Benoit Girardin

Benoit Girardin

Profile

Benoit Girardin
January Term Professor
President of LBB Stratégies / LBB Sport




Biography

Benoit Girardin is President and CEO of LBB Strategies, lawyer at the Québec Bar and university professor in sports law. 

LBB Strategies is a legal and strategic consultancy firm with more than 20 years of experience in sports law, strategic planning, sport facilities, organizational performance, major sporting events, governance and risk management and sport integrity gained by assisting sport cities, universities, private and NFP companies, sports facilities and venues owners, professional sports teams and leagues, sports federations and organizations.  Founded by Benoit Girardin, LBB has offices in Montréal (head office), Ottawa and Annecy (France) to better serve its Canadian and international clientele.  

Benoit Girardin studied in physical education (high-performance specialization) at UQAM and obtained his law degree at Ottawa University in 1994. He is a member of the Quebec Bar since 1998. He pursued an MBA education at HEC Montréal and obtained a certificate in Executive management from the McGill Executive Institute.  

Over the years, he held positions as a member of executive teams, board of directors or CEO for private and public sports organizations. He was also a national coach for Tennis Canada and WTA and ATP players. Benoit is recognized in Canada and internationally as a sports law expert in both Olympic and paralympic and professional sports. Over the years he managed Canadian legal affairs involving FINA events and has pleaded before FINA doping panels and before CAS ad-hoc division at Olympic Games. In particular, he acted as the Canadian legal counsel in the Arturo Miranda case vs the IOC (member of the Canadian diving team in Sydney 2000) before CAS.  

Expertise and experience in Sports Law 

In the area of sports law, Benoit:   

  • is and has been a sports law professor for the last 15 years at McGill University, Ottawa University, HEC Montréal, and at the Quebec Bar. He is also a visiting sport law professor at Munster university in Germany and Porto Rico University.  

  • is the principal legal counsel for the Canadian Paralympic Committee and more than 40 national sports organizations in Canada.  

  • is a guest speaker in sports law and Olympics for major Olympic broadcasters such as Radio Canada/CBC and RDS/TSN.  

  • was a speaker at the ISLA (International sport law association) in Moscow, IOC (Olympic solidarity) and Pan am sports conferences on good governance, sports law, and sport integrity. 

  • assisted the Canadian Center for Ethics in sport (CCES) to develop its strategic plan centred on sports integrity and safety. 

  • is the founding CEO of the Sport Dispute Resolution Center of Canada (SDRCC). In this role, he managed more than 300 sport integrity, disciplinary and doping disputes and is the author of the SDRCC Code of procedure. He developed a training and education program in sports law for a roster of 100 arbitrators and mediators.   

  • acts as legal counsel in sport law disputes before the SDRCC, Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), IF disciplinary panels, and Canadian Courts. 

  • acts as neutral investigator and adjudicator in doping-related matters for the CCES and WADA and in safe sport (abuse and harassment) for sport organizations. 

  • develops sport integrity, safe sport and EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) policies and codes for more than 40 sports organizations.  

  • realizes human rights studies and risk enterprise strategies for major sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup 2026. 

  • was a member of the COC legal committee, Ombudsman and/or Team Canada’s legal counsel at the Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American and Commonwealth Games in Winnipeg (1999), Sydney (2000), Salt Lake City (2002), Athens (2004), Vancouver (2010), London (2012), Sochi (2014), Lima (2019), Tokyo (2021), Beijing (2022) and Birmingham (2022).  

  • has managed Paralympic and Olympic selection and eligibility matters since 2000 including pleading before European courts and CAS.  

  • is legal advisor for Canadian’s professional sports teams and WTA and ATP tennis players. 

Major sportine Events 

Benoit (LBB) acts as expert consultant, legal advisor, public and commercial funding consultant, or General Manager for major events such as:  

  • Aquatics events hosted in Canada: FINA Master World Aquatics Championships, FINA Open water World cups, FINA Swimming World cups, FINA Diving World Series, FINA Artistic Swimming World Series, UANA Water polo events, Swimming Canada Olympic and Paralympic trials 2012 and 2024 

  • FIFA World Cup 2026 (United bid) 

  • Laver cup (tennis), ATP/WTA Tennis Canada National Bank Open 

  • FIG World Gymnastic championships 2017 in Montreal 

  • ISU World Figure Skating championships 2013 and 2020 (General Manager), ISU World Cups in Speed Skating in Montreal and Calgary 

  • FEI World Equestrian Games 

  • CFL Grey Cup (Canadian football) 

  • IAAF World Junior Championships  

  • ICF World Championships (Canoe) 

  • World Urban Games  

  • Pan American Youth Games  

  • FIS Ski and Snowboard World Cups