until a meeting of the Council of the Order, dated May 9, 2017, article P.6.2.0.3 of the Internal Regulations of the Paris Bar provided that: “Before exercising the activity of sports lawyer, the lawyer must make a declaration to the President of the Bar. The Order maintains a register of sports attorneys who are mandataries. In his activity as a sports lawyer, the lawyer remains required to respect the essential principles and rules of conflict of interest.” However, this article was deleted during the session of 9 May 2017 and replaced by article 6.4, which now provides that in order to join this register and obtain this title, the lawyer must “make a declaration to the Order, by letter or email addressed to the President of the Bar”. In view of the increase in the economic challenges of sport and, therefore, the increasing need for legal expertise, requests to Sports Representative Lawyers are constantly increasing, which raises the question of the scope of their intervention.

The role of the Sports Attorney

The parties represented by the Sports Attorney

Under article 1, 1° of the law of 28 March 2011: “lawyers may, within the framework of their own regulations, represent, as an agent, one of the parties interested in the conclusion of one of the contracts mentioned in the first paragraph of article L. 222-7 of the Sports Code.” This article does not specify the parties that the Sports Attorney General may represent. It is only indicated that the Sports Attorney may represent parties interested in the conclusion of certain contracts, namely: Those relating to the paid exercise of a sports or training activity; those that provide for the conclusion of an employment contract whose object is the paid exercise of a sports or training activity. However, the parties interested in concluding these contracts may be: clubs; players; agents; intermediaries who do not have a sports agent license. Despite several statements to the contrary, intermediaries seem to be able to be considered as “interested” parties in the conclusion of the abovementioned contracts. Indeed, if article 1 of the law of 28 March 2011 were interpreted strictly, it would be possible to consider that intermediaries would not be parties interested in concluding an employment contract because they were not signatories. However, although they are not signatories, intermediaries are directly interested in concluding the employment contract insofar as this has direct consequences on their own remuneration, which is generally indexed to the player's salary. Therefore, in my opinion, intermediaries should be considered as interested parties within the meaning of article 1 of the law of 28 March 2011 allowing the Sports Attorney to represent them.

The field of intervention of the Sports Attorney

After establishing the parties that can be represented by the Sports Attorney, it is now appropriate to discuss his field of intervention. As the name suggests, this activity consists in playing the role of agent, representative. The mission of the Sports Attorney is, however, broader in that it consists of: the search for contractors (clubs, sponsors); the negotiation of contracts; the drafting of contracts (specific employment contract clauses, sponsorship contracts, etc.); the signing of contracts. In addition to these services, the Sports Attorney also intervenes and above all in his capacity as a lawyer, offering his client a legal advice service made necessary by the ever increasing challenges of top-level sport. Sports actors therefore call on Sports Lawyers to ensure that their interests are properly protected. This protection has a cost that will be discussed in the second part of this article.

Source: Legavox.fr [/column]