Your Lecturer & Contact
Meet your lecturer, learn about his background in sports law, and find out how to get in touch.
Michael Bricknell is a practising sports, media and entertainment lawyer and university lecturer who brings real-world legal experience directly into the classroom. Originally from Brisbane and now based in Sydney, Michael holds a Juris Doctor from UNSW and a Bachelor of Economics & Business Management from the University of Queensland.
As Vice President & Counsel at TKO/IMG, Michael advises on some of the largest and most complex commercial arrangements in international sport. Previously, Michael held legal counsel roles at the NRL and Rugby Australia, working at the heart of two of Australia's major professional sporting organisations on integrity, governance, player contracting, and broadcasting.
His career spans the full spectrum of the sports industry — from the governing bodies responsible for the rules of the game, through to global companies that commercialise sporting rights on a worldwide scale.
Michael has over eight years' experience designing, coordinating and lecturing sports law subjects at the university level, and a further eight-plus years teaching contract law. His approach to teaching reflects his background as a practitioner: the course is built around the kinds of legal problems that actually arise in the sports industry — governance disputes, integrity investigations, player contracting, broadcasting deals, and sponsorship agreements.
Every lecture draws on the experience of advising real clients on real issues, in circumstances where time is of the essence and public scrutiny is high.
Professional Experience
Getting in Touch
Questions about the course? Here's the best way to reach me.
The best way to get a question answered is through the Discussion Forums on eLearning. Course-related questions posted there are visible to all students, which means others with the same question benefit from the answer too.
This includes questions about lecture content, tutorial activities, assessment requirements, readings, and anything else related to the substance of the course. If you're unsure about something, chances are someone else is too — so don't hesitate to ask.
I monitor the forums regularly and will respond there as a priority over email.
🗨 Go to Discussion Forums on eLearning ↗Have a course content question? Please use the Discussion Forums above instead — your question (and the answer) will help other students too.
For questions of a personal or private nature — things like extension requests, personal circumstances affecting your study, or anything you'd prefer not to post publicly — please email me directly:
✉ mike@thelawofsport.comPlease include "Sports Law" in the subject line so I can identify your email quickly. Where your question relates to a specific assessment or lecture, mention which one so I have the context I need to help you.
Response Times
I am a full-time legal practitioner as well as your lecturer, so I may not always be able to respond straightaway. I will endeavour to respond to all emails and forum posts within 48 hours, unless your question is urgent.
If you haven't heard back from me within 72 hours, please do follow up — it's possible your message has been missed, and I'd rather you chase me than wait in silence.
If something is genuinely urgent — for example, a medical emergency affecting an imminent deadline — please flag that clearly in the subject line of your email and I will do my best to respond as quickly as I can.