A sports governing body owes a duty to its athletes and fans alike to ensure that the playing field is level and the outcome is determined solely by the athletes' natural talents, skill and effort, and not by confounding factors such as performance-enhancing drugs or equipment, or insuperable natural advantages in age, sex, or weight.

Jonathan Taylor KC, with his unparalleled experience in the field over the past 28 years, in particular as lead advocate on some of the most prominent and important sports law cases ever fought, provides a detailed insider account of those cases as a means of illustrating the practical, ethical and legal issues confronted by regulators who are seeking to protect what makes sport such a unique and compelling spectacle.

Jonathan has a range of stories to tell that give us a fascinating insight into what is really involved in fighting for the integrity of sport. These include prosecuting the spot-fixing case against the Pakistani cricketers in 2010, helping the sports movement respond to the state-sponsored doping scheme in Russia from 2011 to 2014, policing the boundaries of male and female competition categories in the Caster Semenya case in 2019, and litigating whether double amputee Blake Leeper had an unfair performance advantage over able-bodied athletes.

This title is included in Bloomsbury Professional's Sports Law online service.

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Fair Play in the media (please note that some of these articles may be behind paywalls):

- Ankura's The Business Behind Sport Podcast (September 2026): The Case Shaping Modern Sport with Jonathan Taylor KC. Listen at:
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4rsL9XfIM1Wdzq0kTulL5M
- Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-cases-shaping-modern-sport-with-jonathan-taylor-kc/id6784284638

- The Times: 'Testing riders at 2am is wrong. It puts them in danger in a high-speed sport' (David Walsh, 20 July 2026), https://www.thetimes.com/sport/cycling/article/jonas-vinegagaard-doping-test-tour-de-france-david-walsh-hqfsbqwmn

- LawFuel: 'The KC Who Built the Case Against Men in Women's Sport' (Sonia Hickey, 30 June 2026)
https://www.lawfuel.com/the-kc-who-built-the-case-against-men-in-womens-sport/

The Times: 'Man who paved way …' (Martyn Ziegler, 26 June 2026)
https://www.thetimes.com/sport/athletics/article/laywer-book-biological-male-womens-sport-bszsvgvd8

Jonathan Taylor KC is a partner in Bird & Bird's Sports Group in London. Over the past three decades, he has advised governing bodies, event organisers and others active in the sector, across all major sports both nationally and internationally, on a range of commercial, regulatory and contentious issues, including commercial disputes, investigations, challenges to regulatory decisions, and enforcement of sport rules and regulations in disciplinary proceedings and appeals.

An experienced advocate, Jonathan appears regularly before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, as well as a range of internal sports tribunals. He was appointed Queen's Counsel (now KC) in 2017 in recognition of the quality of his advocacy.