Regulation of sport
3PB’s Sport Law Group has an excellent reputation recognised in the directories and by awards for advising in sports disciplinary proceedings and sports disputes. Our Counsel appear in courts, specialist tribunals and inquiries on behalf of governing bodies, clubs, agents and athletes.
We prosecute and defence before Sports Governing Bodies Disciplinary Tribunals and advice and act in related Court proceedings. Our work is for international and domestic governing bodies and we act before national and international bodies.
Our Counsel advice sporting bodies on sporting governance as well as oversight. We advise on the rules of sport, their implementation and their legality, constitutional arrangements matters and funding and sponsorship. We have experience of drafting selection, disciplinary procedures and anti-doping policies for national governing bodies.
Our Counsel can draw on their experience in sitting on disciplinary panels of a range of sporting tribunals and committees.
Our Regulation of Sport Barristers...
King's Counsel
Junior Counsel
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3PB sports law barrister Sam Shurey advised and represented the RFU in an appeal arising from the abandonment of a recent Championship Rugby fixture between Chinnor RFC and Doncaster Knights RFC after floodlight failure. The match was stopped in the 68th minute with Chinnor leading 18-13. The RFU Disputes Committee ordered that the score at the time of the abandonment was to stand as the final score. Doncaster Knights RFC appealed against that decision. The...
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Louise Hartley, who moves from her role as Head of Legal at Sport England, joins the national chambers 3PB (3 Paper Buildings) having also worked extensively across a range of other regulatory sectors including the healthcare and telecommunications industries. Louise led the legal function at Sport England for more than five years, having earlier spent four years working as in-house counsel at both the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the PSA (Phone-paid Services Authority)....
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3PB sports, employment and professional discipline barrister Gareth Graham (pictured here) has been appointed as one of the new chairs for the British Horseracing Authority's (BHA) independent Judicial Panel, which encompasses the Disciplinary Panel, Appeal Board and Licensing Committee. The Judicial Panel is established by the BHA as the pool of lawyers to hear all cases or appeals referred to it in connection with the Rules of Racing. Following a review of the Judicial Panel’s processes,...
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Sports and regulatory barrister Sam Shurey (2015 call), pictured here, has joined 3PB (3 Paper Buildings). Sam was formerly an in-house barrister at The Football Association (The FA), where he enjoyed a busy caseload including a wide range of disciplinary and safeguarding issues arising from youth, grassroots, non-league, Football League and Premier League football. Sam's work at The FA involved advising on, and appearing in, cases concerning on-field misconduct , betting related misconduct, discrimination, social...
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3PB sports law and disciplinary specialist barristers Nick Cotter and Graham Gilbert were successful in a FA appeal hearing on behalf of a talented 16 year old footballer, Nathan Hieatt, who in February 2020 was accused of spitting at a referee's foot and given a 5 year ban at the initial FA hearing. In spite of five witnesses from his team and his college tutor corroborating Nathan’s story, and with the referee having no independent...
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3PB head of sports Louis Weston and sports barrister Gemma White have written an article for LawInSport calling for a unified approach to sanctions for corruption offences across sports disciplines. While the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has well known codified sanctions for doping violations, there is no consistency of punishment between sports for players or participants who breach anti-corruption or betting rules. Louis and Gemma's article examines the extent of the disparities, the reasons...
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