PFL Arbitration Panel

Richard H. McLaren, O.C., LL.B., LL.M., C.Arb.
Chief Arbitrator

Richard McLaren serves as the Chief Arbitrator for Anti-Doping Policy Violations under the Professional Fighters League Anti-Doping Policy and Arbitration Rules. He is a commercial lawyer, arbitrator, mediator, and professor of law with an extraordinary global reputation in sport.

He is a longstanding member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and has been a member of the ad hoc Divisions of the CAS at five Olympic Games. His positions include appointment as a Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Law, Melbourne University, and Chair Emeritus of the Sports Law Institute at Marquette University. Mr. McLaren is former President of the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal in Geneva Switzerland and was an elected judge to the FIA International Court of Appeal. He is an Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer for the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) and chairs the panel of AHOs. He is the appointed Independent Integrity Officer for the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and is in charge of integrity matters for the International Boxing Federation (IBF).

He served as the only non-American advisor to Senator Mitchell in the Major League Baseball Anti-Doping Drug Inquiry. In December, 2014, Mr. McLaren was appointed by WADA to a three person Independent Commission to investigate international doping issues in the sport of athletics (IAAF), and was subsequently appointed as the Independent Person who led the WADA Investigation of Sochi Allegations arising from the previous Independent Commission resulting in publication of the “McLaren Report”. In December, 2015, Mr. McLaren was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Mark Baker

Mark Baker is Global Head of International Arbitration and a member of the Norton Rose Fulbright Global Supervisory Board. He practices in the areas of complex commercial arbitration, sports law, energy contracts, power purchase and sales agreements, construction contracts, project finance and development agreements, joint ventures and complex financial transactions.

Mark has chaired, on average, eight international arbitration cases each year since 1998. Mark was selected as the Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Litigators, 2023, 2023 Who’s Who Legal Thought Leader – Arbitration, 2023 Chambers USA, Nationwide: International Arbitration: Arbitrators and Chambers Global, USA, 2023 Legal 500 US, Hall of Fame and Recommended Lawyer, 2023 Legal 500 Latin America, Leading Lawyer and Recommended Lawyer, 2023 Legal 500 Latin America, Recommended Lawyer, 2023 Top 10 Titans of International Arbitration in America; named Best Lawyers in America, selected by peers for recognition in International Arbitration, Commercial and Governmental, 30th Ed., The Best Lawyers in America, 2021 – 2023, reappointed to Grievance Hearing Panel of US Soccer, 2023, reappointed as a member of Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), 2023 and awarded and featured in the 2023 Benchmark Litigation Star in the US, “One of the Preeminent Litigation Practitioners in the US”, Benchmark Litigation, 16th Ed.

For more information, please visit: www.nortonrosefulbright.com

Lars Halgreen

Lars Halgreen is a Danish lawyer, and at present the Legal Director and CEO of a Sports Consulting firm in Copenhagen (International Sports Services & Arbitration). He holds a Master’s Degree in Law (1992) from Duke University in North Carolina, USA, and a Ph.D in International Comparative Sports Law (2004) from Aarhus University, Denmark. He was one of the first arbitrators from Denmark to be appointed to The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2004, and he was re-appointed in 2023 as an Arbitrator at CAS both on the General List and the Football List. Since his first appointment, Mr Halgreen has arbitrated in over 100 cases at CAS.

Apart from his extensive experience as an Arbitrator, he has also advised a great number of athletes, clubs, federations and sponsors on sports law matters in Denmark and abroad. Mr Halgreen has also published the leading textbooks on Sport Law in Denmark, including his Ph.D thesis (European Sports Law - A Comparative Analysis of the European and American Models of Sport). Mr. Halgreen has previously served as an associated professor at the University of Copenhagen for 20 years and is currently a lecturer in international sports law at Zürich University. He has since 1998 been a frequent speaker at sports law conferences. For more information, please visit this website:www.internationalsportsarbitration.com

Jeffrey Mishkin

Jeffrey Mishkin, the former Executive Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer of the National Basketball Association, and for the past 23 years the head of the Sports Practice at Skadden, Arps, is now devoting full time to the mediation and arbitration of sports disputes. He has particular expertise in complex sports-related disputes concerning antitrust, anti- doping, gambling, intellectual property, labor, and a wide range of other business and commercial disputes.

At Skadden, in addition to representing the NBA, Mr. Mishkin’s practice expanded to include representation of the PGA TOUR, National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Collegiate Athletic Association, United States Tennis Association, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Collegiate Licensing Association, Madison Square Garden, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets, Bostin Celtics, Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat, St. Louis Cardinals and many other sports organizations. Mr. Mishkin also represented high-profile athletes, including the then number- one-ranked golfer in the world in a dispute against his former sponsor.

In addition to representing entities and individuals in sports-related disputes, Mr. Mishkin has served as an arbitrator and mediator of disputes involving all aspects of sports law, including business and commercial disputes, employment matters, eligibility issues, and matters involving the interpretation of various sports organizations’ rules. He has served for many years as an arbitrator on the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the leading international arbitral forum for sports-related legal issues. In 2022, Mr. Mishkin was appointed as one of eight arbitrators to hear doping disputes in U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Sport, and he previously served as Chair of the Arbitration Panel for the 35th American’s Cup. He also has experience mediating disputes involving sports organizations, athletes, and sports agents.

Mr. Mishkin is recognized as one of the most preeminent sports practitioners in the United States and around the world. He has been listed repeatedly for sports law in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Best Lawyers in America, including being named 2020, 2018 and 2012 New York Sports Law Lawyer of the Year. He also was named as a Global Elite Thought Leader by Who’s Who Legal 2023, as a Sports MVP by Law 360 in 2015, as a leading lawyer in The Legal 500 in 2015 and 2016, and as a Power Player in sports law in 2016 by Sports Business Journal. He was named as one of the Most Highly Regarded Individuals by The International Who’s Who of Sports & Entertainment Lawyers 2013 and was included in Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America.

Matthew J. Mitten

Matthew J. Mitten is a Professor of Law and the Executive Director of the National Sports Law Institute and the LL.M. in Sports Law program for foreign lawyers at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as the Law School’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from July 2002 to June 2004. He currently teaches Amateur Sports Law, Professional Sports Law, Sports Sponsorship Legal and Business Issues Workshop, Antitrust Law, and Torts.

He is an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland (serving on the ad hoc Division for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia and Anti-doping Division for the 2020/21 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan), American Arbitration Association (sports, commercial, and consumer arbitration matters), and JAMS Sports Program as well as the UFC international anti-doping panels. He has served as the sole arbitrator, chair, or panel member in 70 sports cases as well as numerous commercial or consumer arbitrations. He is a member of the Sports Lawyers Association (SLA) Board of Directors (serving as SLA president from May 2015-May 2017) and the Advisory Board for the Sports and Society Initiative of The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences. He formerly chaired the American Association of Law Schools’ Section on Law and Sports (receiving its 2019 Award for making a substantial and significant contribution to sports law scholarship, teaching, and/or service) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. He served on the inaugural Board of Directors of the Forum for the Scholarly Study of Intercollegiate Athletics at the invitation of former NCAA president Myles Brand.

Mark Muedeking

Mark Muedeking is a retired partner in the global law firm DLA Piper. Prior to joining the firm, Mark was an attorney for the United States Department of Justice. Mark was the Managing Director and General Counsel of the United States Olympic Committee.

He is an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the American Arbitration Association (AAA); he has served on and advised numerous panels and commissions related to disputes arising in sport. He was an investigator and advisor to Senator George Mitchell in the preparation and publication of the Report to the Commissioner of Baseball Regarding the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball.

The respected international research firm Chambers and Partners recognized Mark in Chambers USA as being "highly regarded" and he has been recommended in the respected legal directory The Legal 500 United States.

Carol Roberts

An alternative dispute resolution practitioner for over 30 years, Ms. Roberts is a mediator and arbitrator with the Sports Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada and is on the Court of Arbitration for Sport, ADD Division – Presidents and Compliance and Mediators lists. Ms. Roberts was a member of the CAS ad hoc court at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. She is a member of the Ethics Committee of the International Floorball Federation and World Sailing’s Judicial Board.

Ms. Roberts is a panel member with the Vancouver International Arbitration Centre and the British Virgin Islands International Arbitration Centre as well as a member of the Panel of Arbitrators and Mediators of ICC Canada.

Ms. Roberts is also a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat Adjudication Tribunal.

Hans Nater

Hans Nater is senior partner with Nater Dallafior Rechtsanwälte AG, Zurich. He graduated from the University of Zurich and received his LLM from Harvard Law School. Hans Nater is a litigation and arbitration specialist. He is on the list of Swiss ICC Arbitrators and served as an arbitrator of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland (CRT).

Since his appointment to the CAS in the 1980ies he has been appointed as an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), and has acted as Chairman or co-arbitrator in more than 200 sports arbitration and mediation cases. He has served as a member of the CAS ad hoc Division at the 2002, 2004 and 2006 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Athens and Torino respectively. Hans Nater speaks German, French, English and Italian.

Maidie Oliveau

Maidie Oliveau has worked in the sports industry for over 30 years and is Of Counsel at Arent Fox LLP. She has been an active arbitrator since 2000, on the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and on the sports and international commercial panels of the American Arbitration Association. She has served on over 90 arbitral panels; in the last 5 years acting as chair of the panel on 21 cases, and 13 as sole arbitrator. These cases involve primarily doping and Olympic eligibility disputes, but also include domestic and international commercial breach of contract and governing body affiliation disputes. She has been a tribunal member of the CAS ad hoc Division at 5 Olympic Games and was recently appointed to the IAAF Disciplinary Tribunal.

Her full bio can be found at https://www.arentfox.com/attorneys/maidie-oliveau

Janie Soublière

Janie holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences, a Bachelors Degree in Common Law, is a member in good standing of the Ontario Bar Association since 2002 and holds a Masters in International Sport Law (her masters thesis focusing on the respect of athletes’ procedural rights in sport arbitration). As the head of Soublière Sport Law, Janie acts as Legal Counsel and Consultant in anti-doping, safeguarding, governance, anti- corruption, policy review etc. She shares her practice working in arbitration. As a Chartered Arbitrator, she sits on sport dispute resolution panels including among others the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the Tennis Integrity Unit Anti-Corruption Disciplinary Panel, the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal, Ultimate Fighting Championship, Sport Resolutions and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC).

Janie is actively involved as an investigator into sport context related allegations, has taught Sport Law at Carleton University and regularly guest lectures in University Sport Law courses, acted as athlete-agent to Canadian athletes, is an Executive Board member of the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame and is a North American representative of WISLaw (Women in Sport Law).

Carolyn B. Witherspoon

Carolyn B. Witherspoon is now with Rose Law Firm, after 26 years with Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus, P.C. She practices in the areas of labor and employment defense, transportation law and municipal/government law. Carolyn represents public and private employers in employment related matters, including Title VII litigation. Carolyn is active in the Arkansas and American Bar Associations; (Former Chair of the American Bar Association Commission on Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts); is a member of the prestigious Union Internationale des Avocats; and also serves as an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport. She serves as an arbitrator for FINRA, the UFC Arbitration Panel, the USOPC Arbitrator Panel, and is a Member of the American Arbitration Association Roster of Employment Arbitrators and Mediators and the Large Complex Case Panel.

In 2013, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe appointed her to the Commission on Uniform State Laws. She is listed among the top lawyers in the nation by Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers, Mid-South Super Lawyers and was named to the Mid-South Super Lawyers Top 50 list of attorneys in Arkansas. She was inducted into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019.