His sports regulatory practice encompasses governance, disciplinary, safeguarding and regulatory matters.  On the commercial side, Josh specialises in sponsorship, media rights and production, licensing, talent, entertainment, and retail-related contracts.

Josh regularly advises on the full range of IP rights and has significant sports, IP, commercial and competition disputes experience before the UK Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, IPEC, Competition Appeal Tribunal, Court of Arbitration for Sport, national sports regulatory/disciplinary forums, and under various national and international arbitration rules.

Josh’s broad practice sees him involved in some of the market’s leading sports and media transactions, providing specialist sports regulatory and IP support in M&A deals and investments involving football and rugby clubs, sports media platforms, sports brands and manufacturers, and consumer brands.  Josh also advises the market’s leading insurers (and their insureds) on defence and pursuit mandates involving IP, sports, media, and entertainment claims, together with coverage, monitoring and policy wording advice on IP and sports matters.

Josh is regarded as one of the market’s leading experts on football regulation, and he has experience across a range of sports, having advised on matters relating to rugby, cricket, golf, tennis, motorsport (Formula 1, Formula E, WEC), lacrosse, athletics, basketball, netball, boxing, badminton, table-tennis, padel, cycling, downhill skiing, darts, equestrian sports, hockey, sailing, skateboarding, sport climbing, swimming, volleyball, and esports. 

“I love working on matters involving sports, media and entertainment, and consumer brands.  It’s a passion project for me, much like it is for many of our clients.”

“Consumption of entertainment, content and IP is at the heart of a lot of my work.  My practice can be divided effectively into two camps: first, supporting sports clients on regulatory, governance and disciplinary matters to help the ecosystem work as it’s meant to.  Secondly, advising on the protection and commercialisation of rights – in the broadest sense.  I provide advisory, commercial, and disputes support to clients in a range of sectors where IP rights, sports, media, content and consumers are at the heart of our clients’ business.  

Much of my work is international, regularly acting on sports, media, entertainment and IP projects around the world (including frequently the USA, Middle East, APAC and South America).  I am also fortunate that my practice sees me collaborate with colleagues on exciting projects which require multi-disciplinary input.

I have been fortunate in recent years to have been involved in some of the market’s leading women’s sports matters, having acted for every one of the 24x clubs participating in the Women’s Super League in the negotiations to transfer the ownership and operation of the women’s professional game from The FA to a newly formed company owned by the clubs (WSL Football).  Women’s sport is a key part of my practice, and I act for WSL Football on commercial and regulatory matters, as well as a number of women’s football clubs, owners and investors, Premiership Women’s Rugby, London Mavericks, and several female-led sports brands.

I regularly speak at sports industry events, was selected as a Sport Industry NextGen Leader in 2021 (identifying 30 under 30 future leaders in sport), and am proud to lead the RPC Sports group which won:  Legal/Professional Services Team Of The Year (Global Football Industry Awards 2025), Legal Team Of The Year (Women’s Football Awards 2025), and Deal Of The Year (LexisNexis Awards 2025), and were finalists for Advisory Team Of The Year (Sport Industry Awards 2025) and Legal/Professional Services Team Of The Year (Sports Business Awards 2025).  For the team’s latest guidance on the new Independent Football Regulator, please see our online interactive guide here.”

Recent work highlights:

WSL Football:  on all aspects of the drafting of its regulatory handbook, including new financial sustainability regulations, and advising on several leading commercial and media rights deals, including with Sky Sports, BBC, Barclays, Apple, Mercedes-Benz, Subway, British Gas, Nike, EA Sports, Football Manager. 

DP World:  on various of its leading sports sponsorship deals including notably its 10-year naming rights deal with the PGA European Tour.

Media rights:  advising on media rights acquisition, distribution and broadcast sponsorship agreements across a range of sports including football and rugby, as well as acting on media rights litigation.

Frozen Brothers:  successfully discharging a £20m worldwide freezing order and imaging order in a long-running IP dispute resulting in one of the (if not the) first ever judgments of the court exercising discretion to vary the requirement to disclose the respondent’s assets to the applicant prior to the return date ([2024] EWHC 3439 (Ch)), and a leading judgment on the breach of a duty of fair presentation in ex parte applications ([2025] EWHC 436 (Ch)). Instructed David Cavender KC, Beth Collett, Katharine Boucher.

Soft Construct:  represented Soft Construct and group brands on various matters involving sports data and streaming rights including rights acquisition, licensing and distribution.  Also acted for Soft Construct in relation to IP and competition law claims against Genius Sports and others, leading to important judgments relating to joinder of representative parties, costs capping orders, management of IP and competition cases between Chancery Division and the Competition Appeal Tribunal, and novel disclosure orders (see:  [2021] EWHC 3200 (Ch), [2022] CAT 12, [2022] EWHC 1067 (Ch),  [2022] EWHC 2308 (Ch), [2022] EWHC 2518 (Ch) , [2022] EWHC 2637 (Ch),  [2022] EWHC 2903 (Ch)). Instructed Philip Roberts KC, Conall Patton KC, Daniel Jowell KC, Aidan Robertson KC, Jennifer MacLeod, Alaina Newnes, Greg Adey).

Video games:  representing a range of video games developers and publishers on IP, commercial, licensing and regulatory matters including coordinating an international product launch in over 20+ jurisdictions, considering issues relating to age verification, local regulatory requirements, and online terms and conditions.

Aristocrat:  acting for the Aristocrat, the leading gaming manufacturer, in trade mark infringement proceedings brought against Pragmatic Play in the English High Court (Chancery Division, IP List).  Instructed Philip Roberts KC and Beth Collett.

Sports disciplinary and arbitration matters:  acted on a range of confidential sports on and off-field sports disciplinary and arbitration matters including relating to off-field conduct, alleged breaches of financial regulations and competition matters (under various systems including FA Rule K, Premier League and EFL rules, Sport Resolutions-administered arbitrations, RFU Disciplinary matters and others). 

Sports Direct:  acted for Sports Direct in the litigation involving Rangers FC, succeeding in numerous interim and final hearings, including before the Court of Appeal between 2015-2022 (see:  [2017] EWHC 737 (Ch), [2018] EWHC 1697 (Comm), [2018] EWHC 2772 (Comm) [2019] EWHC 207 (Comm), [2019] EWHC 591 (Comm), [2019] EWHC 1419 (Comm), [2019] EWHC 1929 (Comm), [2021] EWCA Civ 790, [2021] EWHC 3364 (Comm)).