Jamie Singer

Jamie is a founding partner of onside law. He is a commercial lawyer focusing on all aspects of the sport, fashion and entertainment industries. Clients include the French Tennis Federation, Quintus, Storm Model Management, Betfair, National Express and Ace Group and he advises many high profile individuals including Sven Goran Eriksson, John Lloyd, Tim Henman, Michael Parkinson, Helena Christensen and Jodie Kidd.

Before onside law Jamie spent five years as in-house counsel at IMG where he was principal advisor to IMG's tennis, sponsorship consultancy, fashion and models divisions throughout Europe. At IMG he advised brands such as O2, RBS and ABN Amro, rights holders including Wimbledon, the ATP Seniors Tour and various Masters tennis events, as well as numerous professional sportsmen and models.

Jamie qualified into the Commercial department at Clifford Chance after a secondment to their Dubai office and in 2000 he joined the dedicated sports group at Nicholson Graham & Jones advising on the ICC's tender and sale of all commercial and media rights to the 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cups as well as Lloyds TSB's title sponsorship of the 6 Nations Rugby Union Championships.

Recent highlights for Jamie include representing Roland Garros in their defence of the high court action brought by adidas against the Grand Slam tournaments and advising National Express on its major sponsorship of the England Football Team, FA Cup and Wembley National Stadium.

Jamie is a former tennis coach, but now confines his ambitions to the third team at Queens Club.

Oliver Hunt

Oliver established onside law with Jamie and Simon after spending more than five years as in-house counsel at sports/media giant IMG. He is a sports law expert and his clients include Nick Faldo, Justin Rose, Sony Ericsson, Alan Pardew and various Premiership footballers and international rugby stars.

Oliver trained as a commercial lawyer originally qualifying and practicing at city law firm, Nabarro Nathanson. After four years specializing in contract law in the Nabarro commercial group, Oliver joined IMG as in-house counsel. At IMG Oliver was responsible for the legal affairs of IMG’s golf, event, publishing and licensing divisions in Europe. Oliver also spent periods looking after the football divisions and its Rights Holder programmes. Responsibilities included the legal affairs for the Open Championship, the Ryder Cup, the HSBC World Matchplay and Tiger Woods' commercial activities in Europe.

Recent highlights include advising Matthew Upson on his transfer to West Ham, the largest deal of the January transfer window.

Oliver is on the Board of Kidderminster Harriers FC, has published a number of articles and is regularly quoted in the likes of Sports Business, the Times and the Daily Telegraph as a sports law expert. Oliver specializes in general commercial law as well as sponsorship, image rights and media/broadcasting issues.

A former ski teacher, Oliver is renowned for his putting technique and spends most Saturdays in lower league football boardrooms following the Harriers.

Simon Thorp

Simon is a founding partner of onside law. He is a corporate and commercial lawyer specialising in, amongst other industries, sport, fashion and entertainment.

Clients include National Express, Srixon Sports Europe, Betfair, Whitehead Mann, XS Racing, Hero Investments, Babolat and International Models Management.

Recent highlights include advising:

(i) Betfair on various new technology and outsourcing ventures;

(ii) Srixon Sports Europe on the continued expansion of its golf brand across Europe;

(iii) National Express on the setting up of its new shared ride business and the multi-million pound acquisition of the Kings Ferry;

(iv) Hero Investments LLP on the setting up of an offshore fund to invest in football players and clubs with agent Pinhas Zahavi; and

(v) Paragon Sports Management on its arrangements with Monty Panesar.

Simon specialises in acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, shareholder agreements and general commercial agreements (including supply, distribution, franchising and licensing). Simon has recently appeared on Radio 5 Live and in the Guardian as an expert on foreign investment in football and third party ownership of players.

Prior to onside law, Simon practiced for over 7 years as a corporate commercial lawyer at two of the UK’s leading law firms (Slaughter and May followed by Clifford Chance).

Simon was until recently the men’s first team captain at Queen’s Tennis Club, but now troubles the golf course more than the tennis court.

Chris Walsh

Chris is our Head of Dispute Resolution and advises a wide range of sporting, entertainment and general commercial clients in relation to a variety of disputes in the UK courts, in domestic and international arbitrations (including before the Court of Arbitration for Sport), mediations and before a range of national and international sports governing bodies.

Chris qualified and spent 4 years at Freshfields before moving to another niche sports law firm in London. Prior to joining onside law, Chris was general counsel for the company which owns and manages many of the national race team franchises in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport motor racing series and Chris continues to provide extensive advice to this company and its race teams at onside law.

Chris also has considerable experience of advising sports clients, governing bodies and corporates in relation to a wide variety of commercial contracts and related issues, including UK Sport, the Tour of Britain cycling event, the British Triathlon Association, British Cycling, the Grand Prix Masters Series and the International Paralympic Committee.

Chris is a former professional cricketer, working hard, in vain, to improve his touch around the greens.

International Network
onside law has established a network of experienced English speaking foreign lawyers in key overseas jurisdictions to offer comprehensive international advice to our clients.

Domestic Networks
onside law has built relationships with specialist law firms across the UK to ensure all our clients’ legal needs can be catered for. Our association with these firms will enable our clients to receive advice in specialist areas such as conveyancing, tax and family law.

Client Networks
onside law’s clients extend from high profile individuals and multinational agencies to international governing bodies and global brands, and we are uniquely placed to facilitate introductions between our wide range of contacts.