Jonathan is one of the world’s leading sports lawyers, advising nationally and internationally on cutting-edge commercial, regulatory and contentious issues across all major sports.

Jonathan is the co-head of Bird & Bird’s Sport Group.

Jonathan advises a wide range of sports bodies (including international and national governing bodies, public agencies, event organisers, leagues, clubs, and their commercial partners and agents) on commercial matters (including the exploitation of broadcasting and sponsorship rights), contentious matters (including challenges to regulatory decisions, rights protection programmes, and commercial disputes), and regulatory and disciplinary issues (including in particular match-sanctioning, match-fixing and doping issues).

Jonathan is an experienced advocate, appearing regularly before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, as well as a range of internal sports tribunals.

He sits as an arbitrator in sports disputes (as chairman of the International Baseball Federation’s Anti-Doping Panel, under FA Rule K, and under the auspices of Sport Resolutions), and is also a member of the British Horseracing Authority’s Ethics Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Working Group on Legal Matters.

Jonathan has UK and US law degrees, and originally qualified and practised as a commercial lawyer in New York, before moving back to the UK in the late 1990s to focus exclusively on the sports sector.

Alongside his practice, Jonathan is co-editor (with Adam Lewis QC) of the leading sports law text, Sport: Law and Practice (2nd Edn 2008), and was director of studies in sports law at King's College, London from 2000 to 2007.