Sophie Wilkinson

Sophie is an associate at Onside Law who specialises in commercial, IP, IT and data protection work for clients in the sports and media sectors. Sophie covers a broad range of matters, including endorsement, hosting, outsourcing and other commercial contracts, IP and IT related arrangements and data protection issues.

Sophie joined Onside Law in October 2016. Prior to this, Sophie spent five years at Macfarlanes, where she worked in the commercial department and advised on a wide range of complex commercial and corporate transactions.
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Sophie used to play tennis full time and can now be found back on the court after a ten-year break.

1. How did you first start working as a lawyer in the sports sector? What attracted you to this area in particular? 

I was a semi-professional tennis player in my past life and have therefore always had a strong interest in sport. When I stopped playing and started law school, I always hoped to find a way of combining my love for sport with my future profession. During my training contract at Macfarlanes, I actively sought out a seat in the commercial department, as it did a lot of work for a Formula One team. This was by far the most interesting client I worked with and re-affirmed my goal for getting into sports law in a bigger way. 

2. What has been the most interesting (sports-related) case you have been involved in? 

Being involved with various aspects of setting up of “The Hundred”, the ECB’s new 100-ball cricket format, which will sit within an existing landscape of various formats and different contractual relationships between players, venues, counties, overseas boards, and the ECB. It’s interesting to watch this unfold in the press on an almost weekly basis! Another matter of note was a detailed assessment I undertook in relation to the data activities of a sport’s integrity function, looking at a complex web of cross border sharing of highly sensitive investigation data and how this structure needed to be tailored to align with new requirements under GDPR. 

3. What are the biggest rewards and challenges of working in this legal sector? 

This sector naturally lends itself to high-profile clients and interesting matters and as such, work we are involved with regularly features in the news, which is always rewarding. On the flip side, because of the attractive nature of the work, there are lots of new entrants to the boutique sports law market so one of the biggest challenges will certainly be to maintain competitive advantage. 

4. How have you found life at Onside Law so far? In what ways does it differ from Macfarlanes? 

Life at Onside Law is always exciting and keeps you on your toes. I’ve been very happy since moving here, just over three years ago. Onside Law is a boutique law firm which is significantly smaller than Macfarlanes. For this reason, naturally all associates have significantly more client contact and responsibility than at Macfarlanes and other similar sized corporate city firms. At Macfarlanes, I would often work in larger deal teams and work on one or two large projects at a time. Here, I’m juggling lots of matters at once, making it much more dynamic and varied. Our clients are also after a more commercial and trusted advisor approach, meaning you need to get properly engrossed in the industry as well as having the legal knowledge behind you. 

5. What do you see as the biggest legal developments in sport at the moment? 

Gender and sex in sport is at the forefront of many discussions at the moment, the Caster Semenya case of course featuring prominently in those discussions. As this conversation evolves there will wide implications in sport, such as safeguarding, competition/event categorisation and anti-doping to name a few. 
​There is also a huge drive behind the commercialisation of women’s sport and push for equality of participation terms, particularly after the successes of the Women’s Cricket World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup. This trend will undoubtably continue.