Devon lawyer to hold court at the Asian Games

A Devon solicitor has been appointed to officiate at one of the world’s biggest sporting events - the 17th Asian Games which will take place over 16 days in Incheon, Korea, from September 19 to October 4, 2014.

Charles Cuthbert, who manages the Dubai branch office and is senior partner of the West Country legal practice Everys Solicitors, has been appointed to act as the Judicial Officer for the men’s and women’s rugby events which run over three days (September 30 to October 2). He will be the Disciplinary Officer to deal with any sending offs during the rugby competitions.

He has risen up the judicial ladder in the three years he has been dealing with such work initially dealing just with United Arab Emirates internal rugby competitions. Having served his apprenticeship, he was promoted by the Asian Rugby Football Union to deal with local internationals.

This latest appointment follows his successful handling of last year’s Women’s’ Rugby World Cup Qualifiers in Kazakhstan between Kazakhstan, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore where he was the Judicial Officer for the International Rugby Board .

There will be approximately 20,000 participants in Incheon, comprised of 13,000 athletes and team officials from the 45 National Olympic Committees, and 7,000 media.

Athletes will compete in 36 sports, including the 28 Olympic Games sports on the programme for Rio de Janeiro 2016, rugby being one of those. Thirteen men’s’ teams and 11 women’s teams are taking part in the rugby competition which is a seven a side competition with over sixty matches being played.

Mr Cuthbert said: “I’ve played and officiated at some interesting venues throughout my career but this will be the largest gathering I’ve attended to date. Korean rugby is on the rise and there should be a huge turnout to support the home side."

Mr Cuthbert manages the Everys legal team in Dubai from offices located opposite the World Trade Centre. The team provide private client services as well as corporate and commercial services to UK legal standards.