Tom Barnard
Partner
Sport
Sport moves fast, and so do the risks, opportunities, and decisions that shape your success. Whether you’re an athlete, club, rights holder, or governing body, you need legal advice grounded in the realities of sport and driven by commercial focus.
Sport sector services
We work with you across elite and grassroots sport, helping you make confident calls on contracts, disputes, finance, image rights, and media strategy.
Our lawyers have worked inside clubs, agencies, and regulatory bodies, so they understand the pressure behind every move and the stakes behind every deal.
From player welfare to broadcasting rights, we will support you with pace, discretion, and clarity as a long-term partner who knows the game inside out.
We can support with:
- Commercial contracts, sponsorship, and partnership agreements
- Disciplinary issues, complaints, and dispute resolution
- Tax, image rights, and personal wealth protection
- Brand, digital reputation, and intellectual property
- Governance, incorporation, and restructuring
- Employment, immigration, and injury risk management
- ESG strategy, mental health, and athlete welfare.
You will also access advice from real estate, private client, and regulatory specialists, keeping your interests fully aligned, confidential, and focused on your goals.
Speak to a Legal Partner
Our team support you to navigate complexity, seize opportunity and move forward with legal clarity.
Contact our Specialists
Get strategic advice from a team that knows how to protect and grow your business. Please complete our enquiry form and one of our experts will contact you by the next working day.
Alternatively, you can call us now.
Our opening hours are Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm (Excluding Public Holidays).
0370 1500 100
Making an enquiry
We have several ways you can contact us, either by completing our online contact form, by phone, or using our live chat. If you start your journey online, here are the first steps to working together.
Complete our online formWe need a few details to understand your situation and the kind of support you need.
We’ll contact you by phoneOn the call our experts will ask you a few more questions to make sure we connect you with the right legal advice from our team.
We arrange a full appointmentYour next step is an in-depth appointment with a specialist solicitor to discuss how we could advise you.
Case Study - Advising England cricketer on image rights structure
We advised an England cricketer on an HMRC tax enquiry about their image rights structure, which needs to follow complex tax regulations.
Our tax specialists, led by Michael Taylor, found his former accountant and agent had set up the original image rights scheme incorrectly.
We successfully dealt with the tax enquiry while our commercial litigation team made a claim against the agents and accountants responsible. We successfully recovered substantial damages for our client.
To avoid issues in future, our commercial team fixed the problematic image rights structure and we took over the tax compliance work for both the client and his image rights company.
Our client was pleased with the result and considers Michael Taylor’s team as one of his ‘trusted advisors’. He has also referred other cricketers to us who had similar issues.
Michael said, "Image Rights structures for high-profile individuals need to be carefully drafted. Failure to do so can result in them failing and incurring unnecessary tax charges and HMRC penalties.
The breadth of expertise across IM meant we were able to deal with and resolve all of the issues for this client. This case is a prime example of the benefit to clients of having the necessary legal, tax and accountancy knowledge in house."
Our commitment to you
Our experts always start by listening, so we understand what matters most from day one.- 01Clear legal guidance
You will always get straightforward, honest advice, with regular updates to keep you clear on the way forward.
- 02Specialist knowledge
A wide-ranging team of trusted specialists who understand what it takes to protect your future, your family or your business.
- 03Your needs first
Whether you’re navigating complex personal situations or business decisions, we take the time to understand your world and what’s at stake.
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