Labelled as the ‘go to set for football regulatory matters’, Blackstone Chambers has extensive expertise in sports body governance and all aspects of the commercialisation of sport. The set represents a broad range of domestic and global governing bodies, sporting individuals, alongside high-profile football clubs. As evidenced by Adam Lewis KC acting for the Premier League in its ongoing dispute with Manchester City in relation to alleged breaches of the league’s financial regulations, while Nick De Marco KC currently represents various Premier League clubs with respect to potential claims they have against Everton FC, arising out of Everton’s breaches of league financial spending rules. Luka Krsljanin is representing FIFA in cases before the Court of Arbitration for Sport concerning new regulations imposed on football agents.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'The clerks are always helpful, and are willing to help even at incredibly short notice.'
- 'Exceptional service from the clerks at Blackstone. Derek Sutton in particular is incredible - always very responsive and efficient.'
- 'Very good, Adam Sloane always a pleasure.'
- 'Blackstone Chambers would be my go-to set for football regulatory matters, with strength from the silks to the juniors.'
- 'Blackstone are arguably the leading sports set. They have incredible strength in depth.'
- 'Top set in the country for sports disputes and sports regulatory cases.'
- 'Blackstone is a very strong sports law set with other notable practitioners including leading experts.'
- 'Very prompt and professional.'
Silks
Leading Silks
KCs at the very top of their field, with a long-established record of market-defining cases, and widespread endorsement from clients and peers. All silks appointed in the last two rounds are listed further below.
Jane Mulcahy KC
Blackstone Chambers ‘Her manner with clients is phenomenal and she builds trust in an instant.’
Adam Lewis KC
Blackstone Chambers ‘Adam is excellent and a go-to silk for sports work. He is bright and a great advocate, and as important, always puts the work in.’
Nick De Marco KC
Blackstone Chambers ‘Currently the leading KC dealing with football and regulatory matters - he has vast subject matter knowledge, is great on his feet, and very easy to work with.’
James Segan KC
Blackstone Chambers ‘Phenomenal intellect, excellent on his feet, fantastic with clients – good clear advice without flannel. A delight to work with.’
Kate Gallafent KC
Blackstone Chambers ‘Kate is superior in this area of practice. She is an absolute class act and a formidable advocate. She is very user-friendly, and client focused. She always offers sound advice and navigates complex matters with ease and skill. She is simply astounding.’
Andrew Hunter KC
Blackstone Chambers
Lord Pannick KC
Blackstone Chambers2023 Silks
KCs at the very top of their field, with a long-established record of market-defining cases, and widespread endorsement from clients and peers. All silks appointed in the last two rounds are listed further below.
Tom Richards KC
Blackstone Chambers ‘Tom is extraordinarily clever and precise. He is calm under pressure and his advocacy style is persuasive, extremely clear, and robust.’
Juniors
Leading Juniors
Leading juniors are those with significant experience of key cases, strong market recognition from both peers and clients, and are seen as future candidates for silk.
Tom Mountford
Blackstone Chambers ‘Tom is undoubtedly one of the most notable up and coming juniors practising at the sports Bar. He is adept at identifying the key issues in any case and focusing on them in both written advice and submission and orally. His advocacy style is calm and persuasive, backed been a forensic analysis of the evidence. He is also very astute in his tactical advice and has a very calm understated manner in dealing with clients.’
Ravi Mehta
Blackstone Chambers ‘Incredibly bright but wears the intelligence lightly with a very relaxed and relaxing manner. He is an absolute gent and very responsive - an instructing solicitor's dream.’
Luka Krsljanin
Blackstone Chambers ‘Luka is calm under pressure, has an excellent rapport with experts and witnesses and a tremendous command of the case.’
Shane Sibbel
Blackstone Chambers ‘Shane is tenacious and unafraid and an incredible issue-spotter and problem-solver. He has the ear of the court.’
Celia Rooney
Blackstone Chambers ‘Celia is a go-to barrister in the field of sport. She is down to earth, a great communicator and client-centric. These are critical qualities in any barrister but especially in her fields of work. The quality of her written work and advocacy is the cherry on the top.’
David Lowe
Blackstone Chambers ‘A go to sports disputes junior and genuine subject matter expert, whilst also being extremely user friendly.’
Natasha Simonsen
Blackstone Chambers ‘Natasha is clever, straightforward, persuasive, and a pleasure to deal with. Judges trust her and she has the advocate's skill of making everything she says appear obvious and impossible to rebut.’
Jason Pobjoy
Blackstone Chambers ‘Jason is an outstanding lawyer and advocate, and he brings an intimate knowledge of competition law and public law principles, and a preparedness to innovate, to complex sports litigation, which increasingly turns - by application or by analogy - on these principles. He is incredibly hard working and legally brilliant, which is a formidable combination in terms of preparation, but in addition to that he is superb on his feet and in cross examination.’
Hollie Higgins
Blackstone Chambers ‘Hollie is a genius and possibly one of the most gifted barristers - she is able to grasp and articulate arguments with consummate ease.’