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Sports Law Clinic students have had their latest guidelines “A Coach’s Guide to Safe Surfaces and Equipment” published on the UK Coaching website, the latest development since the website launched in 2022/23 as a collaboration between the University of Sussex and UK Coaching. All legal guidelines on the website have been drawn up by Sports Law Clinic students.

Sports Law Clinic convenor, Dr Neil Partington, Associate Professor in Law, said:

“‘This year’s Sports Law Clinic students have once again produced outstanding resources for practising coaches, at all levels and in all sports, that help clarify, educate and reassure coaches about their legal duties and responsibilities. In collaboration with UK Coaching, these materials are freely available to coaches throughout the UK and beyond. At a time when coaches are increasingly faced with legal challenges, the SLC students - generously and expertly supported by Chris Chapman at UK Coaching and Mike Townley of Moore Law - have excelled when not only producing coach education articles, but also when advising individual clients.  I am absolutely delighted and super-proud of what the Sports Law Clinic has achieved over the last 3 years.”

The Sports Law Clinic is the first of its kind focusing on providing legal advice for sports coaches, helping them to deal with a range of legal issues encountered at both amateur and professional level for all sports.

Sport in the UK relies heavily on volunteer sports coaches who are often untrained and unqualified.  Given the emerging intersection between sports coaching and the law - and as revealed by recent research commissioned by UK Coaching’s Duty to Care Steering Group in 2021 - sports coaches report a lack of support and advice when faced with legal issues. Addressing that issue, the Sussex Sports Law Clinic advises coaches on a range of legal issues including civil (eg. duty of care) and criminal law disputes, safeguarding, employment law, commercial contracts, charities governance, and disputes with national sports organisations.  Sports Law Clinic students undertake research tasks in conjunction with UK Coaching to develop bespoke content and materials for coaching education, training and support and to raise awareness of relevant legal complexities. 

As well as providing a crucial service to coaches nationally, the Sports Law Clinic offers Sussex law students the opportunity to develop and exercise transferrable inter-personal and client interviewing skills whilst identifying and developing resources to proactively support coaches to better understand their legal responsibilities.

Laura McGivern, a Sports Law Clinic student, said:

 “I had the amazing opportunity of being part of the Sports Law Clinic this academic year and to work with UK Coaching on two different projects. The first was producing an article entitled 'A Coach’s Guide to Safe Surfaces and Equipment’ informing coaches of the knowledge and skills required when undertaking surface area and equipment inspections to avoid being liable for the participants injuries. The second was a bespoke programme my peers and I created which we called 'Student Coach Associate' which will equip students with the correct tools to run and help out in sporting sessions. 

“Producing the article and working on this project was not only an amazing opportunity - to work with UK Coaching and develop my knowledge on Sports law - but they have added something tangible and beneficial to my CV that I hope will help me to get a position in healthcare law or sports law in the future.”

The Sports Law Clinic is supervised by Dr Neil Partington alongside Chris Chapman, Learning Experience Manager at UK Coaching, and a number of legal practitioners with expertise and experience in the field of sports law, including Mike Townley of Brighton-based Moore Law.

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