Sports attorney attorney vs. sports agent?

A clarification of French law[1]  on the role of attorneys for athletes is needed today. Faced with this observation, the Association of Sports Lawyers (AADS) but also theAssociation of Sporting Attorneys (ADAMS) and the commission for new professions of the Paris Bar Association will soon submit to public authorities, professional orders, federal authorities and sports organizations, their proposals in order to change the regulations allowing lawyers to continue to practice their duties of attorneys for athletes[2] alongside sports agents.

We are of the opinion that the professions of sports agent and attorney representing sportspeople are different and complementary; lawyers can and should work alongside sports agents. Indeed, after or concomitantly with the mediation transaction, a commercial activity which falls within the mission of the sports agent (such as the placement of a professional football player for example in a sports club), the attorney lawyer du athlete assists the athlete in the negotiation and conclusion of his employment / transfer or image contracts.

However, Law No. 2011-331 of March 28, 2011 on the modernization of the judicial or legal professions and certain regulated professions is a source of ambiguity and remains interpreted differently according to the actors of the sports world so that, for some, the missions of attorney attorney for athletes and sports agents can be confused in some cases.

The proposal or the bill for sport expected for 2020 could be the legislative vehicle that could clarify the missions and the role of the sports lawyer. Let us recall that the regulation of agents with vocation to evolve also at the level of international football; in fact, in line with the recommendations relating to agent commissions and the limitation of player loans, adopted by the Football Actors Commission of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) on September 25, 2019, FIFA published on January 22, 2020 on his website, a reform program related to the regulation of agents.

In the meantime, let us remember the following rules that apply to the lawyer representing athletes:

• La Act of March 28 2011 (section 4)[3] inserted article 6 ter to Law n ° 71-1130 of December 31, 1971, which now provides in § 1: " Lawyers may, within the framework of their own regulations, represent, as an agent, one of the parties interested in the conclusion of one of the contracts mentioned in the first paragraph of article L. 222-7. of the Sports Code».

The lawyer is therefore expressly authorized to be the agent of a player, a coach or a sports club, to represent him and to negotiate on his behalf with a view to the conclusion " a contract either relating to the paid exercise of a sports or training activity, or which provides for the conclusion of an employment contract for the purpose of the paid exercise of a sports or training activity "(Article L.222-7 Sports Code).

This activity is defined as being the representation, as agent and within the framework of the regulations of the legal profession, of a player or a club on the occasion of the conclusion of an employment contract and / or transfer;

• Lawyers are exempt from having a sports agent license;
• Lawyers must communicate the contracts mentioned in the first paragraph of article 222-7 of the Sport Code, as well as the mandate contract, to delegated federations or professional leagues;
• Sports federations have the obligation to inform the president of the bar to which the lawyer is registered if they find that the latter has disregarded the obligations relating to the content and communication of these contracts and of the mandate he has received ( article L. 222-19-1 of the Sports Code created by article 4 of the Law of March 28, 2011);
• The President of the Bar may initiate disciplinary proceedings under the conditions provided for by the texts governing the profession of lawyers (article L. 222-19-1 of the Sports Code);
• Each competent delegated federation publishes the list of sports agents authorized to practice in its discipline as well as the sanctions imposed in application of article L. 222-19 of the Sports Code against agents, licensees and associations and companies. affiliates;
• Double authorization is prohibited;
• The mandate given to the representative lawyer must specify the amount of his fees, which may not exceed 10% of the amount of the contract signed by the athlete or the trainer referred to in article L.222-7 of the Sports Code and this , as the licensed sports agent;
• When, for the conclusion of such a contract, several lawyers intervene or a lawyer intervenes with the assistance of a sports agent, the total amount of their remuneration may not exceed 10% of the amount of this contract (article 4 of the Law of March 28, 2011);
• The lawyer acting as a sports representative can only be remunerated by his client (article 4 of the Law of March 28, 2011);
• Lawyers are prohibited from sharing a fee in any form with natural or legal persons who are not lawyers (article 21.3.6.1. Of the National Internal Regulations (RIN) of the legal profession);
• A lawyer is prohibited from acting as a nominee and carrying out brokerage transactions, any activity of a commercial nature being incompatible with the exercise of the profession (article 6.2. Of the National Internal Regulations (RIN) of the profession of lawyer;
• Except on an ancillary basis, the profession of lawyer is incompatible with all activities of a commercial nature, whether carried out directly or through an intermediary (article 6.2. Of the National Internal Regulations (RIN) of the profession of lawyer);
• The attorneys representing athletes remain subject to all the ethical rules and essential principles of the legal profession, namely, " dignity, conscience, independence, probity and humanity », And the disciplinary checks of their orders.

The firm's sports law department, headed by Jean-Baptiste Guillot Partner and Virginie Molho Counsel, supports our clients in the sports industry on a daily basis.

Jean-Baptiste Guillot is a member of the Association of Sports Lawyers.