Chris Lavey

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).

• • Successfully representing the International Association of Athletics Federations before the Court of Arbitration for Sport to resist a challenge to the legality of the IAAF Eligibility Regulations for Female Classification (Athlete with Differences of Sexual Development) brought by Caster Semenya.
• • Prosecuting a number of anti-doping cases on behalf of the International Paralympic Committee before the IPC Anti-Doping Hearing Panel and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
• • Advising various national and international federations on rules, regulations and policies regarding the eligibility and participation of transgender athletes in sport.
• • Successfully representing World Athletics before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in (1) two consecutive appeals brought by a bilateral below-knee amputee athlete and prosthetic blade-user (Blake Leeper), and (2) an appeal brought by a single-leg amputee athlete and prosthetic blade-user (Markus Rehm), regarding World Athletics' decisions not to permit those athletes to compete in able-bodied competition due to the unfair advantage provided to them by those blades.
• • Representing the International Tennis Federation before the ITF Independent Tribunal (and, on appeals, before the Court of Arbitration for Sport) in relation to asserted Anti-Doping Rule Violations under the ITF Anti-Doping Programme (for example, Simona Halep; Jenson Brooksby, Mikael Ymer; Varvara Lepchenko; Dayana Yastremska; Robert Farah; Nicolas Jarry; Alize Cornet; Arklon Huertas del Pino; Beatriz Haddad Maia; Ashley Kratzer).
• • Assisting with an investigation under the rules of an international federation's ethics commission to consider possible breaches by a high-ranking federation official of the applicable codes of ethics.
• • Advising the International Association of Athletics Federations on the drafting of its transfer of allegiance rules (Regulations on Eligibility to Represent a Member in National Representative Competitions).
• • Acting for UK Anti-Doping in successful disciplinary proceedings against various athletes and support personnel for breaches of the UK Anti-Doping Rules (for example, Dr Richard Freeman; Amir Khan; Sonny Webster).
• • Advising the International Tennis Federation on the drafting of its Classification Rules to govern the eligibility of athletes to compete in wheelchair tennis.
• • Acting for the Premier League in relation to an investigation under its Youth Development Rules.