World ranked tennis player cleared of drug offense after taking tainted supplement supplied by ATP trainer
| News Release - Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Sports & Entertainment, Worldwide
| 11 July 2003, Chicago - Mayer, Brown. Rowe & Maw LLP successfully defended a top ranked professional tennis player who was accused by the ATP, the governing body of men's tennis, of a doping violation after testing positive for nandrolone, a prohibited muscle-building steroid. An ATP Trainer inadvertently supplied the player with a nutritional supplement contaminated with the substance. The firm's successful defense of the athlete in that case led to an ATP investigation which showed that a number of other athletes had been victimized by taking the contaminated electrolyte product provided by the ATP.
On 9 July, the ATP announced it had tightened internal controls and strengthened its procedures so that "ATP trainers no longer will dispense electrolyte tablets or other vitamin and mineral products."
The drug case was adjudicated before the Anti-Doping Tribunal of the ATP, the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuit. In defending the athlete, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP was able to demonstrate that the positive test results were due to contamination in an electrolyte replacement health product that the official ATP Trainers had themselves distributed to the firm's client and to other players on the men's tour. As a result of that showing, the tribunal accepted Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP's argument that the ATP was estopped from prosecuting an athlete for taking a substance that the ATP had itself provided to him.
The firm's successful defense of the athlete in that case led to an ATP investigation which showed that other athletes had been victimized by taking the contaminated electrolyte product provided by the ATP. As a direct result of that investigation, the ATP reinstated tennis star Bohdan Ulihrach, (whom Mayer, Brown Rowe & Maw LLP did not represent) who had been suspended in May 2003 and convicted of a doping offense after taking the contaminated electrolyte tablets and testing positive for nandrolone.
The case was handled by Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP partners Javier Rubinstein and Bradley J. Andreozzi.
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP is among the 10 largest law firms in the world with more than 1,300 lawyers practicing in seven U.S. cities (Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, and Washington) and six European cities (Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, London, Manchester, and Paris). The firm also has an independent correspondent relationship with Jáuregui, Navarrete, Nader y Rojas, S.C., one of Mexico City's most respected law firms.
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