Ilias Bantekas is Professor of Transnational Law at Hamad bin Khalifa University (a member of Qatar Foundation) and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. He has advised in the fields of sports law, international law and human rights as part of his professional practice and served as arbitrator in commercial disputes, as well as before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). He has held full- and part-time academic positions at Brunel, Westminster, Harvard, Miami, Lausanne, London and elsewhere. He was the founder and CEO of Doha High Performance Tennis Academy, the only academy in the Gulf catering for professionally oriented tennis players. He was the joint winner in 2024 of the UNDP/ROLACC excellence award on safeguarding sport from corruption. He has written over 250 peer-reviewed articles and twenty-two books, fourteen of which with Oxford and Cambridge University Press, including: Introduction to International Arbitration (Cambridge University Press, 2015); Cambridge Companion to Business and Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2021 with M. A. Stein); International Human Rights Law and Practice, 4th edn (Cambridge University Press, 2023, with L. Oette); International Law, 5th edn (Oxford University Press, 2022, with E. Papastavridis); Commentary on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (Cambridge University Press, 2020, with P. Ortolani et al.); and Commentary on the Court of Arbitration for Sport Arbitration Code (under review with Cambridge University Press, 2026, with M. Diaconu and Z. Calo).

Marko Begović is Associate Professor of Sport History and Sport Management at Molde University College in Norway. He is Senior Lecturer of Sport Law, Policy and Politics at the Faculty of Sport in Belgrade, Guest Lecturer of the Centre for Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies at the University of Montenegro, Program Director of the Sports Diplomacy Program at the Hungarian University of Sports Sciences and member of the UNESCO Chair on Governance and Social Responsibility in Sport. In parallel, Begović is acting as an associated academic at the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies at the German Sport University, and a member of the UNESCO Task Force on Anti-Doping. Between 2021 and 2022, he served as Director in charge of sport and youth affairs with the Government of Montenegro and was appointed as Program Director for the Master of Sport Management at the American University in the Emirates. He has written extensively on sports law, history, sport policy and politics. He was a member of the Governing Bureau for Sport and task force on good governance and Gender Equality Rapporteur at the Council of Europe. His extensive experience in sport politics and research impacted work on Council of Europe conventions and resolutions and the development of sports policies across Europe. Currently, combining academic, policy, legal and political knowledge and experience, he serves as Senior Policy Advisor for a number of sports organizations across the globe. He is a former professional tennis player and member of the national teams of Yugoslavia, and the Davis Cup team of Montenegro.

Ross Brown is a partner in the London office of the leading boutique sports law firm, Onside Law. He is particularly known for his regulatory dispute experience through acting for governing bodies, sports teams and individuals across various areas, including anti-corruption, anti-doping, contractual, disciplinary, safeguarding and selection disputes. He also regularly acts as lead advocate for his clients in their disputes. Among others, Ross has acted for (1) World Rugby on its anti-doping caseload, including at CAS, (2) the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) in over sixty proceedings under the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program, including before the CAS on several occasions, as well as the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP), and (3) the England and Wales Cricket Board in relation to its regulatory investigations involving racism in cricket, its anti-doping caseload before the National Anti-Doping Panel and various disciplinary and safeguarding proceedings. Ross is also a qualified solicitor advocate and sits on the Sport Resolutions National Panel, the Sport Resolutions pro bono panel and the England Boxing National Disciplinary Panel.

William Bull is Assistant Professor of Private Law at Maastricht University (UM) and a member of the Maastricht European Private Law Institute. Prior to obtaining his doctorate degree, he also worked as a researcher for the European Institute of Public Administration in Luxembourg. Since defending his PhD, he has conducted research into private and public-private aspects of sports law. His most recent articles have focused on sports agents and especially the regulation of access to and conduct of the profession of football intermediary, both from a comparative perspective and in the light of law and economics theory – the latter having been published in the International Sports Law Journal. In addition, he has completed a joint research project on the application of anti-money laundering legislation to the professional football sector (including football agents) in Belgium in the context of the UEFA Research Grant Programme, and subsequently co-authored a book on the subject, entitled Professional Football and Anti-Money Laundering (Intersentia, 2022). He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport and has taught for a number of years on UM’s elective course on Introduction to Sport and Law, in collaboration with the Asser Institute’s International Sports Law Centre.

Miguel Crespo is the Head of Participation and Education of the Development Department at the International Tennis Federation. In this capacity, he oversees education and participation programs, organizes courses and conferences, and drives and conducts research on a variety of topics in close cooperation with organizations such as the National and Regional Tennis Federations, Olympic Solidarity from the International Olympic Committee, or Higher Education institutions. Prior to this, Miguel was the Coach Education Director for the Royal Spanish Federation (RFET), and he was also captain of Spain’s junior national teams. He is a former professor in various universities such as Universidad Politécnica de València, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche and Universitat de València. He holds three PhDs, in Law (morality clauses in endorsement contracts), Psychology (leadership in tennis) and Business and Administration (innovation strategies of sports organizations), and is certified as a National Professor in Tennis by the RFET. He has written extensively on tennis-related law and sport science topics, including more than 100 articles, thirty book chapters and twenty books. He is the co-editor of the journal ITF Coaching & Sport Science Review, a journal published for over thirty years which covers many topics related to sport science applied to tennis, and he is also on the editorial board of the International Journal of Sports Sciences & Coaching. He is also the Treasurer of the International Council for Coach Excellence.

Lily Elliott is Senior Associate at Onside Law in the litigation and regulatory department. She advises governing bodies, clubs, teams and commercial organizations both nationally and internationally on contentious matters. Her practice primarily involves advising clients on sports regulatory proceedings and investigations, in particular in relation to disciplinary proceedings with cases focusing on misconduct, anti-doping and anti-corruption. She also has extensive experience advising governing bodies on the drafting and implementation of regulations, including spending a year with the England and Wales Cricket Board in their Regulatory Team. Alongside her regulatory practice, Lily also advises clients on High Court litigation, primarily on commercial matters. Prior to Onside Law, Lily trained and qualified at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, where she worked on High Court litigation and in particular mass litigation, consumer actions and product liability disputes. Lily studied classics at Cambridge University for her undergraduate degree before converting to law.

Désirée Fields is a Legal Director in the London office of international law firm Pinsent Masons, specializing in intellectual property. Her practice focuses on worldwide trademark and design portfolio management, international prosecution and clearance, enforcement, exploitation and commercialization of trademarks and designs. She has been involved in complex multi-jurisdictional trademark oppositions and litigation and has experience with coordinating trademark projects on a global basis. Dual-qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales and as an attorney-at-law in New York, she has a deep understanding of multi-jurisdictional matters. Désirée has worked with clients across a diverse range of sectors, including luxury and consumer brands, food and beverages, media, technology and communications, sports, entertainment, hospitality and leisure. Her particular focus on the tennis industry is a result of her lifelong interest in the sport in which she has become widely regarded for her extensive knowledge and insight. She is also a leader in Pinsent Masons’ sports practice and heads up the tennis sub-sector initiative and manages the firm’s relationship with the Tennis Industry Association UK. Désirée is a Trustee of Middlesex Tennis having joined the board in October 2023 and has been a participant in the Lawn Tennis Association’s Inspire Leadership Programme for Women Volunteers in Tennis in 2024/25. Désirée has authored numerous articles for various intellectual property and other legal publications (including in respect of brand protection in the tennis industry) and has been consistently recognized by leading legal directories and publications. She has been named as a top trademark professional for trademark prosecution and strategy by World Trademark Review’s WTR 1000 (2017–25) and recommended for trademark and brand protection work in the Legal 500 (2018–25). Désirée’s outstanding contributions to The Trademark Reporter Committee of the International Trade Mark Association since 2018 have resulted in her elevation to Senior Editor for 2023. She is the Co-Subcommittee Chair of the Content Solicitation and Development Subcommittee. Désirée is also an editor of the UK Trade Mark Handbook.

Ben Livings has held academic positions at universities in the United Kingdom, France and Australia. He is currently Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Evidence in Justice and Society at the University of South Australia. Ben received his doctorate from the University of Warwick. His thesis examined the way in which participant violence in sport is regulated and permitted according to a mixture of sports regulation and the law. He continues to be interested in the intersection between law and regulation in sports governance and administration. Ben realized early in life that he would never be a proficient tennis player, but he likes to watch it anyway.

Katarina Pijetlovic, LLM, LLLic, LLD, is Professor of EU Competition and Sports Law at Católica University of Portugal, Global School of Law in Lisbon. Previously, she served as Associate Professor at Manchester Law School, a sports law module leader at Liverpool University Football Industries MBA Programme and a visiting scholar at ISDE Global Sports Law Master Programme in New York, among others. She is the sole author of EU Sports Law and Breakaway Leagues in Football (Springer, 2015). In 2021, during its incorporation process, she was a member of the advisory board of the Professional Tennis Players Association set up by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil. She is the co-founder and former General Secretary of the Union of European Clubs in football. One of her professional passions is protecting the fundamental rights of athletes, non-elite clubs and national teams in the sports ecosystem.

Brendan Schwab, LLB, MBA, is an Australian lawyer and architect of the global and Australian player association movements, having co-founded and led the World Players Association, FIFPRO Asia/Oceania, the Australian Athletes’ Alliance and Professional Footballers Australia. Over a thirty-year career, he has represented and worked with the strongest player associations in the world, as well as multiple teams and athletes, including Australia’s Socceroos and Matildas. Brendan has written extensively on global sport’s responsibility to protect, respect and fulfill human rights. He was the principal author of the landmark Universal Declaration of Player Rights and has had articles published in the Maryland Journal of International Law, the International Sports Law Journal, the Journal on the Legal Aspects of Sport, Sweet & Maxwell’s International Sports Law Review and various other publications and media outlets, including Law in Sport.

Jamie Singer is an English Qualified solicitor and a founding partner of Onside Law. He qualified as a solicitor into the Commercial department at Clifford Chance in 1998 before joining International Management Group in 2001 as principal legal advisor to IMG’s tennis and sponsorship divisions. With two colleagues, he launched Onside Law in 2005. Jamie has been advising on high-profile commercial, intellectual property, governance and regulatory matters across the sports and entertainment industries for twenty-five years. His commercial practice includes sponsorship, media rights, licensing, hosting, image rights and talent management. His regulatory practice focuses, in particular, on integrity and match-fixing cases. He regularly speaks at conferences, writes articles and appears on television as a sports law expert and is recommended as a leading sports law practitioner in all the independent legal directories. He co-authored the ‘Sponsorship and Commercial Rights’ chapter of the textbook Football and the Law edited by Nick de Marco KC, and is a Guest Lecturer on the Sports Law Masters at ISDE in Barcelona and on De Montfort University’s Sports Law Diploma. He is also the global editor of Chambers Sports Law Review.