The legal challenges faced by sports organizations may overlap with those in other industries, but sports law has its unique nuances. Ali Maclean breaks down the “pyramid” of legal work in sports, emphasizing how a blend of common legal practices, hybrid knowledge, and specialized expertise shapes the industry.
In this interview, Ali explores the importance of collaboration across business teams, the role of legal departments in enhancing customer experiences, and the transformative potential of legal technology and AI. His insights highlight how in-house legal teams can become proactive enablers, driving strategic outcomes while fostering innovation and efficiency.
Merlin Beyts: You’ve worked in the sporting world for a number of years now. Have you found that legal teams in sporting organisations face similar issues to those in other industries?
Ali Maclean: Yes, the majority of issues will be similar in sport to those in different industries. Consider a triangle with three layers. At the base, there is a core set of legal issues that have the same legal basis. For example, good corporate governance, employment policies, intellectual property, data protection, direct marketing, contracts, procurement, competition law, etc. Whether I’m procuring a widget for manufacturing or sportswear, I will still need to have a good procurement contract and purchase order system and consider ethical and sustainable sourcing through the supply chain.
In the middle is a tier of “hybrid” work, which starts to become semi-specialised and will require some knowledge of the sports industry, for example, immigration-related to an International Sports Person or corporate governance related to a fit and proper person test.
At the top of the “pyramid,” there is a smaller amount of very specialised work which requires detailed knowledge of the sports industry and for which there is specific jurisprudence/precedent that has been developed through the rulings of sports governing bodies or specialist institutions like the Court of Arbitration for Sport. These include issues such as human or equine doping, salary caps and financial fair play, the applications of sports rules and regulations, and transgender participation in sports.
The number of lawyers in sports has grown rapidly in the 25 years that I have been involved, and this has mostly been for the good. Helping to reduce the impact or likelihood of cheating in sports, improve corporate governance standards with the large increase in revenues, and deal with some horrific abuse issues. There are times, however, that sports are “over-lawyered” and I have witnessed on numerous occasions lawyers argue to their client’s detriment in disciplinary hearings or take unreasonable positions in contract negotiations.
Merlin Beyts: How important do you think it is for in-house leaders to collaborate with other business teams?
Ali Maclean: It’s crucial. The legal team is in a privileged position. It can be seen across the organisation and often acts as the glue to tie different threads together that colleagues working in other departments are not able to see so readily.
Legal teams are commonly pulled in different directions with colleagues who have different priorities and timeframes. The issues involved with intake, allocation, and dealing with the work will be common across different industries. Legal teams face the difficulty of wanting to facilitate the work on a personal basis with the human touch. But at the same time, they face being overwhelmed by multiple requests, which, if not properly captured, will fall between the gaps. Legal teams have highly skilled and (hopefully) well-remunerated personnel, and there is a danger that the team becomes the “arse covering” department for colleagues who throw “legal” requests over the fence just to say everything is OK because the work has been passed through legal. Creating an understanding of what falls inside/outside of legal remit and an appropriate risk appetite can help to mitigate this danger.
Early collaboration with colleagues and knowledge of their work priorities and the organisation’s key strategic aims for the year is a crucial part of the management of workflow. I have always disliked the term “service department,” and I believe that legal (and other corporate functions) should be seen as “enabling” departments working with colleagues to get the best outcomes. Legal teams must earn this trust and respect and ensure that they speak the language of the business.
Merlin Beyts: What kind of role can legal departments play in improving customer experience?
Ali Maclean: There are internal customers (other colleagues) and external customers (such as fans or participants in the relevant sport). Legal Departments play a crucial role in enabling better outcomes for the successful delivery of their organisation’s (and, therefore, their colleague’s) strategic goals. As referenced above, collaboration, communication, and planning with colleagues will be at the heart of ensuring alignment in achieving these goals and delivering real value.
I also think that in-house lawyers (in general) need to gain a better understanding of the efficiencies to be gained through legal tech and AI. This is a revolution that is not going away, and legal teams need to “commoditise” certain low-value/high-volume work and push it back into the business (e.g., through contract automisation) and use legal tech to review counterparty agreements. The adoption of this tech will lead to greater efficiencies and faster turnaround for in-house clients whilst focusing the lawyer’s skill set on complex/strategic work that is more rewarding.
Legal departments must always have their external customers in mind. How can you facilitate the aim of protecting the organisation from risk and ensuring that the end customer has a fantastic experience? Consider the whole customer journey through the lens of the fan. For example, when attending a sports event – how do they purchase tickets, how do they accept understandable ticket terms and conditions, what are the health and safety issues of getting fans safely into and away from venues, how is their data being protected and used in a responsible way?
Read the full LegalTech Diaries Volume 6: https://www.legaltech-talk.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/LegalTech-Diaries-Volume-6.pdf
