Overview

Sports Law is to this day still viewed as a rather unique branch of law, however it has gained a lot more notoriety over the last 5-10 years due to some major cases involving (Aphiwe Dyantyi, Caster Semenya and the likes of Cricket South Africa). It is also a field of law that has seen a lot of development with the dawn of professionalisation in sport, growing in popularity every year amongst the junior legal fraternity. With sports getting bigger and bigger and more and more commercialised, there is a growing appetite amongst junior practitioners to get involved in this field of law.

Javelin Sports Consulting is inundated with requests for articles and vacation work from young practitioners and students wanting to get experience in what they tend to call a “sexy” aspect of the law. Representing athletes, coaches or clubs, managing disputes between federations and major sponsors, matters that garner a lot of public attention (such as those involving anti-doping or corruption), these are just some of the reason why young legal practitioners want to learn more about this field and get some practical experience on how to get kickstart a career as a sports lawyer.

Whilst it is a misnomer to call sports law a field of law in and of itself, it is often used as a buzz word to attract attention. In fact a good practitioner would know that sports law is an amalgamation of various type of law that relate to sport, such as contract law, labour law or intellectual property law. It is not exactly the same as the new fields of law we see like cyber law or space law, that are fields of law all on their own, but there are certain instances where matter can be said to be strictly sports law related, (for e.g., anti-doping).

In addition to the younger legal practitioner, there is also appetite from the more senior guard to sink their teeth into the practical aspect of sports disputes to help them understand how sports arbitrations work so that they might grow their practice and get more involved before sports dispute resolution chambers across the country, set up for various sports.

Join Shane Wafer on the 27th of September 2023 from 10:00am - 12:00pm where he will dive deeper in this part of the law.  

Learning objectives

1. What is sports law? A brief introduction
2. A breakdown of the various types of law practice within sports law.
   1. Sports Contracts including sports employment contracts (for clubs and athletes)
   2. Image rights in sports (for athletes)
   3. What is Anti-Doping in sport (for sports administrators)
3. Sports law in theory and practice.
4. The intersection between sports law and our national law.
5. Dispute resolution in “Sports Law”
6. How is sports law useful to better understand the sporting landscape?
7. Sports and governance at a club and federation level
8. Sports law: South Africa v International market
9. Sports Agency and how agents are governed in SA*
10. Case studies on sports legal matters.

Content

The webinar will cover the following topics:

1. What are the various fields within sports law (contract, labour, IP, anti-doping, governance), how do they interest with sports?
2. A breakdown of each aspect of the various expert fields within sports law and how they are seen in practice. E.g., Contracts in sports, employment law in sport, intellectual property and image rights in sport, anti-doping in sport (Each of these sections can be extensive and tailored).
3. Dispute resolution in sport (Arbitration and Mediation). The practical nature of arbitration v court
4. Sports arbitral bodies (national and international). National DRC’s, the Court of Arbitration for Sport etc
5. How is sports law practiced in South Africa, in Africa and internationally.
6. Governance in sport, sports at a macro level and how it is managed at clubs and federations.
7. Marquee cases in the media you would have heard.
8. How to make a move to becoming a sports lawyer.
9. Sports Agents and how they are governed in SA. (extra content)

About the presenter

Shane is regarded as one of South Africa’s leading up and coming ‘sports lawyers’ representing the likes of SuperSport, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS). He is a trained and accredited Arbitrator and Mediator with the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa (AFSA).

Shane has represented clients successfully before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the likes of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and FIFA. He specializes in representation before sports arbitral bodies and anti-doping tribunals. Shane has represented a number of prominent sporting figures and bodies in a wide array of contractual and doping disputes, including Olympic athletes, Springbok rugby players, PSL coaches and clubs and  various national sports federations.

In 2010 Shane studied Law at the University of Pretoria immediately taking an interest in sports and business law. After completing his studies graduating with his LL.B. Law Degree, making the Deans Merit List, he completed his articles of clerkship at Couzyn, Hertzog & Horak which saw him gain tremendous experience in general and commercial litigation, and before various national courts including the High Court, Specialized Commercial Crimes Court as well as in the Magistrate’s Court.

Since Founding Javelin Sports Consulting, Shane has become an SME in the field of sports and commercial law with a keen interest in anti-doping, commercial law, intellectual property law and the sports dispute resolution.

Shane is currently acting as the prosecutor for the South African Institute for Drug Free Sport (SAIDS), serves in his daily practice as Legal Counsel to SuperSport and SuperSport Schools, and is a member of the Golden Lions Disciplinary Committee and various National Federation executives. He also regularly represents a number of high profile athletes included current Springbok rugby players and Olympic Athletes internationally on all elements of their career and disputes associated thereto.

Price

This webinar is free to attend.

For those of you who are unable to attend the live webinar, the recording will be made available to you shortly after the event.

Who should attend?

• Legal practitioners
• Students
• Athletes
• Sports Administrators
• Club General managers
• Federation Executives
• Agents

Additional material

By attending this webinar you will be provided with:

• A summarised slide presentation.
• Reference documents and/or course material where available.
• You can ask questions during the webinar and you will also have access to the presenter after the webinar.