Steve Lanctot and Aaron Foxworthy are highlighted in a Daily Journal article by Joshua Sebold for their work with Team Luna Rossa in America’s Cup.
“Like every other multimillion-dollar sporting event, the America’s Cup has featured some compelling behind-the-scenes legal work . . . In a complicated legal matter in July, the regatta director Iain Murray proposed 37 last-minute rule changes after the practice-run crash that killed a team member of Sweden’s Artemis Racing. Murray included these rule changes with the Cup’s event permit application to the U.S. Coast Guard, and argued that a compliance with laws provision in the Protocol Governing the 34th America’s Cup required that all Competitors abide by the rule changes if incorporated into the Coast Guard’s permit. Emirates Team New Zealand (represented by Jones Day) and Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge (represented by Coblentz’s Stephen T. Lanctot and Aaron J. Foxworthy together with the team’s General Counsel), successfully challenged the rule changes. They argued that the Protocol (created for each America’s Cup to govern the event and implement the Cup’s founding document—the 1857 Deed of Gift) only permitted such rule changes by consensus of all Competitors. Furthermore, no other provision of the Protocol permitted a rule change in this manner. The America’s Cup Jury, five sailing experts from the International Sailing Federation, had the final say in America’s Cup disputes. The Jury agreed with the Italian and Kiwi arguments, and additionally found that the Coast Guard had its own authority to intervene if it thought safety was an issue at the event; the rules in question would not affect the Coast Guard’s authority under the Permit, thus were not required to be incorporated therein.
In addition to the successful rules challenge, Coblentz represented Luna Rossa on a variety of matters as the team’s counsel for this year’s competition.