It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Dr Dirk-Reiner Martens on November 11, 2020.
Dr Martens was one of the most influential and renowned lawyers in the sports movement: and one of the pioneers in sports law in Germany and Worldwide.
Due to his extraordinary expertise in commercial and sports arbitration, at national and international level, he has acted in more than 250 arbitration proceedings relating to commercial law and to sports law either as an arbitrator, President of the tribunal or party representative. In addition to the CAS, Dr Martens was also listed as an arbitrator at the AAA, JAMS, CRCIA (Cairo, Egypt), FIA (Formula 1) and ICDR.
A strong advocate of alternative sports dispute resolution mechanisms, Dr Martens was one of the original creators of the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal (BAT), which today is the second largest sports arbitral tribunal in the world.
Dr Martens also worked with numerous Olympic and non-Olympic Sports Federations, advising on and implementing new systems of governance.
For MESGO, it has been an honour and a privilege to have Dr Martens among our high-profile speakers for each of our legal seminars. His presentations and sharing his experience as CAS arbitrator in particular, were always highly appreciated by the MESGO participants.
Both as a leading sports lawyer and CAS arbitrator, but also as a constantly enthusiastic, passionate and caring person, Dr Martens will be deeply missed. All the MESGO team convey their sincere condolences to Mrs Martens, to Mr and Mrs Martens’ families and friends, and to Mr Martens’ colleagues at Martens Rechtsanwälte. Our thoughts are with them during this very difficult time.