14 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
MAY 2019
D
avies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP is, without doubt,
an iconic Canadian business law firm, a mainstay of
tradition and a proud bearer of corporate Canada's co-
lours when the need for legal expertise arises.
Which makes it highly unlikely that anyone would in-
tuitively expect Caster Semenya, the South African runner
who has for years been embroiled in a high-profile dispute
over nothing less than her testosterone levels with the In-
ternational Association of Athletics Federations, to be on
DWPV's client roster.
But she is. And, as evidenced by her ubiquity on the news
and sports pages of the world's leading periodicals following
the International Court of Arbitration for Sport's ruling on
April 30th requiring her to reduce her testosterone levels if
she wished to continue competing in the 800 and 1500 metres
events she has dominated internationally, her presence on that
roster may make her the firm's most famous client.
Now, if you look on the firm's website, and more particu-
larly at the bios of partner James Bunting and associate Carlos
Sayao in Davies' Toronto office, Sports Law won't exactly leap
out at you. But dig a little deeper (hit the "See More" link on
The
Canadian
Connection
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
their webpages) and what you'll discover is that among Bun-
ting's primary credits is "a landmark case before the Interna-
tional Court of Arbitration for Sport". As for Sayao, the details
are all about his previous career as an athlete and his experience
at the COA.
en it starts to make sense. Indeed, the "landmark case" on
Bunting's bio refers to Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, 19 years
old when Bunting, Sayao (then an articling student) and Da-
vies' "Jurist in Residence", former Supreme Court of Canada
Justice Morris Fish of Montreal, represented her pro bono be-
fore the Court of Arbitration in 2014.
"As a general litigation counsel, one of the areas I had culti-
vated was a niche practice in sports litigation," Bunting says.
"So when Bruce Kidd [the Canadian long-distance runner and
former Olympian] asked me to help out, we decided to take on
the case."
e case arose, according to Bunting, because some of Chand's
competitors in India "complained that she runs like a boy."
"Dutee came from a very impoverished area in India and all
she had was running," Bunting says. "en suddenly she's being
subjected to a panoply of tests including the hyperandrogenism
CANADIAN LAWYERS
ACT ON THE CASTER
SEMENYA CASE BEFORE
THE OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
BY JULIUS MELNITZER
