The Paris Court of Appeal annuls the bar’s internal-rules provision allowing lawyers to act as sports agents

The next Mino Raiola will probably not be a lawyer.

This is the consequence of the judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal dated 14 October last (CA Paris, 14 October 2021, no. 20/11621), which held that a lawyer’s capacity as a sports agent was incompatible with the practice of the legal profession.

Indeed, Article P. 6.3.0.3 of the internal rules of the Paris Bar provided that:

“The lawyer may, in the capacity of sports agent, carry out the activity consisting in bringing together, for remuneration, the parties interested in concluding a contract, either relating to the remunerated exercise of a sporting or coaching activity, or providing for the conclusion of an employment contract whose purpose is the remunerated exercise of a sporting or coaching activity.

A lawyer acting in the capacity of sports agent may be remunerated only by his client.

This activity must give rise to a written agreement which may, where applicable, provide that the player gives the sports club a mandate to pay the lawyer, in the player’s name and on his behalf, the fees corresponding to his assignment”.

After recalling that the legal profession was incompatible with the exercise of any other profession (Article 115 of the decree of 27 November 1991), the Court held that the commercial activity carried out by a lawyer had to be limited to an activity ancillary to his principal activity of advice, assistance and representation.

Now, bringing together players and clubs constituted a principal mission, indispensable and prior to the conclusion of the contracts, which could not be regarded as an activity ancillary to the negotiation and conclusion of the contracts, and which was therefore incompatible with the legal profession.

Furthermore, the provision allowing the lawyer-agent to receive his fees directly from the club is, according to the Court, a source of conflict of interest and thus contrary to the law.

The Court of Appeal therefore purely and simply annulled Article P. 6.3.0.3 of the internal rules of the Paris Bar.

Mino Raiola can therefore rest easy: barring an appeal to the Court of Cassation brought by the Paris Bar, lawyers are not about to take market share from him!