Chris Farnell – Senior Partner
Chris Farnell advises leading Premier League and Football League Clubs, leading sporting and media agents and a number of high profile sporting individuals on a wide variety of matters. Chris' practice areas include: Sports, Media & Entertainment. He specialises in image rights, third party ownership issues, player transfers, intellectual property contracts, contract re-negotiations, sponsorship and endorsement contracts, defamation, sports dispute resolution, footballer and agent disputes, doping hearings, regulatory issues, and both contentious and non-contentious intellectual property law. Chris has advised on a number of high-profile cases in the area of sports law, some of which are listed below:-
- The Football Association v Queens Park Rangers Football Club Chris acted on behalf of Queens Park Rangers in defence of seven charges that were brought by The Football Association in relation to Third Party Investment and Football Agents' Regulations. Five of the charges were successfully resisted which contained the most serious of the charges brought by The Football Association. As a result of defending such charges Queens Park Rangers avoided the possibility of a points deduction and were therefore able to gain promotion to The Premier League as Championship winners. This was the most significant football legal case since the "Tevez" case.
- Charlie Adam v Blackpool Football Club Chris successfully acted on behalf of Charlie Adam against him employers, Blackpool Football Club, in relation to an unpaid bonus.
- Sheffield United Players v West Ham United Football Club Chris represented the players in Arbitration proceedings against West Ham United Football Club arising out of the "Tevez" matter.
- Everton Football Club v Dan Gosling Chris represented Everton Football Club in relation to proceedings brought against Dan Gosling.
- "Spit-Gate" Chris advised former Premier League club Hull City in relation to a complaint to the FA about a high profile onfield incident following a match with Arsenal Football Club.
- Team Associate v The Sports Entertainment and Media Group & Micah Richards IPS Law successfully defended the Sports Entertainment & Media Group in relation to a claim brought against it by Team Associate sports agency.
- Agent v Gavin McCann IPS Law successfully defended the Player in relation to a significant claim brought against him by an Agent.
- Swansea City Football Club v Manchester City Football Club Chris advised Swansea City in relation to a contractual dispute with the Premier League club over the transfer of a player.
- Cristiano Ronaldo Chris acted on behalf of Cristiano Ronaldo during his time in the UK on various significant commercial matters.
- Other notable experience includes:
- Providing advice to a Premiership Manager in relation to a motoring matter.
- Advising in relation to a number of Premier League and Championship managerial appointments, acting for managers and clubs.
- Advising a leading Premier League club in relation to all of its trade mark and infringements.
- Advising Premier League and Championship clubs in relation to various regulatory and contractual issues.
- Providing legal advice in relation to the transfers and negotiated contracts of a number of recent high profile players in the Premier League.
- Advising a leading Premier League Club in relation to endorsement agreements centred around the World Cup in respect of a number of their high profile players.
- Advising Premiership and international players on a variety of contractual and endorsement matters.
Chris Farnell – Senior Partner
Paul Fletcher – Partner
Partner Paul Fletcher advises a number of Premier League and Championship football clubs as well as high profile footballers and leading sports and media agents, specialising in sponsorship and endorsement deals, sports dispute resolution, intellectual property contracts, regulatory matters and sports related commercial and media contracts. Paul’s notable recent experience includes:-
- Advising a leading Premier League club in relation to various commercial and media contracts including radio broadcasting agreements, mobile phone content delivery agreements, a website development agreement; website advertising agreements; and various other multi media agreements relating to the exploitation of its television, broadcasting and media rights outside of the UK.
- Providing a legal opinion to one of the Pakistan cricketers accused of “spot fixing” on the prospects of an appeal.
- Advising a leading Premier League player in relation to a dispute over a severance payment following his departure from his former club.
- Advising several Premier League football clubs and a Championship football club in relation to their shirt sponsorship agreements.
- Advising a Championship football club on an in stadium betting contract and various commercial partnership agreements.
- Advising a number of Premier League and Championship players in relation to a range of motoring matters.
- Advising 15 times world darts champion Phil “the Power” Taylor in relation to a merchandising dispute and various contractual matters.
- Advising a Brazilian international footballer in relation to transfer matters.
- Advising a Turkish international footballer and the company owning the right to exploit his image rights in relation to a dispute against his former club.
- Advising a leading television sporting personality in relation to various presenter deals and endorsement deals.
- Advising a leading television personality in relation to several claims for defamation.
- Advising a number of leading UK and International football agents in relation to various regulatory and contractual matters.
Paul Fletcher – Partner
Mike Hall – Solicitor
Latest recruit Mike Hall has increased the team’s size and capability in its core sports work whilst bringing additional expertise in Media & Entertainment work. Mike began his career at Russells, a leading specialist firm in London, where he worked for seven years gaining unrivalled exposure to an enviable list of international A-List stars. Identified in the profession as an up and coming ‘one to watch’ Mike established a high profile and an excellent reputation during his time in London. Now at IPS Mike continues to build on this with his extensive list of contacts in Media & Entertainment work, a proven track record of attracting and keeping clients through strong and trusting relationships. Mike is renowned for the quality of his work and is always well liked by other lawyers who deal with him. In niche Music industry work there are very few other lawyers outside of London with Mike’s experience. Mike’s work includes negotiating terms, drafting contracts and advising on the rights and obligations of the parties in a variety of contractual agreements in Media, Entertainment and Sports. Mike’s notable recent experience includes: MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT:
- Concluding an exclusive publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing for one of the UK’s most sought after emerging artists.
- Concluding an exclusive songwriter agreement with Mute Song for a duo of songwriters.
- Concluding an exclusive songwriter agreement with Domino Publishing Company for a group of four writers.
- Concluding an exclusive recording contract with Mute Records for a group of recording artists.
- Negotiating distribution arrangements with PIAS UK and PIAS Recordings for various countries throughout the world and dealing with all inter-country issues arising between the different contracts.
- Agreeing terms for a band to hire an old church in order to create a space to record, film and perform live shows.
- Advising a producer in connection with the recording, production and mixing of sound recordings for a rock band including the producer acquiring a share of copyright in the recordings.
- Advising the organiser of various live music events on company structures and corporate branding.
- Advising a female solo artist on the protection and exploitation of her recording, publishing, live performance and merchandise rights as part of a so-called “360 deal”.
- Advising a music manager on the terms of a management contract between him and his band dealing with territorial issues, duration and commission entitlements.
- Advising a singer songwriter contractually bound to an exclusive recording agreement with a band on the possibility of recording and releasing a solo project independently of the band.
Mike Hall – Solicitor
Jane Surman – Partner
Jane started her career specialising in rural property issues in Worcestershire in 1992 and then moved to London in 2001 where she worked with leading West End firms on commercial and residential property. Jane prides herself in providing a personal first class legal service in every aspect and currently acts for :-
- high profile individuals and companies in the sports and media industry;
- high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs, investors and companies both UK based and offshore.
- Buying and selling both commercial and residential properties.
- Funding commercial and residential properties.
- Landlord and tenant issues including negotiating on both commercial and residential leases, residential tenancies, renewals.
- Management for landlords with portfolios of both commercial and residential properties.
- Other property related matters eg common land, unregistered titles, property rights eg rights of way, services etc.
- A client purchased a site surrounded by common land which did not have the necessary rights of access or services. She is proud to have successfully negotiated with the owner of the common land for these rights only for the cost of their legal fees.
- A family was in a hurry to buy a high value residential property so she exchanged and completed within 7 hours of being instructed.
- In the extremely tight time frame of 10 days, she exchanged and completed 21 flats off plan in a development on behalf of overseas and UK investors.
- She acted in the purchase of a mixed use development and the commercial elements on four other mixed use developments in the South of England for a corporate client subject to an exclusivity agreement with 28 days to exchange.
Jane Surman – Partner
Testimonial
“Thanks for providing advice I can always trust.”
Phil “the Power” Taylor(15 times Darts World Champion)
Recent Clients
