How It Happened: Primas Law help John Regis MBE and Jennifer Stoute win a landmark settlement

 In a case that started back in 2022, our expert litigation team worked with UK athletics legend John Regis MBE and former Olympian and original ‘Gladiator’ Jennifer Stoute to secure a significant settlement agreement.

 The case, which Primas inherited from John and Jennifer’s previous law firm Rosenblatt LLP, saw Primas representing what would typically be classed as the “underdog” but that actually culminated in the litigation team securing a settlement hugely in our clients’ favour, despite being up against a claimant with significantly more resources including a large team of lawyers from London and Los Angeles.

Background

Former Olympians, John Regis, and business partner Jennifer Stoute went into business back in 2000 with the Stellar Sports Agency Group, to run Stellar Athletics LLP.

Stellar Athletics, which represented many prominent British athletes was a business under the wider Stellar banner, a group of businesses owned and run by Jonathan Barnett and David Mannaseh, footballing ‘super agents’ who had been responsible for such deals as the record-breaking Gareth Bale Transfer.  John was to be the face of the Athletics business and the financial management was to be overseen by Barnett and Stellar’s accountants.  Jennifer looked after the athletes.  Although athletics has never generated money like football, it had a cache and prestige which Stellar wanted to help elevate its brand generally.

However, the business relationship turned sour in the spring of 2020.  John and Jennifer had worked for more than 20 years under what they thought was a promise from Jonathan Barnett that when he sold the wider Stellar group, including Athletics, they would benefit with a substantial payout as business partners.

It came as a big shock to John and Jennifer when, without being informed, the Stellar Group (including Stellar’s share in Athletics) was sold for many millions to ICM, a huge and powerful multinational talent and sports agency based in the USA which represented many Hollywood and sports stars.  John  and Jennifer were told that they would receive nothing from the sale and also that they should continue working for a lesser cut of profits. The new owners also demanded the return of all the money John and Jennifer had drawn from the Athletics business over and above the strict proportions that their share would allow them to draw, despite what they say Jonathan Barnett had assured them over the years.  Barnet was retained as Managing Director of the new company he had sold, ICM Stellar Sports.

As the business relationship failed completely, John and Jennifer were cut out of Athletics, told to vacate their offices and hand over all property and make all their staff redundant.  However, to safeguard their Athletes whom they had spent years looking after, John and Jennifer formed their own agency, Astra Partners Limited.  The athletes and staff all promptly got on board.

The pair were then accused of taking Stellar’s business.  Stellar Athletics LLP (now part of ICM Stellar Sports) made a claim against them for damages and also for the payment back of all drawings allegedly over their ‘share’ for the previous decades, reneging on what they said was Barnett’s often repeated promises and assurances.  The claim was for c£1m plus an unquantified amount for the Athletics business allegedly ‘taken’.

Carl Sebastian, Litigation Partner at Primas Law:

We were approached by the clients because their previous solicitors were very expensive, as was their counsel and they did not think that they had put up much of a fight for them. We picked it up just before the CCMC when the pleadings were all in and we were immediately on the back foot with what we had – a mediation had just taken place also. Although negotiations were afoot, they were hugely not in our favour and the opposition (Fladgate LLP) was talking about our clients making a payment over time (£900k) secured on John’s house.  Daniel Thomas persuaded the clients to wait until disclosure and see what it threw up although they were loathe to continue paying as the matter progressed, mindful of how wealthy their opponent was.

I would liken this particular experience to not only fighting off a Grizzly Bear but managing to give it a couple of broken ribs and a concussion as it blundered off.  It was one of the biggest turn-the-tables in high level litigation that I’ve seen in 10 years as a litigator. Fladgate were incredibly bullish.  They forced us into accepting a very narrow disclosure (from them) at the CCMC as we had very little ammunition to fight with at that time. They demanded charges on property and tax indemnities on unknown amounts even though it was Stellar’s accountant who we were told had been running the Athletics business finances in a way that was suspicious with large unexplained amounts being deposited and withdrawn from client account.  They treated the claim as if they’d won it and tried to overwhelm us with disclosure pressure – it was heavy going prior to Christmas 2023 for our side.  A couple of days before Christmas 2023 I received an 11 page letter from Fladgate, taking us to task on all aspects of our disclosure which seemed overwhelming.

Then we discovered texts of a racial and sexist nature on an old phone which I was told was of Barnetts which Jennifer happened to have – some sent to Barnett from a prominent sports figure.  We debated over how or whether to use it.  We thought we should redefine the battleground and fight on our terms.  We wrote to Fladgate and spoke of the personal angle against John Regis and also spoke of the texts and how we were considering disclosing them as being relevant to the business relationship and the appalling way John and Jennifer said they had been treated.  I believe that our letter first thing in January 2024 was a complete game changer as we took the fight directly to the Claimant.  We could have been hit with an injunction or an application to exclude documents but I always thought the opposition would be wary to try and silence something that could become very serious if it blew up.  After we sensed their weakness, we conducted a concerted and determined assault against Fladgate, giving no ground on anything.  That approach seemed to discourage them. We had Fladgate in a defensive posture after a few weeks.

Our witness statements hammered it home, with Jennifer’s recollections particularly powerful.  Their statements were in my opinion haphazard and disjointed.  Their main accountant witness pointed a finger at someone no-one had even heard of, “Mr Hecht” and it became a running joke on our side that poor Mr Hecht was the fall guy.  In keeping with my boxing comparisons – as Mike Tyson famously said, ‘everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’.

Then, after some transparent attempts by Fladgate to downplay any potential reputational damage, we learned that Barnett had resigned from ICM Stellar and within the space of a few days we had CAA’s LA lawyer trying to put a stop to it all.  At this time, Jennifer said that bodyguards of Stellar were actually calling her repeatedly with strange ‘offers’ and veiled threats and we had to write to Fladgate about that.

The lawyer from ICM/CAA played it cool and unconcerned, as if they were quite happy to go to trial but just didn’t want the minor hassle of chasing John and Jennifer for money  – I pointed out that I could not see any upside for ICM/CAA to pursue a couple of celebrated athletes, especially on such weak premises and with a contextual background which we expected would appall decent people.

It was a tense couple of negotiations involving myself, Daniel Thomas, Fladgate and CAA’s in-house lawyer but we finally elicited a drop-hands offer from the opposition who rather atypically, did not want confidentiality in the settlement.

This is probably the most satisfying case I have ever worked on.  John and Jennifer are celebrated personalities who have represented their country at the Olympic Games and who both have unblemished characters, it was a pleasure to help them both, they were fantastic clients.  Daniel and I met them in London for a meal.  They did not consider that they took anyone’s business.  They were put in a position through what they thought were bad faith actions during Olympic year and they considered that they had operated as any decent people would, to safeguard their athletes.  They considered they were unjustly forced into the litigation because they would not accept a very bad deal, play ball and continue working for reduced percentages. It was a big win.

Jennifer Stoute, Founder of global sports management agency, Astra Partners:

“Myself and my business partner John, found ourselves in dire straits being unfairly pursued for money on the back of the broken promises of a wealthy former business partner.

It was a long fight, but we were very glad indeed that we had Primas’ litigation team fighting our corner on the last stretch.  Our opponents had a team of London lawyers, but Primas outplayed them tactically at every crucial step and we went from them making huge demands to dropping their case entirely after a very tense 48 hour negotiation.

We now have a clear road ahead with our business and we are so grateful for the support and strategic insight which got us to that. What really helped was the close affinity we had with Carl and Daniel and their creative approach to our case. Thank you for trusting and believing in us both.”