Nicole Santiago Santiago

Nicole develops her practice primarily in arbitration and sports law.  Her wide-ranging experience in the regulatory sector and providing general advisory services to clubs and federations is reinforced by her time at Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States, where, over the course of several years, she advised the league’s teams on matters pertaining to player transfers, licences, salary caps, as well as contractual, regulatory, and labor matters. In addition, Nicole represents the firm’s clients in litigation at the federative level and arbitration proceedings in the most relevant sporting dispute resolution bodies, such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS-CAS), the Basketball Arbitration Tribunal (BAT), FIFA and UEFA, among others, and advises athletes, clubs, federations, and other stakeholders in the market in contractual, disciplinary, and doping matters. Her formative years as an attorney in the United States and her extensive professional career in Europe afford her a highly valued global perspective, allowing her to contribute a unique value to the cases she handles.

She serves as Chairperson of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Disciplinary Panel Anti-Doping Division, based in Mies, Switzerland, and she is a member of the New York Bar Association, the Sports Lawyer Association and ISDE Sports Law Alumni.

Education

• Bachelor´s Degree of Science in Economics, The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

• Juris Doctor, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law (Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA)

• LL.M. in International Sports Law, Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía

Publications

• "La intervención de terceros en la comisión de una infracción de las normas antidopaje y su impacto sobre una eventual sanción", in ORTEGA BURGOS, E., GARCÍA CABA, M.Á., FERRER, L., et alia, Derecho deportivo 2023. Tirant lo Blanch, 2023.

• "Intervención y arbitrajes múltiples en el TAS", in PINTÓ SALA, J.J., FERRER, L., et alia, El arbitraje en el TAS. Funcionamiento, procedimiento y cuestiones prácticas más relevantes". Aranzadi, 2021. 

• "El Reglamento de Agentes (intermediarios) de la FIFA: un breve recorrido de su historia, la actualidad y su posible futuro", in ORTEGA BURGOS, E., GARCÍA CABA, M.Á., FERRER, L., et alia, Derecho deportivo 2021. Tirant lo Blanch, 2021.

• "In the Hot Seat: Expert Witnesses and Testimony at CAS", in Football Legal Journal, 2020. 

• "United States of America", in European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin, num. I-2020.

• "No es fútbol, es ‘soccer’: un estudio sobre el modelo estadounidense del deporte mundial", in ORTEGA BURGOS, E., GARCÍA CABA, M.Á., FERRER, L., et alia, Derecho deportivo 2020. Tirant lo Blanch, 2020.

• "Sobre la posible ampliación del artículo 19.2 (b) del Reglamento sobre el Estatuto y la Transferencia del Jugador de la FIFA (RETJ)", in Derecho y fútbol: foro académico, num. 1 (year I - September 2018).

Presentations and Conferences

• Presentation entitled “Mind the Gap – Divergence and Convergence in Sports Law and Business Across the Atlantic” organized by the New York State Bar Association and the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Madrid (2020).  

• Presentation on international transfers of minor football players in the Máster en Derecho Aplicado al Fútbol Profesional program at LaLiga Business School (2020).

• Presentation on the European and the American sports models and dispute resolution in the Villanova University School of Law Summer in Rome Program (2015).