Michele BERNASCONI

Michele Bernasconi is a partner at the leading Swiss firm Bär & Karrer. He advises on a broad range of sports, media, energy, telecom and IT matters, acting for both domestic and international clients. He has particular expertise in international litigation and arbitration as well as in commercial and transactional work relating to such industries.

His recent experience includes acting as both counsel and arbitrator in international commercial and sport matters, providing advice on media rights agreements, player-agent issues, policy matters for national and international sports federations, sponsorship agreements, ambush marketing, regulatory and antitrust work in both the telecom and sport sector, software licensing, electricity transmission and distribution, doping matters as well as international transfers of football players.

Michele is on the list of arbitrators of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) based in Lausanne (Switzerland), and he has an extensive experience in this role. He was notably part of the CAS ad hoc Chamber at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Michele is also Member of the Executive Board of Swiss Tennis Association, President of the Swiss Association for Sports Law (ASDS), Chairman of the Committee Sports Law of the Swiss Bar Association and Founder and former Chair of the Sports Law Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association (ABA) and Past-chair of the Committee Communications Law of the International Bar Association (IBA). He is also active as Arbitrator and Mediator in IP cases and Panelist for Internet Domain names litigation cases at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Michele lectures on international sports law at the University of Lucerne. He regularly speaks and publishes articles on topics within his practice areas. He is Co-Director of the UEFA Football Law Program.