Tim Castle

TC Sports Management was set up by Tim Castle – “TC” as he is so well known by friends, colleagues and clients alike.

Tim is often asked how, as one of New Zealand’s foremost lawyers, he came to run a Sports Management organisation.

The answer is revealing – “Basically it evolved from my passion for Sports and Sports Law in New Zealand. I had been engaged in Sports Law as a young lawyer and been heavily involved in sports organisations for almost 30 years. So when in 2007 I was called in by a small group of senior All Blacks to make an abrupt and necessarily urgent manager/player agent change it seemed a logical progression.”

A keen interest in many Sports and Athletics has been a constant in Tim’s life.

Following early involvement in sports administration and management at club, provincial and representative levels Tim Castle’s roles have included;

Election or appointment to several directorships in sport related activities including:

• Board Member – New Zealand Sports Foundation 1996-2000
• First Vice President – effectively Chairman – of the Board of the New Zealand Olympic Committee 1995-1997; and NZOC Board Member under its then President, the late Sir David Beattie (former High Court Judge and Governor-General of New Zealand) 1997-2000
• Member (1998 – 2000) of the Legal/Constitutional Executive Board sub-Committee of the Commonwealth Games Association; and member of CGF Executive Board Strategic Planning Committee which developed new structures, constitution and strategic (commercial) plans suitable for the 21st Century and beyond
• Board Member 2012 – PULSE New Zealand Netball Commercial Franchise
• Governance Board Member – Royal Wellington Golf Club – 2011-2013
• Board member –Drug Free Sport New Zealand – 2015 – present

Sport strategic positioning experience

• NZOC 1995-2000 – led major restructuring and development of new strategic plan in 1996; record sponsorship monies achieved in negotiations through to Athens Olympics 2004;
• New Zealand Sports Foundation – Executive Board Member.  1995-2000 Record (at that time) corporate support for New Zealand High Performance Sport;
• Ministerial appointee to national and international fora in sport; establishing and maintaining lasting strategic relationships.

Sports law (including international athlete management) including

• First Vice-President: New Zealand Olympic Committee 1995–2000
• Member: Ministerial High Performance Sports Transitional Committee 1996
• Member: of the 1998–1999 Legal/Constitutional Committee of the Commonwealth Games Federation
• Member of the 1999 New Zealand Ministerial Delegation to the Drugs in Sports Symposium in Sydney, Australia
• Member: Executive Board of the New Zealand Sports Foundation 1996–2000 together with the other national positions already identified above
• (Former) Honorary legal counsel: Cricket Wellington (for 10+ years)
• Member: Board of Directors of NZ Netball commercial franchise “PULSE” (with particular responsibility for elite squad retention, recruitment and contracts)
• (Former) Honorary legal counsel: Rowing NZ

Sports disputes advocacy and adjudication, including

• Appointment in 1991 to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) based in Lausanne, Switzerland. This was the first appointment of anybody from New Zealand, Australia or Oceania  Established in the 1980s by the IOC. CAS has become the world’s principal sports disputes resolution body.  It is now structured to ensure independence from the IOC.  It has regional registries in Sydney and New York.  As at 2013 Tim has presided as a CAS Panel member adjudicating on all (but one) of the New Zealand cases to go the CAS as well as a number from around the world.  He sat as a member of the Ad-Hoc division of CAS at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur 1998 and Manchester 2002.
• Appointment as a Judge/Arbitrator/Mediator of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) since 1991 continues to the present time.
• New Zealand’s inaugural representative on the International Cricket Council Appeals Commission and Conduct/Corruption Commission from 1999-2007.
• Since 1992, Code of Conduct Commissioner/Adjudicator for New Zealand Cricket and Cricket Wellington.
• Inaugural member of the New Zealand Sports Tribunal from 2003.
• Chairman of the Disputes Tribunal of the Pacific Games Council since 2001. This Tribunal presides over all disputes arising in sports throughout the Pacific – from Guam in the north to the numerous southern island nations of the South Pacific (encompassing 22 countries and protectorates); and specifically at the South Pacific Games (held every four years).
• Ethics Board Investigator for the International Athletics Federation 2016 – present.

Athlete empathy and management

• Past honorary legal counsel to Cricket Wellington; current honorary legal counsel to Rowing New Zealand. 1968-1973 – Rowing:  Victoria University, Star Rowing Club (Wellington); Aramoho Rowing Club (Wanganui); member, successful New Zealand University Rowing 8 against Australia 1969; Victoria University Blue for Rowing in 1969; New Zealand Junior; New Zealand Elite rowing trialist 1972;
• Management of a group of elite rugby players in the Northern Hemisphere, Australia and New Zealand including current and former All Blacks. Tim works closely with PUs, NZRU, NZRPA.   Management of one of New Zealand’s most successful elite Olympic track athletes.
• Past consultation to the NZRU in respect of its strategic policy positioning on the international stage.

More about Tim

Tim Castle is in private practice as a barrister. He graduated with a bachelor of laws from Victoria University in 1973. Mr Castle was counsel for the New Zealand fishing industry between 1987 and 1992, and following the 1992 settlement of Māori commercial fishing claims he was retained as legal counsel for Te Ohu Kaimoana (the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission). He was chairperson of New Zealand’s statutory tribunal with jurisdiction in fishing quota appeals from 1996 to 2005.

Mr Castle has assisted both iwi and the Crown in Treaty settlement negotiations. In 2014 and 2015 he was appointed by iwi representative leaders to undertake a comprehensive independent statutory review of the commercial governance and management structures for the iwi stake in Māori fisheries, with a view to necessary changes (now endorsed by iwi) to those arrangements for the future.

He is the first Australasian member of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, was New Zealand representative on the International Cricket Council’s Corruption Commission and Appeals Commission, and is a member of the New Zealand Sports Tribunal. He was first vice president and chairperson and board member of the New Zealand Olympic Committee from 1994 – 2000 and a board member of the New Zealand Sports Foundation. Currently Mr Castle is a board member of Drug Free Sport New Zealand, and chairs the Pacific Games Tribunal.