Jonathan Laidlaw KC

Sports Law

Jonathan Laidlaw KC has considerable experience in the sporting field. For several years, he has acted for the Football Association in crowd control cases brought against Liverpool FC, Chelsea FC, West Ham FC and in the proceedings brought against Wayne Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford. He acted for the FA in their investigation of the racist remarks made by John Terry and assisted in the investigation of Cardiff City and of David Moyes, and appeared for the regulator in the cases brought against Jay Rodriguez and Jose Mourinho. He also represented the trainer Jim Best in his hearings before the British Horseracing Authority, for one of Sheikh Mohammed’s trainers before the same body and the International Association of Athletics Federations in a CAS hearing in Lausanne where the appellants were seeking to set aside findings that they were guilty of extorting monies in return for the suppression of doping sanctions against the Russian marathon runner, Liliya Shobukova.

Legal 500 have identified Jonathan Laidlaw KC as a leading silk in the area of professional discipline and regulatory law and have described him as a “top-notch performer” and as “a well-respected silk with a niche in the sports world”. They say, “His strength is his advocacy, in particular, his cross-examination.”

Chambers and Partners described him as a “great advocate” and “a formidable advocate … One of the pre-eminent fraud and sports law [silks]”, “great for a scrap – very able and very smooth” and a “class act”.