By a vote of its membership on May 29, 2007, the International Federation of Sleddog Sports (IFSS) has a new Legal Commission. The new commission is comprised of Alessandra Baracetti of Italy, Gunnar Johnson of the USA, and Lana Paul of New Zealand.All licensed to practice law in their respective countries, the new commission members will have the tasks of reviewing all proposals for new rules and rules amendments and submitting their recommendations, submitting their opinion when questions of interpretation arise, and overseeing implementation and application of IFSS regulations.In that IFSS is incorporated in the USA, the commission’s chair is the USA member, Gunnar Johnson. Currently Johnson is an attorney with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office in Eveleth, Minnesota. He is a 1994 graduate of American University School of Law in Washington, DC and did his undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, Minnesota USA. A musher, too, Johnson recently competed in Alaska’s 2006 Copper Basin 300 race using a borrowed team of dogs from Alaskan Jim Lanier. The November/December issue of Mushing Magazine carried Johnson’s article about this race. Johnson is honored to be using his legal skills by serving the sled dog community.Alessandro Baracetti is from Trento, Italy, and is a graduate of Trento’s University of Jurisprudence. He has specialized in sport legal administration and is an active participant in the legal affairs of Italy’s Federazione ltaliana Musher e Sleddog Sport (FIMSS). He is also a member of the disciplinary board of the Italian soccer federation, Federazione ltaliana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC). His interests center around “dogs and animal protection and ski and sports in general,” he says. He is “proud to be making a contribution in the IFSS Legal Commission; my experiences could be of good use to IFSS,” he commented when he accepted the position.Lana Paul practices law with Wynn Williams & Co., Christchurch’s “first and one of New Zealand’s best law firms,” she asserts. She received her Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Canterbury in 1995 and was admitted to the Bar in June, 1995. She practices mainly in the areas of criminal law and civil litigation. She and her husband have a small kennel of sled dogs and have been in the sport for seven years, having taken a year’s hiatus from the dogs with the birth of her daughter in 2005. But she is back on the sled now and “relishing spending more time with our dogs and friends … and I am keen to be involved with IFSS on its Legal Commission. I appreciate the importance of getting jobs done quickly and efficiently,” she notes in her résumé.IFSS welcomes these practitioners of law to its Legal Commission and looks forward to working with them.
