3. Who do you call if you’re a sports star accused of doping? Paul Greene.

At Monument Square, all kinds of goods and services are for sale: smoothies, books, real estate. But if you happen to be an Olympic athlete wrongfully accused of taking steroids, you can also find a lawyer to represent you before the world Court of Arbitration for Sport. Nestled above Longfellow Books, Global Sports Advocates is an international law firm that represents Olympians and other world-class athletes in a range of case types from anti-doping to intellectual property to contract and salary disputes. The firm is founded and run by Paul Greene–track athlete turned sportscaster turned lawyer–who has worked with Michael Phelps; NHL player Nicholas Baxter; and more recently, Russian Olympic long jumper Darya Klishina.

Originally from Long Island, New York, Greene, 45, did his undergrad at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, before studying broadcasting at Syracuse University, where he learned volumes about speaking off the cuff. “The very first day of grad school, they pulled me and some woman from Iowa out of the crowd, and we had to ad lib an entire breakup in front of 2,000 people.”

Greene’s early training in sports broadcasting prepared him for his career in law. “It was such a fun way to learn to use my voice. Truthfully, it helps me today. When you’re in front of a panel of arbitrators, it’s all about your oral presentation–how fast you can think on your feet.”

Sports broadcasting also brought Greene to Portland at age 24, where he found a job with Fox 52 News as a sports director. Greene loved his work, but the station closed after six years. “The parent company was hemorrhaging money. The internet boom was over. I was thirty years old with a wife and kids. I had to figure out what else I was going to do.”

A close friend suggested he go to law school, and so in 2004, Greene enrolled at University of Maine School of Law. Following graduation, he began sowing the seeds of what would later become Global Sports Advocates by taking on sports arbitration cases for little to no money.

By 2013, demand for his skills started to rise. So had his fees. “I hit a breaking point. It was now or never.” Greene founded Global Sports Advocates in 2014.

Unlike a criminal case, sports arbitration cases are not judged by civilian juries but by lawyers and former judges. Another difference: athletes aren’t protected by the Fifth Amendment: “You have to ask [the athlete] if they did it because they have to testify,” says Greene. “If they don’t, the panel will hold it against them.”

Greene’s world is one of sudden deadlines, shifting time zones, and bloodthirsty reporters. This summer, Greene represented Russian long jumper Darya Klishina, who was on track to compete in the Rio Olympics. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had banned her and the rest of her track-and-field team after an investigation found that the Russian government had tampered with athletes’ urine samples. Klishina sought an exemption from the ban because she’d been living in the United States full time since March 2014 and had participated in anti-doping programs outside of Russia.

Negotiations heated up, with Greene on point. Then, devastatingly, after going back and forth regarding the 25-year-old long jumper’s eligibility, the association ended up reversing the decision to give Klishina exemption from the ban just days before the competition.

“We found out on Thursday morning,” says Greene. “I got in my car and drove to Boston. Three hours later I was on a plane to Atlanta, where I met Darya. We flew down [to Rio de Janeiro] together overnight. Friday morning she went to the Olympic Village, and I went to my hotel. Then it was game on.”

Greene says everything about the case was done, quite literally, on the fly.

“I had this moment. I’m in Brazil, trying to get to the Olympic Village from the hotel. It’s gridlocked traffic. Just before my phone dies, I get an urgent message that says the story has leaked.”

A tumultuous horde of reporters pressed  outside of the courtroom during the hearing. some of them tried to sneak nearer to the door to listen in on the case. After making his argument that Klishina had been training and undergoing testing for two years outside of the corrupt Russian system, Greene had nothing else to do save wait for the panel to make its decision.

Greene remembers waking up at 5 a.m. the next morning to the sound of his phone buzzing. “I had five hundred texts and multiple missed calls from reporters. Clearly I’d missed the message. They’d put out a press release that we won.”

One hundred nineteen members of the Russian Olympic team were banned from competing in Rio, including all but one track-and-field athlete, Greene’s client. ‘No pressure.’ Competing absolutely alone for her country in the eye of the world’s cameras, she finished ninth, jumping 21 feet, 8 inches.

How strange is it that a thriving global law firm catering to elite athletes is headquartered right above Longfellow Books rather than the business district of a metropolis like New York or Los Angeles? Greene thinks it’s a sign of the times.

“Geography is kind of an artificial barrier in today’s world when your free communication services can reach anywhere in the world,” he says. As long as you talk the talk.

–Michael Schoch