The first football ABS?
updated on 26 July 2012
Norwich-based firm Leathes Prior is planning the first football-related alternative business structure (ABS). The firm has turned its sports law practice into a football agency called 'Full Contact' - the latest of 14 separately branded agencies established by Leathes Prior to provide different, specialised services.
Former professional sportsmen Luke Sutton and Paul McVeigh have been recruited as consultants, while another ex-footballer, Lee Payne (now a sports agent), has also been brought on board. As reported in Legal Futures, the agency’s chairman is Will Buckley, a former sports journalist and barrister who has returned to the legal sector. England star James Anderson is a client of the agency along with several other cricketers, while the British Horseracing Authority and the Caterham Formula One team also use Full Contact for legal services.
Leathes Prior partner Dan Chapman, head of Full Contact, said that the firm had no immediate plans to become an ABS, but would consider its options in the future. He added that Leathes Prior would continue its policy of creating separately branded businesses in order to expand without losing its local client base: "We realised a while back that our days were numbered as a traditional law firm if we did not expand into innovative, new areas."
