Irwin Mitchell, which has an office in Birmingham, has been named as the official Legal Partner of the England Rugby team in a multi-year agreement.
Through the partnership which includes the men and women’s teams, the national law firm, which provides legal and financial services to both businesses and individuals, will develop a new mentoring programme with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) for young players.
This new programme will create a community of mentors across 750 clubs throughout England to support around 35,000, 14-18 year old players with the aim of improving retention of more young people in the sport for longer and smoothing the transition for age grade players into adult rugby. Irwin Mitchell will also work with the RFU’s in house legal team and the 1000+ community member clubs to support their legal needs.
The agreement will also give Irwin Mitchell access to exclusive rights and awareness building opportunities over the next four years, which, the law firm will use to showcase its refreshed branding which encompasses more of its legal and financial services under a single brand identity.
Andrew Tucker, group CEO of Irwin Mitchell said: “Our core values fit perfectly with England Rugby as they are very much focused on the people involved in the game and the whole Rugby community. We’re very excited to be helping them to develop a mentoring programme to support young people and help them transition into the adult game.
“We have a strong track record of working with international and UK based sports governing bodies, local clubs and players at all levels across a range of commercial and individual legal services. We also have a strong affiliation with rugby in particular, through our work in helping to develop concussion guidelines, our support for the charity Wooden Spoon and our own programmes to get more people involved in disability sport.
“Becoming the official Legal Partner of the England Rugby team is a natural fit to take us to the next level.”
Commenting on the refreshed Irwin Mitchell branding, Tucker added: “Bringing our sub-brands under the single Irwin Mitchell name makes it easier for our clients to understand our business. We offer a range of complementary legal and financial services and clients are increasingly using several different elements of our offer whether personal or for their business.
“We’ve successfully grown for nine consecutive years and the time is right as we refresh our brand to explore high profile opportunities to raise our brand awareness further.”
Steve Grainger, Rugby Development Director at the RFU said: “We are delighted to partner with Irwin Mitchell and deliver this exciting, new mentoring programme. Any opportunity we have to keep young people engaged in the game for longer is crucial. Having this community of mentors across the country will be invaluable for the players and will only help to grow the game further.”
Irwin Mitchell is ranked number one for sports law in the independent Legal 500 rankings and has previously helped the Rugby Players Association to develop its concussion guidelines to better protect players on the field from serious injuries. The law firm is also a partner of the Wooden Spoon charity and works in partnership with other sports stars including Paralympic gold medallist Hannah Cockroft MBE and wheelchair tennis superstar Alfie Hewitt.
