Jonathan Taylor

Jonathan Taylor is a Partner and head of the Sports Group at Bird & Bird in London. His practice focuses on Sports Law, advising governing bodies, event organisers and others active in the sector across all major sports.

He advises clients—including international governing bodies, event organisers, teams, agencies and commercial partners—on a wide range of commercial, regulatory and contentious issues, including commercial disputes, investigations, challenges to regulatory decisions, enforcement of rules in disciplinary proceedings and appeals. He is an experienced advocate, appearing regularly before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, as well as a range of internal sports tribunals, and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2017.

His experience includes bringing spot-fixing charges on behalf of the International Cricket Council under its Anti-Corruption Code against Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir in 2010; bringing drugs charges on behalf of the International Tennis Federation under its Tennis Anti-Doping Programme against Marin Cilic, Viktor Troicki and Maria Sharapova; defending World Athletics in proceedings brought before the CAS by Caster Semenya and by Blake Leeper; and defending the International Paralympic Committee in proceedings brought at the CAS by the Russian Paralympic Committee, as well as defending the International Equestrian Federation in proceedings brought before the CAS in 2020 by the UAE Equestrian Federation.

He studied Jurisprudence (BA, 1st Class Honours) at University College, Oxford (1986–89) and holds an LLM from the University of Virginia (1990). He was admitted to the State Bar of New York, USA in 1991 and The Law Society of England & Wales in 1997.