Learn how a sports lawyers' association in Canada supports legal professionals with insights on legal compliance and professional advocacy
From the courtrooms to the playing fields, sports lawyers play a crucial role in keeping the game fair and square. However, even after overcoming the bar and becoming a licensed professional, sports lawyers will still need additional support, legally and professionally. For this, a sports lawyers' association is one of the go-to places for legal professionals who want to stay ahead of their game.
In this article, we’ll discuss some sports lawyers' associations that lawyers can circle back to in times of legal assistance and for professional development. We’ll also discuss other bodies and organizations aside from a sports lawyers' association that they can turn to.
There are many bodies that give support to athletes and their lawyers, including sports lawyer's associations. These bodies focus on the legal aspects of a particular sport, which affect not just the athletes, but also the organizations and the people that handle the games. They are either for-profit or not, and can be a stand-alone organization or a branch of a different organization.
Here’s the general purpose and essence of a sports lawyers' association:
legal support for sports lawyers: sports lawyers' associations provide regular updates on the ins and outs of Canadian sports law; these include new court decisions that are highly relevant or new interpretations of certain sports statutes
providing consultancy services: aside from giving out legal updates, some sports lawyers' associations can be avenues for consultations between lawyers, advocates, key personalities, and other professionals in the field; they're not just for the purposes of litigation, but also for policy making
guiding sports team and management: a sports lawyers' association helps top-level people in sports teams, such as coaches, managers, and other leaders, in effectively managing their teams and doing it based on what the law requires from them
legal counsel for athletes: in some cases, athletes come to a sports lawyers' association because they need legal advice and representation due to disputes that they have against their teams, coaches, or their sports management
In no particular order, below are just some of the prevailing sports lawyers' association in Canada. However, in addition to what can be literally a group of sports lawyers, we’ll also throw in some bodies that are non-exclusively a sports lawyers' association. These other bodies or organizations are also great sources of support, in one way or another, for sports lawyers, athletes, their teams, and sports organizations.
The Sports Lawyers Association or SLA is a non-profit association of sports lawyers from different countries, including Canada. Among its members are law educators, law students, and other professionals who are involved in sports law. The SLA’s main goal is “the understanding, advancement and ethical practice of sports law” through its many activities that it offers to its members.
For sports lawyers, there are many benefits for joining the SLA. The most basic of these is access to the legal resources that the SLA has through its events and publications. Here are some of these benefits:
invitation to the Annual SLA Conference and the SLA Sports Lawyers Conference, which provides an opportunity to connect and collaborate with sports law professionals
access to SLA’s Career Center where job and internship postings and career resources are available, and the SLA Membership Directory
complementary subscriptions to the Sports Business Journal’s Daily (SBJ Daily); the SLA’s newsletter called The Sports Lawyer; and the annual Sports Lawyers Journal which is authored by American and Canadian law students
a $50 discount to SBJ’s weekly publication called SBJ Insider, which also includes weekly industry newsletters (SBJ College, SBJ Media, SBJ Marketing, SBJ Betting, SBJ Esports, and SBJ Football)
SLA’s sponsorship opportunities, which grants financial assistance from sponsor corporations and other organizations
Here’s one of the podcasts from SLA’s Sport Shorts, where guests discuss relevant legal issues and matters in the field of sports law:
Check out our Rankings page to get a list of our Special Reports that rank lawyers in different practice areas and in different provinces.
Sports lawyers who are interested in joining the SLA may go to their website, fill out their application form, and create an online account.
Annual membership fees must also be paid. For sports lawyers, that would be $300 as they fall as a Regular Member among SLA’s membership classifications; new lawyers have a discounted rate of $100. Law professors in colleges and universities who are not active in the practice of law can apply under the Law Educator membership, whose membership fee is $125.
Membership is based on a full calendar year. SLA also says that a portion of the annual membership fee cannot be prorated into the next year.
Thus, becoming an SLA member is advantageous for lawyers, new ones and experts alike.
Sport Law is a team of experts from different backgrounds and professions, who provide a wide range of services to athletes and sports leaders. Not a sports lawyers' association per se, their team is composed of sports lawyers, coaches, financial managers, and organizational experts.
They can help sport leaders and stakeholders in sports organizations in many aspects of sports—whether it be legal or organizational. As such, Sport Law is another organization where sports lawyers can get resources and assistance in many areas of a sports organization’s management.
According to their website, Sport Law provides services in the following aspects of sports management and law:
Leadership Coaching and Human Relations: through coaching and workshops, Sport Law assists leaders of sports organizations in their leadership journey “to create safe, welcoming and thriving environments;” these are done through updated HR policies, employment standards, conflict resolution, among other organizational needs
Legal Services: with clients limited to national, provincial and territorial sports organizations, and sport clubs, Sport Law helps them become “legally sound and ethically driven” by providing various legal services (e.g., dispute resolution, giving legal opinions, drafting policies according to law, etc.)
Governance and Risk Management Solutions: partly related to corporate governance, Sport Law gives services that can help sports organizations address governance challenges through staff and board member education and risks mitigation
Strategic Planning and Financial Solutions: through Sport Law’s customized methodology, which may involve organizational restructuring, strategic planning designing, among others, they can help organizations have “clearly developed and thoroughly researched long-term strategies”
Communications and Crisis Management: by identifying gaps in the organization, Sport Law can assist in developing communications and social media strategies that can help them resolve communication challenges as they come
Sport Safety and Culture Initiatives: for organizations to become an inclusive safe space, both culturally and psychologically, Sport Law guides them in fostering a culture of belonging through workshops and other methods
In summary, Sport Law is a sports lawyer's association that helps another organization in many aspects of management.
AthletesCAN – Sport Solution Clinic
Although not really a sports lawyers' association where sports lawyers can join, AthletesCAN’s Sport Solution Clinic is another industry body that can help lawyers in this field. Established in collaboration with the Faculty of Law of Western University, Sport Solution helps provide legal services for member-athletes of AthletesCAN.
As the association of athletes from Canada’s national teams, AthletesCAN handles several legal issues for its athletes . To help these athletes avoid legal conflicts and resolve them as they arise, AthletesCAN and Western University law created Sport Solution.
AthletesCAN members who bring their cases to Sport Solution are free of charge. The clinic’s legal services include:
The clinic says that if the athlete’s issue is beyond their scope, they can easily refer them to a proper legal counsel.
The Sport Solution Clinic’s current supervising lawyer is Amanda Fowler; listen to her interview in one of our CL Talk podcasts here:
You can also find this episode on our CL Talk podcast homepage. This series of podcasts features different lawyers and key persons in the legal space.
Each law society has its own sports-related program, which may be adjunct with media and entertainment law, that sports lawyers may join into. Events may also be offered by these law societies that are related to sports law.
This is similar to what law organizations, such as the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), offer its lawyer-members. While these are not membership-oriented sports lawyers' associations, these are still good sources of legal assistance and professional resources for sports lawyers.
The CBA offers specialty groups or sections where members can participate in professional development and advocacy work. Apart from this, members can join in programs that are related to sports law whenever they’re interested.
For instance, the Entertainment, Media & Communications Law Program of the Ontario Bar Association (OBA) participates in OBA’s annual Ontario Legal Conference. Here, the “current and pressing substantive legal and practical issues in sports law” are discussed by industry experts. This is in addition to opportunities for networking among sports lawyers and to lawyers whose expertise is in other fields.
Recorded videos, either of online or in-person events, that are about sports law may also be purchased from the CBA’s website.
Law students have their own opportunities to engage in sports law and other related areas, such as entertainment and media law, through their law school’s organizations. Whenever they’re fixed on becoming a sports lawyer someday, these student-led organizations are great forums to learn more about sports law.
Below are examples of Canadian law schools which have their own organizations related to sports law:
Other than social events for networking and collaboration, students may also chance upon opportunities for future mentorships in these organization’s activities.
Sports and law go hand in hand, and in Canada, sports lawyers' associations are one of the teams that help sports lawyers and other professionals in this field. Whether it may be for professional growth or legal aid to cases they handle, sports lawyers can turn to these associations for mutual support.
After all, sports law isn’t just about winning the game, but ensuring that the playing field is fair, everyone is safe and healthy, and all legalities are followed.
For more information on sports lawyers' associations and resources for sports lawyers, check out our practice area page on Legal Education.
