SLAM 2025 Judge - Advocate

Howard Jacobs has been identified by leading national and international publications as one of the leading sports lawyers in the world. He is an athlete’s lawyer and not a sports agent. He represents athletes in all types of disputes, with a particular focus on the defense of athletes charged with doping and other disciplinary offenses. He has represented over 250 professional athletes, Olympic athletes and amateur athletes in disputes involving doping, salary issues, team selection issues, SafeSport issues, endorsements, unauthorized use of name and likeness, and other matters. Howard Jacobs has been consistently listed by the Chambers Guide as one of the top ranked lawyers in the United States for athletic disputes. In addition to his law practice, Howard Jacobs is an Adjunct Professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, where he teaches sports law.

As an athlete advocate, Howard provides a voice for athletes and others in all types of disputes; he has argued many landmark cases for athletes, winning cases that have set precedents and established better and more fair practices. Because of this, Howard Jacobs is a sought after expert on sports law issues.

Howard graduated from Florida State University and William and Mary Law School. He ran cross country and track & field for Florida State University and competed as a professional triathlete during law school. He currently resides in Southern California with his wife, two children, a gentle giant of a ridgeback mix, an aussiedoodle puppy and a garage full of bicycles.

Ian Laing WS

Counsel, Lombardi Associates

Jaime Cambreleng Contreras

Jaime is a partner at Cavaliero & Associates where he joined in 2022 after having worked for more than seven years in the FIFA legal affairs division.

Jaime became the organization’s first Head of Litigation in 2018. In such role, Jaime lead a team entrusted with the defence of all decisions passed by the different bodies of FIFA that were challenged before the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

During this period, Jaime participated in -and oversaw- over 400 arbitral procedures on a wide variety of disputes on several topics: contractual, employment-related, governance, doping, ethics violations, match manipulation, third party influence (TPI) and third party ownership (TPO), sporting succession, etc.

Between 2014 and 2018, Jaime worked at FIFA’s Disciplinary department of which he became the Head in 2017. In that role and as Secretary to the FIFA Disciplinary and Appeal Committees, Jaime was responsible for supervising disciplinary procedures related to breaches of several FIFA regulations, including infringements related to match incidents, match manipulation, international transfers of minor players, failure to comply with FIFA or CAS decisions, doping, third party influence and ownership, etc.

Prior to joining FIFA, Jaime worked for an international law firm in Spain, specializing in corporate law.

Jaime was admitted into the Madrid Bar Association after obtaining his Law Degree from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE) in Madrid, Spain where he also obtained a Diploma in International Relations. He also holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the Instituto de Empresa (IE) in Madrid, Spain.

Aside from having lectured in several sports law programmes such as ISDE, University of Lausanne or FIFA’s Diploma in Football Law, Jaime is regularly invited to participate as a speaker in conferences and he has published articles on international sports law.

Jaime is an arbitrator at the Qatar Sports Arbitration Tribunal (QSAT), a member of the Disciplinary Panel of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and clerk of the Tribunal of the Equestrian International Federation (FEI). He is also a member of the Club Español de Arbitraje (CEA).

Janez Pejovnik

Janez Pejovnik is an independent lawyer with a law office in Ljubljana, Slovenia, working and cooperating within Lawyers Vidmar, Ogrič and Pejovnik with an aim to offer effective, complete and excellent legal (and ancillary) services to their clients.

At the end of 2014 he successfully finished postgraduate law degree – Masters program at the esteemed institution ISDE in Madrid (LL.M.) and at the end of 2022 he successfully finished UEFA Football Law Program (IV. Edition) with a Certificate of Merit; consequently earning a title of the lawyer specialized in Sports Law.

His portfolio of clients within Sports law consists of domestic and foreign clients from the area of Sports and Sport organizations – professional and amateur athletes, professional and amateur sporting clubs, intermediaries and agents of the professional and amateur athletes. He represents all clients in front of domestic and foreign sporting organizations, associations, bodies and courts (NZS, FIFA, UEFA, CAS-TAS …).

In 2015 he was nominated as an arbitrator of the Arbitration under NOC-SLO. In 2019 (and until end of 2024) he was nominated as an arbitrator of the Arbitration (NDRC) under the Slovenian Football Association (NZS) and has been appointed as arbitrator and chairman in more than 10 cases thereto.

In 2023 he was one of the founding members of the Slovenian Sports Lawyer Association and nominated in the management board thereto.

Lecturer with many years of experience at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law, Law Clinic – Law in Sport and 45. Days of Slovenian Lawyers in 2019 (Portorož, Slovenia).

Speaker in conferences and/or courses on sport related topics at both national and international level.

Founding and an active member (player) of the amateur football team FC Ljubljana Lawyers.