На форуме СН материальчик пикантный выложили.
Reeb says "Normally I would not comment on such allegations" [source] but he does anyway. I am starting to wonder how impartial CAS-TAS can be when it inhabits, at least in Spanish terms, a very small world.
Lucas Ferrer, CAS president in 2007, said last November that he thought that WADA's position on Contador was weakened by the other clenbuterol cases [source].
In a sidebar to that interview, he goes on to say that chairman of the Contador case Efraim Barak is a meticulous type, has doping experience and, most importantly, will act without prejudice [source].
Ferrer should probably know. He's an Associate Lawyer at Barcelona law firm Pinto Ruiz Del Valle, one of Spain's biggest law firms.
One of the senior partners at PRDV is José Juan Pintó Sala, also a CAS arbitrator.
PRDV is part of the Pannone Law Group, an association of regional law firms throughout the world whose Israeli associate is Mirkin & Co. That "Co." consists of, among others, a certain Efraim Barak. In addition to his work as a CAS arbitrator, Barak seems to be a very busy man.
The Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía (ISDE) in Madrid is a private law school. The Vice-Chancellor and a Director of the ISDE share the familiar family name "Pintó Sala", while the Chancellor himself is one José Juan Pinto Ruiz, who is also on the Advisory Board. He's the 'PR' in PRDV. Efraim Barak is a Professor on ISDE's Masters programme in International Sports Law.
That same Advisory Board also counts lawyers from the Barcelona law firm Roca Junyent. Roca Junyent is the law firm of Jean-Louis Dupont, who currently represents Alberto Contador.
There are also two people on the ISDE Advisory Board from the firm legal and tax firm Garrigues, Spain's biggest law firm. Garrigues' "Special Representative of International Relations" is José Maria Alonso Puig, who is also a CAS arbitrator.
A little organisation called Rex Sport Asociación de Asesores del Deporte, a sports tax advisory organisation based in Barcelona, is listed either as a shareholder of, or 'having an agreement' with Garrigues.
Rex Sport is affiliated with ISDE and its president is José Juan Pinto Ruiz. Founded in 2002 as a non-profit org by PRDV, Rex Sport's goal is "promoting and improving the current Sports Law and its diffusion among young lawyers." Hence the ISDE partnership it has in the concrete form of maintaining Barak's degree programme. Barak is of course a member of Rex Sport.
Of course, none of this amounts to a hill of beans, but CAS and Spanish-Israel legal worlds are certainly very small indeed.
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"Независимый" израильский судья так тесно завязан на сотрудничестве с испанскими фирмами и отдельными испанскими адвокатами, завязанными в контаделе, что прямо удивительно.
