Services > Disputes Resolution
Disputes Resolution
Are disputes taking up too much time and creating difficulties within your organisation? The NI Sports Forum may be in a position to provide support.
A disproportionate amount of time is spent by governing bodies dealing with disputes, often over many years. The Northern Ireland Sports Forum is committed to working with member organisation to prevent disputes from occurring by ensuring appropriate processes and policies are in place to mitigate against future disputes taking place.
The competitive nature of sport does mean that disputes will take place from time to time. NI Sports Forum members can avail of a Disputes Resolution Service and should contact NI Sports Forum Executive Manager Richard Honeyford (richard.honeyford@nisf.net) for further details of the service.
Sports Law Conference
The Northern Ireland Sports Forum has worked for many years to provide training, guidance and advice to members and the wider sporting sector in the area of disputes resolution. We are a proud partner of the annual Sports Law Conference alongside the Law Society of Northern Ireland.
Originally the idea of Lisburn Solicitor and former rugby player Keith McGarry, Judge Ken Nixon, and Omagh solicitor and a former leading Tyrone GAA player and now joint senior football manager Feargal Logan, the Sports Law Conference has been the natural reaction to an increasing synergy between sport and law between the legal, medical and sporting professions.
Over the years the conference has examined important sports law-related themes including business and sport, disciplinary processes featuring mediation and arbitration, sporting injury risks, equality and good governance as well as issues in the news including the impact of concussion injuries in sport.
The popularity of the conference has been reflected not only in the increasing number of attendees drawn from the legal profession, governing bodies of sport and their clubs but the calibre of speakers such as former Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill, Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson, Lady Mary Peters, Paddy Wallace, Michael McKillop alongside legal experts such as Richard Harry of Sports Resolutions UK, Jonny Madill and Andrew Nixon of Sheridans Sport, Professor Jack Anderson of Melbourne Law School and Michael Beloff QC.
