Pratice area

Bornhauser’s partners are big sports fans. They have top athletes as clients and extensive expertise in this field.

At every stage of their career, athletes have specific personal and asset planning issues. Required to play or compete in different countries, they are often taxed abroad where they may decide to settle. Conversely, foreign athletes often settle in France temporarily or permanently to build their professional and personal lives here, and their transfers may therefore be contractually negotiated (including legal, social, and tax issues). Their families may also encounter problems associated with their change of legal and tax residence. Moreover, because they are sometimes minors, athletes must be given significant, and above all specific, legal protection.

Additional issues may include obtaining residence and/or work permits, nationality, taxation and lifestyle choices, and asset management and transfers (such as buying a home or making gifts to family members).

Our partners therefore assist athletes and their families at all stages of their lives in France and abroad, especially when they arrive in and leave the country. 

Athletes may also be sponsored by major brands (luxury, sporting, and other goods) and negotiate and enter into so-called “sponsorship” agreements, making their likeness available to the sponsoring company in exchange for royalties. For example, they are paid for publications (on social media and in the media and/or the press) in which they represent the sponsor’s brand. These agreements are poorly regulated but involve significant legal and tax issues which are often international (including the formation of image companies and the taxation of royalties), especially when they are performed in several different countries and provide for exclusivity. Bornhauser prepares, negotiates and ensures the proper performance of these types of agreements and deals with all the legal and tax consequences.

We help athletes throughout their lives, including when they take up new activities at the end of their sports career.