The panel includes a mix of senior lawyers, doctors, scientists, sportsmen and women.

 

Leaver, a QC who was chief executive of the Premier League between 1997 and 1999, said:  "It's a very strong Panel, which is just what is needed to make consistent, impartial rulings where athletes are charged with anti-doping violations.

 

"A new version of the World Anti-Doping Code comes into force in January 2009 which gives tribunals more discretion over the sanctions they hand down. 

 

"This makes the need for a centralised tribunal system ever more important in order to achieve high quality, consistent decisions."

 

Leaver urged sports to review their anti-doping rules and regulations to confer jurisdiction on the NADP and take advantage of the centrally funded service.

 

He said: "Sports will need to amend their rules in order to give jurisdiction to the NADP in cases involving alleged doping violations. 

 

"I will only accept case referrals where it is clear to me that the NADP has authority to adjudicate"

 

Leaver's job as president of the NAPD is to oversee the work of the Panel and to appoint individuals to form tribunals to decide anti-doping cases referred to it. 

 

The NADP takes over the responsibility for the case once an athlete has been charged and has been given the opportunity to respond to the charge.

 

Leaver said: "The charging and conduct of cases before the NADP continues to be the responsibility of national governing bodies. 

 

"The NADP role is to ensure that an athlete gets a fair hearing and that a proportionate penalty, which is in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code, is handed down for those found to be in breach of anti-doping rules"

 

The National Anti-Doping Panel has been established by Sport Resolutions (UK), the independent service provider contracted by UK Sport to run the NADP Secretariat in support of Leaver.

 

Sport Resolutions chairman Gerard Elias QC said:  "The independence and integrity of the NADP is crucial. 

 

"I strongly believe that in appointing such an experienced and well qualified president and Panel we will ensure that the UK leads the way in the fight against drugs in sport and the fair and consistent application of anti-doping regulations."

 

National Anti-Doping Panel - Member Biographies

 

Peter Leaver QC - President

 

Leaver is the first President of the National Anti-Doping Panel. He is a practising Barrister based at One Essex Court, Temple. Leaver is Recorder of the Crown Court and a Deputy High Court Judge. Between 1997 and 1999 he took a sabbatical from the Bar and was Chief Executive of the FAPremier League. He is Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb) and Chairman of the London Court of Arbitration. A Member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Leaver has been appointed to arbitrate a number of high profile international anti-doping disputes. He was also appointed as a member of the Ad-Hoc Division of the Court for the UEFA Championships 2000, the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games 2002 and also to the chairmans List of the Sport Resolutions Panel of Arbitrators. He is listed as a leading silk under sports law in the Legal 500 2007-9.

 

Richard Davies QC - Legal Member

 

Richard Davies is a Barrister practising from 39 Essex Street. He took silk in 1994. He has extensive experience in leading High Court cases involving sports, and specialises in clinical negligence, personal injury, insurance disputes and construction work. He has also acted as Arbitrator in inter-barrister disputes on behalf of the Bar Council and is a member of the Sport Resolutions Panel of Arbitrators. He is listed as a leading silk in Personal Injury in the 2008 edition of Chambers UK-A Client's Guide to the UK Legal Profession and in the 2005 edition of the Legal 500.

 

Robert Englehart QC - Legal Member

 

Robert Englehart is a Barrister and a member of the SDRP Panel of Arbitrators (Chairpersons List). He took silk in 1986 and sits as a Deputy High Court Judge and a Crown Court Recorder. He has experience in sports law, intellectual property, professional negligence (solicitors and accountants), insurance and reinsurance, media, entertainment and broadcasting and commercial judicial review. He is an Arbitrator of the International Chamber of Commerce and the London Court of International Arbitration. He is listed as a leading silk in Media and Entertainment and Professional Discipline in the 2008 edition of Chambers UK-A Client's Guide to the UK Legal Profession, and in Media and Entertainment in the 2005 edition of the Legal 500.

 

Charles Flint QC - Legal Member

 

Charles Flint has extensive experience in Sports Law, both as counsel and arbitrator, and particularly in anti-doping cases. He was the chairman of the disciplinary tribunals appointed by UK Athletics to deal with the cases of Dwain Chambers and Christine Ohuruogu. He has been a member of the Sport Resolutions Panel of arbitrators and mediators for a number of years. He is Chairman of the Sports Broadcast Monitoring Committee established by CCPR to monitor compliance with the code relating to broadcasting rights granted by the major sports. He is a member of the Anti-Doping Review established by the British Olympic Association in preparation for the Olympic Games 2012.  He is a co-author of "The Regulation of Drug Use in Sport" in "Sport: Law and Practice" (Butterworths - 2003). He appeared in the BBC Radio 4 series "Unreliable Evidence" speaking on sports law. He was a member of the Ethics Advisory Group established as part of the London 2012 bid.  Flint practices from Blackstone Chambers and is listed in the legal directories as a leading silk in, inter alia, Financial Services, Commercial Litigation and Sports Law.

 

Patrick Harrington QC - Legal Member and Vice President

 

Patrick Harrington is a Legal Member and Vice-President of the National Anti-Doping Panel. A Barrister practising from Farrar's Building, Temple, he is Recorder of the Crown Court, Protector of the Millennium Awards Trust and Former Leader of the Wales and Chester Circuit (October 2000 to December 2003) and Bencher of Gray's Inn. He has an established practice in the most serious and high profile criminal cases, in health and safety and in sports law. He sits as an occasional chairman of Welsh Rugby Union Disciplinary Tribunals and has a niche Sports Law practice having been instructed in rugby football, horse racing and association football cases.
In Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession he is described as an 'a top silk' who 'combines great people skills with a virtually guaranteed involvement in the leading cases on the (Welsh) circuit'. He regularly appears in courts throughout England and Wales.

 

Matthew Lohn - Legal Member

 

Matthew Lohn heads the Public and Regulatory Law Group at Field Fisher Waterhouse. He advises Statutory, Royal Charter and other regulatory bodies on all aspects of their work. His group has developed a particular expertise in the field of healthcare, but also advises on sporting, financial, educational and legal regulation. He specialises in advising professional regulators on their registration and discipline functions. He prosecutes a wide variety of professionals before their disciplinary panels for both disciplinary and drug related offences. He is appointed as the legal advisor to the disciplinary committees of the General Teaching Council and General Social Care Council. Being a qualified doctor and lawyer, he has a particular interest in the consequences of drug testing in sport. He sits as a chairman of the Disciplinary Panel for the Horseracing Regulatory Authority, the British Boxing Board of Control and the Rugby Football Union.

 

Rod McKenzie - Legal Member

 

Rod McKenzie is senior partner and head of litigation at Scottish law firm Harper Macleod. He is listed as a leading individual in Sport, Litigation, Employment and Licensing in one of the UK's leading independent legal directories. He is legal advisor to the Scottish Premier League, Chairman of the Appeals Committee of the Scottish Rugby Union. He is a Judicial Officer for the International Rugby Board and was one of the Appeals Chairman for the Rugby World Cup 2007. He has acted in numerous disciplinary cases at a domestic and international level and has taken appeal cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

 

Graeme Mew - Legal Member

 

Graeme Mew is a Barrister (England and Wales and Ontario, Canada) practicing from Four New Square, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a CEDR-accredited Mediator and member of the Sport Resolutions Panel of Arbitrators. He is an Arbitrator of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution. He is also a Panel Arbitrator and Mediator for ADR Chambers (UK and International), the Sports Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada, the ADR Institute of Canada and a Specialist Member of the FA Judicial Panel. He has conducted over 50 arbitrations all over the world. He has a very wide area of expertise, including civil and commercial litigation, public law, private international law, insurance and reinsurance law, contract and tort, professional liability and, of course, sports law. He is a Judicial Officer for the International Rugby Board and served as an appeal chairman at the 2003 and 2007 Rugby World Cups. Mew is also a member of the Anti-Doping Advisory Committee of the International Rugby Board. He is a former Honorary Legal Adviser to Rugby Canada and played rugby for Toronto Nomads Rugby Club. He has conducted over 20 cases involving doping issues as Chairman of a Panel or sole Arbitrator.

 

David Phillips QC - Legal Member

 

David Phillips is a Barrister practising from Wilberforce Chambers. He took silk in 1997 and sits as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Queens Bench and Chancery Divisions and a Recorder. He is also the Director of the Disability Law Service. He specialises in Commercial, Regulatory and Employment matters and Sport. He has represented a number of Premier League football clubs in the UK and before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He has recently been appointed as chairman of the National Greyhound Racing Club appeal tribunal and is a member of the Sport Resolutions Panel of Arbitrators. He is listed as a leading silk in Sport in the 2008 edition of Chambers UK-A Client's Guide to the UK Legal Profession and in the 2008 edition of the Legal 500.

 

Christopher Quinlan - Legal Member

 

Christopher Quinlan is a Barrister and a member of the Sport Resolutions Panel of Arbitrators. He advises and appears in sports disciplinary cases. He sits on and chairs Football Association Appeal Boards and this year was appointed a Specialist Member of the FA Judicial Panel. He chairs rugby union disciplinary hearings at all levels of the game including English Premiership, European Rugby Cup and Six Nations. Quinian has also acted as a Match Commissioner for Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup games. In 2007 he was appointed a Judicial Officer by the International Rugby Board and served in that capacity at the Rugby World Cup 2007. He has played rugby, hockey and cricket. He is listed as a leading practitioner in Crime in the 2007 edition of Chambers UK-A Client's Guide to the UK Legal Profession and in the 2007 edition of the Legal 500.

 

Carole Billington-Wood - Specialist Member

 

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.

 

Dr Terry Crystal - Specialist Member

 

Terry Crystal is a qualified doctor and consultant at Nuffield Hospital Leeds in Sports and Exercise Medicine. He has been involved in elite sport for over twenty years, as Medical Officer with various professional clubs including Leeds United, Leeds Rhinos and Leeds Tykes and for the England National Team in Rugby Union. He previously worked for the Sports Council as an Independent Sampling Officer.

 

Abi Ekoku - Specialist Member

 

Abi Ekoku is a former AAA's and UK champion in the discus and a former professional rugby League player, coach, player representative and chief executive. He has served on various public sector panels including a UK Sport Drugs Advisory Board. He is currently Director of a strategic marketing company. His brother, Efan, played football for Norwich City and Nigeria.

 

Lorraine Johnson - Specialist Member

 

Lorraine Johnson is a Magistrate sitting at Pontefract Magistrates' Court. She is also a tribunal panel member for the South West Yorkshire Mental Heath Trust. She previously worked as a lead doping control officer for UK Sport.

 

Professor Peter Sever - Specialist Member

 

Peter Sever's background is in clinical pharmacology, having held the Chair and Head of Department position formerly at St Mary's Hospital Medical School and subsequently at Imperial College London. He has held the post of Honorary Consultant position at St Mary's Hospital for over 25 years. He has experience in the management of poisoning and drug overdose and completed his doctoral thesis on the subject of drugs of abuse with particular emphasis on their biochemical and metabolic profile in man. He has also co-authored reviews on drugs of abuse. For more than a decade he has been a member of the Disciplinary Panel of the English and Wales Cricket Board and advised on matters related to drug use and abuse in cricket. He has also held responsibility for disciplinary matters involving medical students.

 

Dr Neil Townshend - Specialist Member

 

Neil Townsend is a qualified doctor working in full time General Practice. He is a former British and North American champion in the sport of Luge who represented Britain at seven Olympic Games from 1980 to 1998 as competitor, team manager and doctor. He is also a former vice-chairman of the British Olympic Association and has participated in numerous anti-doping reviews and panels.

 

Judy Vernon - Specialist Member

 

Judy Vernon is an athletics coach and a former Britain team manager. She is a former international athlete for Britain, a Commonwealth champion in the 100m hurdles, and former national event coach for GB sprint hurdles (1991-98). She has sat as a member of four disciplinary panels for UK Athletics: all hearings related to doping offences. She is also a lay member of the Sport Resolutions Panel of Arbitrators.