As the official legal partner of England Rugby, we’re proud to share It Means Everything.

The series will showcase everything that’s special about community rugby by telling genuine, authentic stories that explore the journey from the grassroots game to representing your country.

We’re proud to be England Rugby’s Official Legal Partner since 2019. This flagship partnership further solidifies our position as a trusted legal advisor to the sport sector.

Our partnership with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) encompasses the men's and women's teams, as well as a grassroots rugby programme the 'Irwin Mitchell Mentoring Club’. In collaboration with the RFU, the mentoring club aims to keep 14- to 18-year-olds engaged in playing the game and encouraging new players to try rugby for the first time.

Here for the Moments that Matter

As part of our partnership with the RFU over the last 18 months we’ve worked to shine a light on the clubs and volunteers that create Moments That Matter. This is for their local communities both on and off the field. 

On our Irwin Mitchell - YouTube we share more inspirational volunteers and grassroots clubs. Such as lifelong volunteer like George Leach. George Leach is 96 and has been a part of Old Otliensians RUFC for more than 75 years. From player to secretary to volunteer, he’s always supporter-in-chief.

The family atmosphere that is created at Painswick - Painswick Rugby Club can sometimes field up to seven sets of brothers in the same XV. The Gloucestershire village club (in fact, the original cherry and whites - but that's another story) is captained by Neil.

Kingswood All-inclusive Rugby Club (AIR) was started in September 2022 as the first team of its kind, to support children with special needs or disabilities. The team age ranges from eight to 18 and includes anyone with conditions such as autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome, or other brain disorders, including those who suffer from high anxiety and struggle with social situations.

You can see more of our Moments That Matter content at Moments that matter - The Telegraph.

Irwin Mitchell Mentoring Club

About the course

When participants sign up, the Mentoring Club provides a one day in-person workshop. The workshop helps provide the tools to Coaches (potential Mentors) and outlines what the course is going to entail.

This is followed by three themed follow up webinars that outline key lessons that are necessary for building and developing a strong mentor-mentee relationship with young players.

Once both are done, participants will then create a portfolio with their progress, findings, achievements. This’ll be completed by April/May the following year.

These portfolios are then reviewed by the RFU team, to see if they’ve passed the programme to become certified RFU Mentors.

The course will from September through to the following May.

The goal of the Irwin Mitchell Mentoring Club is to identify, create and develop a community of mentors to improve the retention and smooth the transition for age grade players into adult rugby.

This mentor network will help the workforce of adult coaches, managers and volunteers that support 14- to 18-year-olds to understand and meet the unique challenges at this age. It’ll ultimately help young players to enhance their skillset, confidence, resilience, and rugby enjoyment.

Where we are now

Since the programme’s introduction in 2019, the course has had over 1000+ participants. The aim of this course is to allow members of the rugby community who want to better their Mentoring abilities and contribute to their clubs.

As a result, around 15,000 members of the rugby community have benefitted from receiving this course through Mentors, students, or players. We aim to diversify this reach even further and how we can grow the game for all through Mentorship in upcoming years through our partnership.

In the past year the mentoring club has impacted 3,300 members of the rugby community.

Our other sports partnerships

We’re the number one for sports law in the independent The Legal 500 rankings. We work with a wide range of sports clubs, athletes, and sports industry businesses.

In addition to being England Rugby's official legal partner, we’re the official legal partner to British Athletics and Boccia.

We also support athlete ambassadors including Paralympic gold medallist Hannah Cockroft OBE, tetraplegic racing driver Nathalie McGloin, Red Rose and Saracens Rugby player Jess Breach, and International Cricketer Will Jacks.