Wouter is a former Attorney-at-law at FC Barcelona and former Head of Legal at the European Club Association. He was also a Judge at the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber. 

lad Novak’s practice focuses on EU and global foreign direct investment control, EU, U.S., and international competition law/antitrust, including complex merger control proceedings, cartel investigations, abuse of dominance cases, antitrust counseling, and litigation before EU Courts, as well as a wide range of issues under EU law and sports-related matters.

Vlad Novak co-leads the Cleary Gottlieb’s EU FDI practice and regularly advises on complex global FDI matters across a wide range of sectors, leading a team of our broader FDI practice and local counsel.

His experience covers a range of industries, including steel, metals, energy, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, payment card systems, IT, finance, consumer goods, and sports. Since 2015, he regularly co-authors an annual publication on developments in EU merger remedies.

Vladimir is an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, London Court of International Arbitration, and Vienna International Arbitral Centre.

Vladimir joined the firm in 2012 and was resident in the Washington, D.C. office in 2015 and 2016.

Ulrich Haas is Professor of Civil Procedure and Civil Law at the University of Zurich. Ulrich's work and research focus on international civil procedure (including arbitration), company insolvency law, and sports law. He is the editor of numerous publications in these areas and has worked for many years as a consultant and arbitrator.

Ulrich has been Chairman or party-appointed arbitrator on more than 200 sports-related arbitral tribunals, including the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Deutsche Institution für Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit eV in Cologne and the FIBA Basketball Arbitral Tribunal (BAT) in Geneva.

He also sits as a judge for some association tribunals such as the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal in Aigle, and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) International Court of Appeal (ICA) for Formula One related disputes. He was also Arbitrator for the ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Recently, he chaired the WADA Working Group on Governance Matters that proposed changes to the governance structure of WADA. The proposals were adopted by WADA’s Executive Committee and Foundation Board in November 2018.

Pekka is currently a counsel at the Helsinki based law firm Dottir Attorneys and an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He is specialized in football and his experience includes eight years of practicing as a lawyer specialized exclusively in football matters.