I am a solicitor advocate in our Sports Group in London. I advise our clients - primarily international federations, governing bodies and event organisers - on a variety of sports regulatory matters.
In recent years, I have acted for clients in high-profile disputes before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, UK National Anti-Doping Panel and a number of national and international sports disciplinary tribunals, with strong experience in anti-doping proceedings. I advise clients in relation to commercial disputes, challenges to regulatory decisions, and other regulatory and disciplinary issues (including match-fixing and doping) and work pro-actively to resolve those disputes. I have also assisted with regulatory investigations into possible rule breaches and unethical or improper conduct.
I also work closely with our clients to draft rules and regulations to address the challenges that they face as sporting regulators. Such rules have addressed on- and off-field discipline, integrity, anti-doping and ethics across a range of sports, including in athletics, tennis, football, cricket, rugby union and motor sport. I have a specialised expertise in issues around the eligibility of athletes for competition - including on the grounds of nationality, sex and gender, and the classification of para-athletes - and the regulation of technology/equipment in sport.
I trained with our firm and qualified in 2017. I have undertaken secondments with an international sports governing body (where I prosecuted anti-doping cases and drafted regulations) and a national association (where I assisted with a large scale regulatory investigation and the drafting of commercial agreements). Before joining Bird & Bird, I managed the resolution of sports disputes at Sport Resolutions (UK).