Sam Purkiss advises on commercial and regulatory matters relating to sport, sponsorship, the exploitation of intellectual property and publishing.
Sam has experience across a range of sports including cricket, football and motorsport, advising on team and player issues, image rights and brand management, representation and media, and sponsorship.
He also advises clients within the publishing industry, including authors, publishers, media and technology platforms, eBook aggregators, brand owners and licensees.
- Commercial and regulatory matters in the sports and publishing industries
- Sponsorship, licensing and merchandising
- Exploitation of intellectual property
- Acting for England cricketer Alex Hales in the disciplinary proceedings brought against him by the ECB in relation to the much publicised incident in Bristol and social media posts.
- Advising Diageo on a Title Sponsorship Agreement and a Beer Partnership Agreement in relation to its sponsorship of Rugby Union’s Six Nations Championship using its Guinness brand.
- Advising on the creation of the England Women’s Player Partnership for the England Women’s Cricket Team and their central contract arrangements with the ECB.
- Advising on the player contracts with the host teams for the women’s cricket tournament, the Kia Super League.
- Advising on ongoing commercial matters for the Team England Player Partnership for the England Men’s Cricket Team.
- Advising a betting company on its sponsorship of a leading European football league.
- Advising Bibliotech Education Ltd , a start-up online platform offering academic textbooks on a subscription basis, on its content and institutional customer agreements.
Sam joined Harbottle & Lewis in 2012 as a trainee, qualifying into the Technology, Media and Entertainment group in September 2014. Since joining the firm, Sam has been seconded to Take-Two Interactive’s in-house legal team for three months and to Sky UK’s Content Acquisition legal team for ten months.
Away from the office, Sam is a football referee within the professional game, operating on the EFL as a referee.
Sam is a member of the British Association for Sport and Law and the European Sponsorship Association.
