Jason Smith

Director of Sports Business and Legal Affairs

Jason is a Director of Sports Business and Legal Affairs in our employment team.

A highly experienced commercial lawyer, Jason advises on all areas of sports law with a focus on commercial rights and event organisation.

He has over 27 years’ experience in advising international federations and national governing bodies, including Commonwealth Sport (formerly Commonwealth Games Federation), European Aquatics (formerly LEN), UCI, World Aquatics (formerly FINA), Aquatics GB, British Cycling, British Judo, Commonwealth Games England, Paddle UK and the South African Football Premier League.

Jason has supported the hosting and staging of events across all continents, including negotiating host city arrangements (including site visits) for various World Aquatics’ World Championships.

He has advised on sponsorship and merchandising deals worth over £1.5bn for clients such as FINA, Manchester United and British Cycling, involving brands like adidas, Anheuser-Busch, AON, Gatorade, Nike, Omega, Pepsi, Sky, Vodafone and Yakult.

He also works on host broadcasting/production and international licensing agreements, including advising International Federations on agreements with various international broadcasters. This has included advising World Aquatics on agreements with EBU (Europe), RAI (Italy), WCSN (U.S.A), Channel 9 (Australia), CCTV (China), TV Asahi (Japan), Globo (Brazil) and Al Jazeera (Middle East and North Africa). He also led our advice to the UCI (the world governing body for cycling) on its agreement with the Olympic International Committee for the UCI’s involvement in the new global media broadcasting platform the Olympic Channel launched by the IOC.

A pre-eminent expert in his field and recognised as a ‘Recommended Lawyer’ by The Legal 500 2025, Jason also lectures in Switzerland on the FIFA International Masters Degree in Management, Law and the Humanities of Sport.

Jason joined us in 2006 and is based in our Manchester office.