All of the major players in the sports industry around the world—the overarching leagues, the teams and clubs, and professional athletes—must abide by employment and workplace relations laws just like all other commercial enterprises. However, due to accelerating market complexity and regulations, it is common to encounter sporting-specific rules that do not fit neatly within standard labor laws. Legal support from lawyers who have real, proven experience in the commercial, cultural, political, and regulatory aspects of the sporting industry is a necessity.
Our sports clients not only rely on us to help with their standard day-to-day employment issues; we also serve as a trusted advisor for tailored solutions unique to the sporting industry. We have experience helping clients with high-stakes or first-of-their-kind matters, such as assisting with transgender participation policies, addressing gender equity issues in payment, and maneuvering the complications COVID-19 has created for the sports industry and its workforce across the globe. We also have experience drafting player and umpire contracts, negotiating collective agreements, and advising on grievance issues.
The seasonal nature of sports leads to complicated labor and employment issues relating to the classification of workers as casual employees, contractors, or volunteers. Our lawyers are adept at handling these complex contracts and labor considerations. We help teams and players when fines and penalties are imposed, and are poised to assist with antitrust exemptions relating to player unions.
Our team members are known as leading practitioners in this space, particularly in the Australian market. As an example of our commitment to client service, we operate a hotline service for a national sporting organization in Australia, which all clubs use to proactively seek out employment and safety advice to manage their employment law issues. This ensures a consistent industry approach for the code. Our Labor, Employment, and Workplace Safety team is dedicated to providing practical solutions to address the unique legal needs of our clients in the sports space.
This edition of The Essentials coincides with the close of California’s 2025 legislative session and summarizes the most significant employment-related bills enacted this year. We have highlighted key provisions of the new laws taking effect in 2026 and one related to the use of artificial intelligence that took effect in October 2025.
Congress created a new framework around payment stablecoins but has done more than regulate a digital asset class—it has quietly set in motion a potential transformation of the regulation of core payment systems.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes major changes to the Internal Revenue Code’s clean energy tax provisions, particularly to the provisions that were extended, expanded, and established as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced on 29 September 2025, the H–1B and L–1 Visa Reform Act of 2025, a bipartisan proposal to overhaul two of the most widely used employment-based visa programs in the United States.
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