Sports law involves/covers the legal issues at work in the worlds of both amateur and professional sports. It overlaps substantially with employment, contract law, competition and tort. Defamation, intellectual property and privacy rights are also integral to sports law.

Ciaran Hickey is a solicitor at Wiggin, a major player in the media and technology sector. Ciaran studied law at Lancaster University and the LPC at Nottingham Law School, and did his training contract at Landwell, now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal. He recalls: "It was a unique opportunity but a difficult time for the firm, because it was around the time when the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation came out in the United States, basically putting the multi-disciplinary partnership model under pressure. From the law firm's perspective, the whole point of being affiliated to an accountancy firm was to enable it to gain access to the accounting firm's audit client base. After the collapse of Enron and Worldcom and then the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley, they weren't allowed to do that any more. But it was very good to train at a relatively small law firm while still enjoying the benefits of being part of a huge organisation - in particular, nice offices and great clients!" While travelling before his training contract began, Ciaran was even able to do some paralegalling at the firm's Melbourne office - another benefit of having a spot within a global organisation.

Ciaran joined Wiggin from Eversheds in Birmingham, where he had been doing corporate work: "The firm was advertising for a corporate position to work with Michael Brader, who had just been recruited from Olswang where he was head of sport. I was keen to get involved with sport and to work with Michael, as I knew I would get access to top sport work."

Ciaran admits that it is pretty unusual for a corporate lawyer to move into sports law: "The majority of sport work is commercial and often to do with technology, IP, broadcasting or sponsorship. Increasingly, there is lots of sports-based litigation as well. What I do is deals such as joint ventures (JVs) and reorganisations. For example, I recently worked on a JV for Manchester United in relation to its TV channel, MUTV. It was a JV with ITV and Sky, but Man U bought out ITV. That was really interesting; it took the best part of a year and it was really interesting to work with such a prestigious sports brand as Man U. We also worked on setting up the Setanta Sports news channel."

Ciaran explains what is actually involved in setting up a JV: "Our work in the corporate team is primarily to do with the JV company's articles of association and the JV agreement, and structuring the share capital. Then I also work on group reorganisations and the corporate work on setting up small sports companies. I recently did some work on setting up a sports ticketing exchange company, including drafting the articles and shareholder agreements, and dealing with the rights of the investors." There's also more traditional corporate work on offer, such as mergers and acquisitions. A typical day for Ciaran is dominated by queries from clients on constitutional documents, "particularly in JVs, where there is usually a long list of things that the parties can and can't do without consent from the other parties".

As you would expect from a sports lawyer, Ciaran stresses the importance of being keen on - that's right! - sport. He says: "There definitely is a glamorous element to it all and it helps massively if you have an interest in the subject matter. If you're coming to work and dealing with companies and individuals that you've heard of and are interested in, it's always easier to give your best." His recent highlight was the Manchester United deal, and not just for the perks: "It was really fun to work on. At the end, their in-house counsel took us to last season's Man U v Arsenal game. That was a highlight, even though I'm a Liverpool fan!" As ever, time recording doesn't make the list of fun things to do at work: "Accounting for every minute of every day, and having the discipline to do it daily, is a real downside."

Ciaran describes the sort of skills required to succeed as a sports lawyer: "I do corporate work with a sports bias, but most will be commercial lawyers, so clearly a strong commercial sense is fundamental, not to mention strong IP and technology knowledge as well. Rights and content are sold through so many different media these days, so having a good knowledge about the technology will put you at a significant advantage. You also need an understanding of the sector and how sport monetises itself. A sports entity only has money to pay its lawyers to the extent that it's made itself into a commercially strong undertaking."

So how to prove that sports law is for you? Ciaran advises: "Subscribe to daily sports updaters, such as www.sportcal.com and www.sportsbusiness.com. They both do daily emails looking at sponsorship and broadcaster deals. It's really important to stay up to date with the sector and see how the markets are moving and what market practice is in different types of deal."

Equally, it's important to focus your training contract search and show you're committed: "My experience, and that of my peers, is that it can be quite difficult to get into sports law. But if you're sure that it's for you, then when you're applying for training contracts you need to be selecting firms with relatively well-known sports practices. There are quite a few, such as Wiggin! Going to interviews and showing that you've got a good knowledge and a keen interest will help you to differentiate yourself from other candidates. And once you've obtained a training contract and are hoping to qualify into a sports team, you need to be keeping up to date with what's happening in that world, such as reading sports law journals."

But for now, knuckle down to both work and play, says Ciaran: "I think general advice when applying for training contracts is that you need to have strong academics and be able to demonstrate that you have outside interests. At Wiggin, you have to show you haven't just been studying - perhaps you've got an interest in acting or sport (appropriately!). I'm a keen sportsman and that certainly helps when I'm talking to clients. The key thing is to pick a firm you really want to work for - there is a tendency for students to apply to a huge number of firms to try and improve their chances, but it's better to target a few that do the type of work that you're looking for. I'm involved with graduate recruitment here and it is easy to spot those who've done their research about us. They display a real keenness to work for us. It stands you in good stead at both application and interview stage." Game on!