services
It is led by the NADP President and contains legally qualified members who chair tribunals and specialist members with skills and experience in high performance sport, sports science and sports medicine, who sit as wing members.
Kate Gallafent is a barrister in practice at Blackstone Chambers in The Temple.
Her practice covers all areas of Sport, Public & Regulatory work, and includes considerable expertise in professional discipline, safeguarding, discrimination, data protection and human rights.
Throughout her career Kate has acted for and advised a wide range of clubs, governing bodies and individuals in fields including tennis, athletics, cricket, football, rugby, snooker and canoeing. She has particular expertise in anti-doping, discrimination, child protection and disciplinary matters. She has appeared before sports panels at all levels, including the Disciplinary Commission of the International Olympic Disciplinary the Court of Arbitration for Sport. She has also conducted a number of ad hoc appeals in respect of selection decisions by national governing bodies for international events, and was a member of the disciplinary panel of the International Gymnastics Federation for a number of years. She is the current Chair of the International Cricket Council Safeguarding Panel.
William Norris KC is an experienced advocate, tribunal chair and mediator/arbitrator in sporting cases.
As an advocate and as a mediator he has acted in many cases involving racing and bloodstock disputes and other professional sports including ski-ing, rugby and football. He also has a long-standing professional interest in catastrophic injury claims and is a past chair of the Personal Injuries Bar Association and is currently the General Editor of Kemp and Kemp, the leading textbook dedicated to analysis and assessment of personal injury claims. Separately, he has had a practice in major environmental claims including wind farm development and projects affecting the Habitats Regulations. He has also been instructed in substantial public inquiries in the UK including the BSE Inquiry in the late 1990s and, more recently, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and civil claims arising out of that fire.
William is a long-standing member of the Sport Resolutions National Panel and the NADP. He is currently Chair of the ITF Independent Panel as well as having considerable experience in football, chairing FA panels and as an arbitrator under Rule K. Until he resigned in 2020, he was also one of the chairs of the British Horseracing Independent Judicial Panel. He continues to be a member of the Appeal Panel of the Hurlingham Polo Association and is chair of the Injured Jockeys Fund, a racing charity supporting current and former jockeys and their family and dependants with rehabilitation and welfare services.
Sir Gary Hickinbottom was a Judge of the Court of Appeal from 2017 until 2021, having previously been a High Court Judge (2010-17) and a Circuit Judge (2000-09). As a judge, he held various leadership posts including Designated Civil Judge for Wales, Chief Social Security and Child Support Commissioner for the Great Britain, Chief Pension Appeals Commissioner for Great Britain, President of the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) and Deputy Senior President of Tribunals. For four years, he was the Senior Liaison Judge for Diversity. He is currently the President of Welsh Tribunals.
In 2021, he was appointed Sole Commissioner in a Commission of Inquiry into Governance and Corruption in the British Virgin Islands, reporting in 2022. In 2024, he was appointed Chair of the Post Office Overturned Convictions Independent Pecuniary Loss Assessment Panel.
In addition to acting now as an arbitrator and mediator in domestic and international arbitrations, he has particular experience and expertise in sports law. He chairs the Independent Judicial Panel for the Lawn Tennis Association and for British Wrestling, and the UEFA Licensing Appeal Board; and is a member of other sport judicial panels including the Sport Resolutions Arbitration Panel, the Premier League Judicial Panel, the FA Judicial Panel, the British Horseracing Association Judicial Panel (Appeal Board Chair), and the National Safeguarding Panel.
Sir Gary is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and the Society of Advanced Legal Studies.
Michelle Duncan is a partner of Joseph Hage Aaronson LLP, where her practice focuses on commercial litigation and arbitration.
Michelle joined Joseph Hage Aaronson from Paul Hastings, where she was a litigation partner for eight years. Prior to this, Michelle spent eight years as a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, and four years as an Associate at Weil Gotshal.
In sport, Michelle has been a member of the Disciplinary Commission for the International Gymnastics Federation since 2013 and since then has chaired more than 50 disciplinary commissions for the FIG (International Gymnastics Federation). Michelle is a former international rhythmic gymnast, coach and judge and was a member of the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Committee from 2000 to 2005.
Mark Hovell is a partner and Board Member at Mills & Reeve, with over 30 years’ experience of sports law.
Mark has represented athletes, player associations, clubs, leagues and Governing Bodies at regulatory, disciplinary and commercial appeals and tribunals and has been a CAS Arbitrator since 2002.
Mark is on the CAS General Panel of arbitrators and its specific Football Panel. Mark was appointed to CAS’s Ad-Hoc panels for the Rio Olympic games in 2016, the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and Glasgow and for numerous FIFA World Cups (men’s and women’s).
Mark is also on the Sport Resolutions arbitration panel, was on the board of the Manchester FA and is a regular lecturer on Sports Law around the world.
Katherine Apps is a barrister practising from 39 Essex Chambers in London. She has experience of safeguarding in the sporting context.
Her practice spans sports, regulatory, disciplinary, employment, public and equality law and domestic and international human rights.
She is currently a member of the Board of Appeal of Table Tennis England.
Jeremy Summers is Head of Business Crime at Osborne Clarke LLP and his practice focusses on advising companies and senior executives who are involved in investigations relating to all aspects of business crime including corruption, fraud money laundering and financial regulation. He also assists clients in providing compliance systems to combat those risks.
Jeremy was appointed as a legal member to the NADP in 2015 and is one of only three solicitors to hold that position.
His sports disciplinary background is principally in rugby and he has been a member of the RFU National Panel since 2006, and of the World Rugby Judicial Panel since 2008. His appointments have included the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2010 and 2014 and Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 and the Commonwealth Games 2014.
Jeremy is also appointed to the FA GBE panel, the LTA judicial panel and the European and PGA and Ryder Cup judicial panel.
In a bygone era, he played competitive rugby and cricket.
Dr David Sharpe KC is a Barrister at 12 Kings Bench Walk Chambers in London where he is joint-head of the sports law group. He specialises in sports law, clinical negligence, personal injury, and arbitration. He is medically qualified and practised in emergency and sports medicine prior to commencing his legal career. He is also an accredited mediator.
He has extensive and diverse experience in sports law practice including disciplinary, anti-doping, athlete selection, personal injury, clinical negligence, regulation of sports bodies, data rights, safe-guarding and contractual disputes across a wide range of sports.
David is currently Chair of the Sports Law Sub-Committee of the International Bar Association, Chair of the Player Status Committee of the IFA, Legal Member of the Independent Board of Appeal and Anti-Doping Panel of the International Paralympic Committee, Member of the Judicial Board of World Sailing, and Member of World Athletics Disciplinary and Appeals Tribunal. He is also a panel arbitrator and mediator for Sports Resolutions and Sports Disputes Solutions Ireland.
David is also a practising member of the Bar of Northern Ireland, the Bar of Ireland (where he is admitted as a Senior Counsel -‘SC’), and in the Caribbean.
David Casement QC is a chancery and commercial specialist, a part-time Judge and an accredited mediator.
He is identified as a leader in chancery and commercial litigation by Chambers & Partners and Legal 500.
David practises in company and insolvency law as well as commercial litigation including banking, finance and securities, professional negligence, sports, entertainment and media.
He acts in substantial commercial fraud and trust litigation including asset tracing across multiple jurisdictions. In sport, David has acted in high profile sports disputes for clubs, agents and players and sits as an arbitrator on a wide variety of sports tribunals. He was appointed as a part-time Judge in 2005 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2008.
David is a member of the Bar of Ireland and the Bar of Northern Ireland. He is a member of Kings Chambers in Manchester and Leeds and Serle Court, Lincoln's Inn.
Dame Anne Rafferty practised in criminal law until she became a Queen’s Bench Division High Court judge in 2000. She was the first female Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association (1995-1997), chaired the Judicial College (2014 – 2020) and was Vice Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission (2017 – 2020).
She served as a Lady Justice of Appeal between 2011 and 2020.
In 2014 she was appointed Chancellor of the University of Sheffield.
Christopher is a sports and criminal law King’s Counsel.
He is an accomplished trial advocate and Crown Court Recorder. He is a highly experienced chair of numerous sport tribunals. He has written several sporting reviews commissioned by national governing bodies. He chairs World Rugby's Independent Judicial Panel and also the Football Association’s Independent Judicial Panel Chair. In January 2023 he was appointed the inaugural Chair of the English Football League (‘EFL’) Club Financial Review Panel.
Christopher led a review of the structure, composition, and operation of the British Horseracing Authority (‘BHA’) Disciplinary Panel, Appeal Board and Licensing Committee. The resulting ‘Quinlan Review’ made far-reaching recommendations to bring the process in line with current best practice. The BHA accepted all 24 recommendations.
Christopher led an independent review into events at Wrexham Tennis Centre which was published in January 2019. In summer of 2020 Christopher conducted an independent review and evaluation of the safeguarding policies and procedures of UK Athletics. Christopher is currently overseeing and managing the British Gymnastics (‘BG’) specialist Independent Complaints Process (‘ICP’) handling a wide range of safeguarding complaints.
Christopher is an experienced member of the Sport Resolutions administered National Anti-Doping Panel as well as Sport Resolutions' National Safeguarding Panel.
Charles Hollander QC is a barrister at Brick Court Chambers in London and is an expert in sports litigation with nearly 40 year’s experience.
Charles has appeared in cases in athletics, football, horseracing, cricket, boxing, tennis, rugby, polo, swimming, motor racing, yachting, bobsleigh and weightlifting, with a wide range of case topics including third party ownership, media, and selection.
He has chaired disciplinary and doping tribunals in athletics, football, yachting, swimming and weightlifting. Charles is the current chairman of the Bar Sports Law Group
Peter Sever’s background is in clinical pharmacology, having held the Chair and Head of Department position at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School and subsequently at Imperial College London.
He has held the post of Honorary Consultant Physician in the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust at St Mary’s Hospital and the Hammersmith Hospital, London, for over 25 years.
His career has largely been spent in research and clinical practice in the field of heart disease and stroke prevention.
Peter has experience in the management of poisoning and drug overdose and completed his doctoral thesis on the subject of drugs, with particular emphasis on their biochemical and metabolic profile in man. He has also co-authored reviews on drugs abuse.
He is a past member of the England and Wales Cricket Board Discipline Commission. He has advised on matters related to drug use and abuse and has been a Tribunal Member of anti-doping panels for a number of sporting bodies including the International Cricket Board, the International Tennis Federation and the Football Association. He has also held responsibility for disciplinary matters involving medical students.
Kitrina Douglas is a professor at the University of West London. She gained her Ph.D. in 2004 at the University of Bristol, exploring mental wellbeing and motivation among professional athletes.
Since completing her doctorate she has carried out research for the Department of Health, UK Sport, and The Women's Sport Foundation.
She has published widely in peer reviewed academic journals, is co-author of Sport and Physical Activity for Mental Health, as well as being a freelance consultant and writer.
Kitrina played professional golf for over a decade on the European, American, Japanese and Asian tours, winning a dozen tournaments in Europe, including playing on the first winning European Solheim Cup Team.
Professor Isla Mackenzie is a Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Dundee and an Honorary Consultant Physician at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee.
She has expertise in cardiovascular medicine, general medicine and clinical pharmacology including issues related to drug safety, efficacy and toxicity.
Dorian Haskard is the British Heart Foundation Sir John McMichael Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Head of the Vascular Sciences Section within the National Heart and Lung Institute.
He is also the Head of Division of Immunology and Inflammation in the Department of Medicine.
Dorian’s research has been to achieve a greater understanding of the pathophysiology of inflammatory responses affecting the vascular system, with a view eventually to achieving more specific clinical diagnostic tests and therapies.
Brian Lunn is a psychiatrist with extensive experience of working with Mental Health Tribunals. He is Professor of Medical Education and a Strategic Teaching Fellow at Newcastle University.
He has worked a cycling coach at grass-roots level and with athletes who have competed to international level. He has worked with UK Sport, Sport England and the EIS to develop and support coaches up to podium level.
As Chair of the Newcastle University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences Professional Standards Review Committee, he sits on University Appeal, Disciplinary and Fitness to Study Panels and chairs Fitness to Practice Panels.
Lorraine Johnson is a Magistrate sitting at Pontefract Magistrates' Court.
She is also a tribunal panel member for the South West Yorkshire Mental Health Trust.
Previously, she also worked as a Lead Doping Control Officer for UK Sport.
Jennifer is a Specialist Member on the National Anti-Doping Panel.
Jennifer is a former elite athlete having competed for Great Britain in athletics at two Paralympic Games, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. Jennifer was one of the youngest members of Team GB at the Beijing Paralympics, competing aged just sixteen. At the London 2012 Paralympics she achieved a Bronze medal as part of the 4x100m relay team.
Since retiring from competing, Jennifer graduated from Cardiff University in 2017 with a BA degree in Philosophy. She now works for Deloitte LLP in the Quality, Risk and Security team, specialising in compliance and ethics investigations.
Dr. Tim Rogers is a medical doctor, consultant and sport psychiatrist at Cognacity, London. He regularly consults with elite athletes in the UK, across a wide variety of sports, including athletes involved in Olympic and Paralympic competition.
He is a leading advocate for the promotion of athlete wellbeing and mental health.
Dr. Rogers regularly speaks, teaches and lectures in the field. He is one of a very select group of consultant psychiatrists also to have undertaken postgraduate training in applied sport psychology. Dr. Rogers has been a member, since inception, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Sport and Exercise Special Interest Group #SEPSIG, where he has led on the interface between medicine and the profession of sport and exercise psychology.
Dr. Rogers has extensive experience as an expert witness, including nationally high profile cases both within and outside of professional sport. Prior to joining Sport Resolutions, Dr. Rogers was on the register of accredited psychiatrists for UK Anti Doping.
Terry Crystal is a qualified doctor who is a General Practitioner in Leeds.
He has been involved in elite sport for over twenty years as a Medical Officer with various professional clubs, including Leeds United, Leeds Rhinos, Leeds Tykes, and for the England national team in rugby union.
He previously worked for the Sports Council as an Independent Sampling Officer.
Chinyere joined the National Anti-Doping Panel in 2024 as a Specialist Member.
Chinyere is a general practitioner with a interest in sports medicine. At her practice, she has a range of responsibilities including the role of safeguarding lead for adult and children. She completed her medical training at UCL, which included further training in Orthopaedic Science. She later returned to complete a Masters in Sports Medicine, Exercise and Health. Her passion for sports medicine has seen her take on several roles alongside her GP work - she works for a 'Head Injury and Concussion Service' and she has been the team doctor for Charlton Athletic Women's Football Club since 2022.
Chinyere has gained experience across a diverse range of amateur and elite sports such as rugby, netball and triathlon, undertaking a variety of roles from pitch side doctor to Covid Medical Officer. In 2015, she was the team doctor for the under 19 England Women’s team at the Lacrosse World Cup and has provided medical support as a Crowd Doctor to the Lawn Tennis Association for several years. Her contributions are guided by her commitment to supporting athlete wellbeing and integrity within the sporting arena.
Colin Murdock is a former professional football player who enjoyed a 17 year career, making 400 first team professional appearances, at both club and international level.
Following his retirement as an athlete, Colin retrained as a solicitor, and now owns specialist sports management company Murdock Sports Group (MSG).
Formerly, Colin also sat as an expert panel member of the Football Association’s Judicial Panel and Chairman's List. He also holds a Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning (DipPFS) from the Chartered Insurance Institute.
Christian is a former two-sport professional athlete, playing both Premiership Rugby (Harlequins and Worcester Warriors) and for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL).
After a decade in professional sport, Christian has established himself as a respected broadcaster and speaker.
Christian is a member of the RFU Judicial Panel, sitting on the Inclusion and Diversity as well as Disciplinary panels. Christian is also an Inspector for the British Boxing Board of Control and an RFU Level II Coach.
Christian is a CMC accredited Mediator and holds a CFA Level 4 Certificate in Investment Management. Christian was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2023.
Carole Billington-Wood is a former elite athlete who competed for Great Britain at Triathlon World and European Championships.
She is a former Director of Development for British Triathlon and now works for the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit.
She has experience of sitting on child protection and anti-doping tribunals in sport.
Blondel Thompson has been a practising barrister for 20 years specialising in crime and sports law and is a former international 100m hurdler.
Blondel has extensive experience of chairing disciplinary tribunals and in 1998 she became a panel member of the Disciplinary Tribunals of UK Athletics.
She is a Specialist Member of the Football Association's Judicial Panel and has chaired a number of FA Appeal Boards in that capacity. In 2010, Blondel was appointed as arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Dr Paul Jackson joined the National Anti-Doping Panel in 2024 as a Specialist Member.
Paul is a Fellow of Faculty of Sport & Exercise Medicine (UK), Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and a Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management.
Paul has worked as a medical specialist in Sport & Exercise Medicine for more than 30 years. Most of his time has been spent working in high-performance and professional sport. He has vast experience working as chief medical officer and team doctor in a variety of environments and cultures. He has been involved in training, recruitment, and management of doctors who work in this field of medicine. He was Deputy Medical Director of the English Institute of Sport (now UK Sports Institute) for 14 years, where he was the lead on coding of injuries and illness and on the diagnosis and management of concussion. He has worked with England Rugby, England Cricket, and British Tennis together with many GB Olympic teams including Modern Pentathlon where he was the Chief Medical Officer for 20 years. He also served on the International Medical Committees for Modern Pentathlon (UIPM) and Bobsleigh and Skeleton (IBSF).
He was President of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (UK) from 2015-2018 and sat on the council of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. He had previously been chair of the Faculty Appraisal and Revalidation Committee and was an examiner for the Faculty Membership Examination. He has been an examiner and external examiner for several University masters courses in Sport & Exercise Medicine across the UK.
Paul was an assessor for Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) for UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) for 8 years. He is on the Research Advisory Group at Podium Analytics, an NGO and charity, which brings together science, technology, academia and sport to keep people active by quantifying risk, and looking at strategies to reduce injuries.
