Marco Floreale, Partner and Head of Sports law at Wollens and Katie Leary Wollens and Exeter City Football Club internship. 

As part of the legal partnership between Wollens and Exeter City Football Club, which was announced earlier this year, Wollens are pleased to reveal an exciting new sports law placement for a current law student.

The year-long role is designed to compliment the student’s legal studies, by forming the third year of their degree, before they embark upon their final year at university. This will provide them with an invaluable opportunity to immerse themselves in full-time work, thus gaining experience of professional working environments, interacting with clients and working on a range of legal matters.

The inaugural placement is already underway, with University of Exeter’s Katie Leary being the first successful candidate to the role.

Katie said

“I am grateful to the team at Wollens and Exeter City for enabling me to work alongside both as part of my educational development. It is a very unique opportunity to be able to graduate with a year of full-time experience in two separate businesses. This keeps the work extremely varied and interesting – working in different locations means no day is ever the same.”

The dual nature of the internship programme consists of working two days per week at the law firm, and three days a week at the football club. This facilitates experience of working alongside a team of qualified solicitors, and also within a professional sporting environment, where the new legal skills obtained can then be applied.

Ideal for individuals with a passion for sport, Katie will be working closely with Marco Floreale, Head of the Sports Law Division at Wollens.

Marco said

“We are very happy to have Katie on-board working with us and to have arranged this placement opportunity with the University of Exeter. The great value of a sports law placement is that Katie can not only experience direct sporting matters within the law, but can also experience the other side of the coin which is helping clients with their personal matters so they can prioritise their training and performance, whilst we deal with any ‘off-pitch’ business.”

 Only a short time into her placement, Katie has already had the opportunity to work with a number of clients in a range of sports, including bobsleigh, cycling, football and snooker, across a broad variety of legal areas, from disciplinary proceedings and immigration matters to sponsorship representation and intellectual property rights within sport. She was also present for the official legal partnership announcement between Wollens and Torquay United Football Club, and will likely engage in further work throughout the placement with other partners of Wollens, such as Somerset County Cricket, as well as existing clients in rugby, gymnastics and athletics.

“It is extremely intriguing to be able to work in an emerging area of the law, where we can make ground-breaking progress in determining the boundaries of sports law and applying many other areas of law to the sporting world, whilst constantly networking with new clients and reaching out to new sports.”


 Meanwhile, Katie’s role at Exeter City involves working both at the Cliff Hill Training Ground and at St James Park Stadium, with a significant focus on contract law.


“At the training ground I largely focus on contract’s paramount to the football itself, including playing contracts and transfer and loan agreements. The work on transfer deadline day was particularly interesting, where I got to witness last-minute behind-the-scenes talks and agreements with regards to signing a new player, and then help to finalise his contract before the deadline.” Commented katie. 

Katie Leary, Internship 

Whilst at the Stadium, Katie will be working on commercial matters such as streamlining contracts for sponsorship and hospitality agreements, which are an important side of the club for generating revenue. Of particular importance to Exeter City, which, uniquely, is a supporter-owned club, is retaining fan and community engagement whilst balancing high-performance with financial sustainability. These club values are reflected throughout all aspects of the Club, and company law work that Katie will be undertaking will also be centred upon this ethos. Additionally, the opportunity to sit with the Finance and Governance Committee will provide extensive opportunity throughout the placement to engage with the structure of the company, exploring shareholder agreements, the Club’s articles of association and capital raising potential.

“By the end of the year, I hope I will have significantly developed my commercial awareness and knowledge of legal practice, to compliment and enhance the communication and networking skills I will obtain, whether they relate to working with clients or colleagues, in an area of the law which you can’t necessarily learn through conventional textbook studying. Sports law entwines my interest in the law with my passion for sports so it will hopefully be an area I want to continue to explore beyond this year.”

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Speak to Marco Floreale

Marco is a Partner at Wollens and can advise you. Contact Marco via email Marco.Floreale@wollens.co.uk or call 01803 396639.

You can also complete an online enquiry form. One of the Wollens team will contact you as soon as they are available.