Harbottle & Lewis awarded TMT Team of the Year at Legal Business Awards

The Harbottle & Lewis Sports and Sponsorship Group have won the 'TMT Team of the Year' award at the prestigious Legal Business Awards ceremony held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Thursday February 9th. The award is much deserved recognition for the Group and tops off a phenomenal year in relation to its involvement with numerous high profile sports sponsorship deals.

The Group advised on many of last year's largest and most complex transactions including: the negotiation of Samsung's £50 million shirt sponsorship deal with Chelsea Football Club; Philip Morris's renewal of its deal with the Ferrari Formula One team; Vodafone's sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League, the McLaren Mercedes Formula One team and the England Cricket Team; and Diageo's sponsorship of English rugby's pre-eminent league, now called the Guinness Premiership.

These deals not only involved traditional sponsorship issues, but also included rights across online and mobile platforms. The importance of these deals, together with the cutting edge technology and legal issues involved in exploiting rights through the use of new media, supported our claim that our Sports and Sponsorship Group should be recognised in this year's Legal Business TMT Awards.

Bob Mitchell, head of the firm's Sports group, was delighted to receive the award, "We are thrilled to have won such a prestigious award. This is well deserved recognition for the entire team who have all played a significant role in the work over the last year. It is always very satisfying to be recognised, particularly when the award is made by the legal press and is in competition with some of the leading firms in the country. The profile and reputation of the firm's Sports and Sponsorship Group has been increasing over the years and this is further evidence of our pedigree in these areas. We have some tremendous clients with whom we have developed excellent relationships and who are very active in promoting their brands through sponsorship. The award is yet further demonstration of both the Group's standing in the sport and sponsorship sectors and on a wider scale the firm's pre-eminence in the media and entertainment industries".

For further information, please contact Paul Gower on 0207 667 5000 or e-mail paul.gower@harbottle.com

Note for Editors

Harbottle & Lewis LLP provides specialist advice to the media and entertainment industries and is consistently recognised as a leading firm in these areas by independent sources. It continues to provide a complete range of commercial legal advice to its clients on corporate, technology, litigation, insolvency, intellectual property, regulatory, defamation, property, employment and immigration, finance and tax issues.

The firm's work encompasses all areas of the communications, media and entertainment industries including film, television, broadcasting, sport, music, publishing, fashion, advertising and theatre. The continuing development of new technologies in both media and entertainment has led to the creation and growth of complementary practices in areas such as new media, interactive entertainment and mobile telephony which have become highly successful.

Harbottle & Lewis Sports group

This media-focused firm is rated as "a strong player, it has reaped the rewards of its clear focus." Broadcasting, sponsorship and IP remain the group's biggest strength, but it has also acted on the staging of sporting events, including negotiating player's agreements. Chambers & Partners, 2006.

A "diligent and professional" team at Harbottle & Lewis LLP handles matters for governing bodies, clubs and individual sports persons. Legal 500, 2005.

In reality, sports law is the application of many different strands of legal knowledge and expertise to unique problems faced by those operating in the sports industry. We realise that for rights owners and those wishing to exploit such rights to be given meaningful and constructive legal advice, that advice must be given by lawyers who fully understand the sports industry from both a legal and commercial perspective.
We have developed a sports group which embraces some of our strongest legal disciplines such as sponsorship, endorsement, broadcasting, intellectual property, commercial, media and new media law.

Whilst we consider that our strength is being able to offer our sports-related clients an all-round legal service, our niche areas in which we have recognised and proven expertise are particularly sponsorship, endorsement, merchandising, licensing, venue and broadcasting issues.

The Sports Group has been consistently recommended as one of the leading sports practices in the country as evidenced by successive editions of the Legal 500 and Chambers directories on the legal profession. We believe that what marks us out is our knowledge of and interest in the sports industry, combined with the practical and commercial application of our strong legal skills to the issues we are asked to advise upon.

As well as the recent work listed below and in the dedicated recent work section, we also continue to regularly advise our long-standing clients, such as International Sportsworld Communicators Limited/World Rally Championship, the rugby clubs - London Wasps and London Irish, the Ladies European Tour, the PGA European Tour, Solheim Cup, Superset Tennis and Hennessy Sports' stable of boxers.

Harbottle & Lewis Sponsorship group

The Sponsorship Group provides specialist advice to many different clients in the sports, media and entertainment industries on issues arising from sponsorship. We believe that what marks us out is our knowledge of and interest in the sponsorship industry, combined with our legal skills. Our work includes acting for both sponsors and rights owners (such as events and teams) as well as advising on sales promotions, merchandising and marketing issues.

We often get involved with either the rights owner or the sponsor at the stage of designing and negotiating the sponsorship package based on our knowledge of the sponsorship market. This commercial input at the beginning of the process enables us to translate that in a manageable form into a sensible and user-friendly sponsorship agreement. The essence of a successful sponsorship relationship is for the sponsor to know what they can expect and for the rights owner what they are required to deliver. It is essential to get this right at the contract stage.

The true art of drafting and negotiating a sponsorship agreement is to know what to look for from both a legal and also from a practical commercial perspective. Further, our knowledge of the sponsorship industry enables us to offer practical advice on additional rights and benefits that a sponsor should be looking for from a sponsorship relationship.

Further information about the firm and the sponsorship practice group can be found at www.harbottle.com

Issued by: Paul Gower, Marketing Co-ordinator
E-mail: paul.gower@harbottle.com

Ends/17-Feb-06