10 years of LawInSport
It has been 10 years since the official launch of LawInSport. I would like to take this moment to acknowledge all those who have enabled us to have the opportunity to work in the field of “sports law” and the law applied to sport.
It has not been an easy path to build a platform and community based on accessibility in a sector that can at times value exclusivity over inclusivity. We placed a great deal of emphasis on never compromising the quality or independence of our editorial process, or our fundamental values such as treating everyone with dignity and respect. They are basic concepts but ones that have allowed us to build an organisation that we hope has had a positive impact on everyone we interact with.
We are incredibly proud of our achievements over the last decade. Some of our key highlights include:
- 100,000 plays of 100 podcast episodes.
- Published over 2000 peer-reviewed legal articles from over 800 authors from 60 countries along with 200 hours of video content.
- Ranked in the top 300,000 websites in the world with an accumulated, making us market leaders, with 2 million readers from over 200 countries, with over 7 million page views.
- Brought together over 100 of the world’s leading sports lawyers and executives on the LawInSport Editorial & Advisory board members to help us ensure we maintain our high standard of quality and integrity of our content and events, and stay focused on practical application of the law.
- Welcomed 2000+ event attendees and over 500 speakers across 50 conference, seminars, workshops and networking events.
- Helped and supported 70+ mentees on the LawInSport Mentoring Scheme.
- Worked with over 200 current and former professional athletes to support them to better understand the legal issues in sport and/or to help develop a career in law.
- Attracted 27,000 registered members across all of our membership plans - many of whom are the world's leading sports federations, national governing bodies, clubs, law firms, barristers chamber and academic institution.
- Worked with and supported organisations in various capacities such as the Soccerex, Sports Lawyers Association (USA), Sports Law and Policy Centre (Italy), Asser Institute (Netherlands), British Association for Sports and Law, the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association, Women In Sports Law, Women In Football, World Players Association and FIFPRO to name a few.
- We have had the pleasure to help recruit for over 150 legal roles for sports organisations, such as the IOC, FIFA, BHA, World Rugby, Chelsea FC, BT Sport, IMG, Mercedes Formula One Team, as well as the top sports law firms.
However impressive these highlights are, it does not do justice to the individual stories of the people we have been able to help, be it students getting through their law degree, lawyers getting their first a sports law job, helping authors write their best content to demonstrate their expertise, or helping to build relationships between those working in the legal and sports communities. Nor does it tell of the pleasure we have derived from working with great people who share our enthusiasm for sport and the law. Nor does it detail all of the meaningful relationships that we have helped to develop globally between people from different backgrounds who otherwise may not have met.
It would be easy, but misleading, to claim we had the foresight to create LawInSport as it is now. The truth is, it is an embodiment of conversations, meetings and work of thousands of people across the world. Therefore, I wanted to take this moment to thank those who have helped (and continue to help) inspire LawInSport and those who work tirelessly behind the scenes to help us run LawInSport and provide the infrastructure required for the high-quality content and global community we are renowned for.
We would like to thank each current and former member of our Editorial Board and Advisory Board, who have given up their time and energy to support the vision for LawInSport, as well as provide personal support to me, Chris and the team.
We would also like to thank each author, speaker and podcast guest for the generosity they have shown in sharing their thoughts, ideas and perspectives.
LawInSport’s initial humble intention was to be a central hub for those with interest in sports law and to build-on and complement the body of existing publications and textbooks in the emerging field of sports law. Some of the organisations who inspired or paved the way for the likes of me and others in the sector include:
- Acknowledgment of pioneers in the Sports Law Education/Publishing space
- IU Sport
- Sports Law Blog
- Sport & EU
- The Entertainment and Sports Law Journal
- World Sports Law Report
- Asser Institute
- International Sports Law Journal
- Sports Law and Practice (Lewis & Taylor)
- Sports Law (Beloff, Kerr, Demetriou & Beloff)
- Sports Law (James)
- Modern Sports Law (Anderson)
- World Anti-Doping Commentary (Rigozzi, Viret & Wisnosky)
I would like to thank the team, past and present who have helped and believed in my vision for LawInSport despite me learning on the job all those years ago: Chris Bond, John Cullen, Phil Walton, Yama Otung, Aimee Cawthray, Gabriella Lowe, Marcos Santillana, Ashok Jadhav, Stacey Cox, Ed Aldridge, and Jake Cohen.
A special thank you to Alfonso Valero who I founded LawInSport with and who gave me the encouragement and confidence to challenge the status quo. Thank you to Kevin Carpenter for being of one the first editors of LawInSport and helping to drive the editorial content internationally in the early days. Thank you to Manali Kulkarni who worked tirelessly for many years behind the scenes to help grow our community, run events and support our members.
I would also give thanks to all the people who have helped with interning, researching, transcribing, and supporting our conferences who are too many to name individually.
There are also many other people who through their comments, support and feedback have helped make LawInSport what it is today.
Thank you all for giving us the opportunity to do what we love and contribute in a small way to the development of law in sport.
Sean Cottrell
CEO, LawInSport
P.S. If you would like to find out more about how LawInSport started we recorded a special episode for our 100th podcast.
