meet the team
Contact details
Position:
Partner and Head of Sport, entertainment and media
Phone: +(44) 0161 234 8806
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: Twitter and LinkedIn
Carol Couse
Carol heads our Sports Entertainment & Media Practice and has previously worked in-house at Manchester United and in an international sports agency.
As a fluent Spanish speaker, Carol frequently advises top athletes, agents, and clubs in Spain and Latin America. Carol's an accredited commercial and civil mediator, a FIFA mediator , is General Secretary of the AIAF (the international association of football lawyers) and co-chair of the IBA Sports Arbitration Sub-Committee.
Carol is regularly invited to lecture at universities and conferences all over the world, publishes authoritative articles on a wide variety of sport-related matters, and often provides comments and analysis on legal issues in sport for the BBC, the Times, the Guardian, the New York Times, Sky Sports, ESPN, FourFourTwo, and others.
Her work includes:
Advising footballers in disciplinary proceedings relating to on-field matters before The FA and UEFA
Acting on behalf of football clubs, players, and intermediaries on domestic and international transfers
Advising professional football leagues, clubs, players, managers, and intermediaries on football regulatory matters (player transfers, player contracts, immigration and work permit requirements)
Advising high-profile footballers on image rights deals
Acting on behalf of football clubs, players, managers, and intermediaries before the Premier League, The FA, UEFA, FIFA, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport
Advising sports and other rights holders on commercial matters, including sponsorship, endorsements, event organisation (including tours).
Contact details
Position: Partner
Phone: +(44) 0161 234 8810
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: Twitter and LinkedIn
Mark Hovell
Over the past twenty years, Mark has advised hundreds of athletes on their sporting contracts, image rights, and endorsement deals. As a noted insolvency expert, he has also advised nearly sixty football and rugby clubs in insolvencies and restructurings.
He is also an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where he has been selected to hear over two hundred cases. As a result of his experience and reputation as an arbitrator, he was selected to the CAS ad-hoc committee for the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games. He was also selected as one of twelve arbitrators to the ad-hoc panel for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Mark is also on the UK’s Sports Resolutions tribunal panel and is accredited to the UK’s National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP).
Mark regularly lectures at universities and conferences all over the world, including London, New York, Madrid, Rome, and Timisoara. He is also a trustee of the James Milner Foundation, an editorial board member at LawInSport, the chair of the pro-manchester Sports Industry Group and was previously a non-executive director at the Manchester Football Association.
His work includes:
Acting for players' unions and their members
Acting for football clubs in insolvencies and restructurings
Acting for footballers and clubs on international disputes, including on leading cases involving training compensation, Article 17, and other football-related issues
Successfully defending athletes against doping charges
Advising footballers on cross-border investment deals
Acting on domestic and international transfers, employment contracts, and image rights deals
Working with athletes to establish charitable foundations and with football clubs on establishing community schemes
Contact details
Position: Partner
Phone: +(44) 0121 456 8401
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: LinkedIn
Richard Santy
Richard is a partner in the employment law team and is regularly engaged in sport-related matters.
Richard sits on the Birmingham Law Society Employment Committee, and prior to becoming a lawyer, he was a professional tennis player.
His work includes:
Advising high-profile football players on transfers and image rights
Advising athletes on doping charges
Advising athletes in employment discrimination claims against their clubs
Acting for football clubs on employment matters
Contact details
Position: Partner
Phone: +(44) 020 7648 9269
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: Twitter and LinkedIn
Joanna Grandfield
Joanna is a trained barrister, collaborative lawyer and mediator who heads up our London Family team.
She has advised a range of footballers, rugby players and their partners on a range of family law and children issues. She deals with all areas of private family law work, often with an international dimension but in particular:
pre and post nuptial agreements
divorce and separation
financial claims arising from relationship breakdown
arrangements for children
cohabitation agreements
Contact details
Position: Partner
Phone: +(44) 01223 222 618
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: Twitter and LinkedIn
Chris Belcher
Chris is a partner and the head of the firm's private client practice. He specialises in advising UK and international athletes on their personal tax and wealth planning, often using trusts, companies and foundations to protect wealth for the future.
Chris also competes internationally for Great Britain's age-group duathlon and triathlon teams.
His work includes:
Advising UK and international athletes on personal wealth and tax planning
Advising athletes on establishing trusts, companies and foundations
Advising high-profile Premier League footballers on image rights
Representing athletes before the UK tax tribunal
Contact details
Position: Principal Associate
Phone: +(44) 0121 456 8316
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: Twitter and LinkedIn
Phil Hutchinson
Phil is a commercial litigator with expertise in advising both public and private sector clients across the UK and abroad. He regularly represents high-profile sports individuals, clubs, and organisations, with a particular focus on football.
Having studied and lived in Germany as part of his undergraduate degree, Phil is a fluent German speaker is able to act for clients in German-speaking countries on litigious matters.
Previously, Phil undertook an in-house secondment at the UK's leading luxury automotive manufacturer. This has allowed him to develop significant expertise in the automotive industry.
His work includes:
Representing footballers, intermediaries, clubs, and organisations on a variety of sports disputes
Advising and representing professional footballers and rugby players in doping cases
Advising clients on complex fraud investigation work
Advising clients on high-value breach of contract claims and shareholder disputes
Contact details
Position: Principal Associate
Phone: +(44) 0161 234 8717
Email: s[email protected]
Find me on: LinkedIn
Sarah Attwood
Sarah is a commercial lawyer specialising in advising clients on the drafting and negotiation of commercial contracts.
She completed a six-month secondment at Manchester City Football Club, working within their in-house legal team. She worked on a number of high profile contracts (including player’s contracts and endorsement deals), and, naturally, took advantage of the opportunity to attend most of the matches!
Prior to joining Mills & Reeve, Sarah worked as a commercial lawyer at DLA Piper.
Her work includes:
Advising clients in the sporting industry, on IT contracts, terms and conditions and supply of goods and services contracts.
Advising clients on non-contentious intellectual property matters.
Contact details
Position: Principal Associate
Phone: +(44)(0)20 7648 5269
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: LinkedIn
John Shea
John specialises in commercial litigation and arbitration with a particular focus on the sports sector. His primary focus is on sports related dispute resolution, but he has significant experience of advising clients in the sports sector on a broad range of legal issues including:
Disputes in the civil courts as well as sport specific arbitration tribunals such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the FIFA Football Tribunal;
Regulatory compliance and disciplinary investigations for alleged regulatory breaches and on-field misconduct;
Domestic and international football transfers; and
Football manager and coaching staff appointments.
Contact details
Position: Principal Associate
Phone: +(44)(0)1223 222328
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: LinkedIn
Alastair Cotton
Alastair is an intellectual property and commercial lawyer, with 20 years experience working in the sports and media sectors. Prior to joining Mills & Reeve, he spent the last 10 years working for a media / publishing business and an international sports governing body. He specialises in the protection and commercialisation of media rights and content and on strategic projects, including collaborations, joint ventures and partnerships.
Contact details
Position: Principal Associate
Phone: +(44) (0)121 456 8450
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: LinkedIn
Jameel Mann
Jameel is a specialist employment solicitor, based in the Birmingham office. He has over 15 years’ experience advising on all areas of employment law. He advises clients of various sizes, from start-up businesses to large national companies. He also has specific experience in the Sports and Education sector.
Contact details
Position: Senior Associate (Indian Qualified)
Phone: +(44) (0)161 234 8818
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: Twitter and LinkedIn
Rustam Sethna
Rustam has experience representing players, clubs, unions and agents in both domestic and international disputes. He also advises on regulatory issues in football, among other sports.
Rustam also sits on the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation and is a member of the England Boxing National Disciplinary Panel.
Contact details
Position: Senior Associate
Phone: +(44)(0)121 456 8308
Email: [email protected]
Find me on: LinkedIn
Simon Orriss
Simon is a specialist corporate lawyer based in the Birmingham office. He has extensive experience acting for buyers, sellers, and investors in corporate transactions involving companies in the health, digital, education and travel sectors. Simon also has considerable experience working offshore and has advised large US based financial institutions on their operations in offshore jurisdictions, most prominently the Cayman Islands.