Pinsent Masons announces new partnership with World Athletics

Drawing on their multinational network of over 100 specialist professionals within their business of sport advisory group, Pinsent Masons will provide legal support, advice and strategic guidance to World Athletics on a global basis. The scope of areas covered will include regulatory and governance, commercial rights, negotiation and arbitration, intellectual property, insurance, employment, brand protection, dispute resolution and technology.

The firm will also provide a full range of legal support around World Athletics’ major events and deliver guidance and training to assist the sport's administrators around the world.

Commenting on the partnership Sebastian Coe, World Athletics President said:

“In many ways, this agreement represents our ambitions for our sport as a global powerhouse. We will need Pinsents’ skillset in a number of areas as we build athletics around the world and I’m delighted that they also see the value in this relationship. Our world is changing rapidly, even more so with the current pandemic, and we need nimble and forward-thinking partners to help us make the most of the opportunities this will present. Like us, they see innovation as a key component of success.

"Their global presence will allow us to access their services wherever we are, which is particularly useful for an organisation with 214 Member Federations and major events staged across the world, and their expertise will help us to maintain world best practice in our governance and commercial relationships.”

Head of Sports at Pinsent Masons, Trevor Watkins said:

"We are thrilled to have won this appointment and very much look forward to an exciting and dynamic partnership with World Athletics. It's a tremendous achievement for our team to have been chosen and, after such a competitive process, is recognition of the global strength and expertise of our specialist lawyers.

"We believe we have a strong synergy with World Athletics in its desire to be the best example of a well governed sports federations, particularly in areas of governance, regulation, integrity and innovation. That message really rings true to us as a firm that embraces innovation, technology and strategic thinking. We’ve had a tremendous response from our multinational network of offices to the prospect of this agreement and the opportunity to work with a sport that our team finds inspirational on many levels. Many of the team are members of running clubs and participate as volunteers within sport and this partnership will allow them to combine their existing passion for the sport and their professional expertise."

Julian Diaz Rainey, Head of Regulatory and Disputes within the sports sector and who also jointly led the tender process, added:

"The regulation, governance and future development of sport and national and international level has been and will likely now increasingly be under review as the world emerges from the impact of Covid-19. Having built up a great team of over 100 lawyers within our business, advising across the business of sport internationally it is a great accolade for them to have achieved this. I am personally very excited about this agreement, it reflects how we've established our team on a global footing and the passion within it for sport and the importance of it on so many levels."