Christopher Quinlan KC

Christopher is vastly experienced silk with an international and national sports law practice. He appears before and chairs tribunals adjudicating upon on-field foul play, off-field misconduct, anti-doping, safeguarding and selection appeals in a wide range of sports and competitions. He has significant leadership experience in sport and generally.

For many years Christopher has officiated at the following international and national tournaments and competitions –

• Olympic Games – 2020 (Tokyo), 2024 (Paris)
• Rugby World Cup (men) – 2007, 2011, 2025, 2019, 2023
• Rugby World Cup (women) – 2017, 2021, 2025
• Rugby 7s World Cup – 2018 & 2022
• Rugby – Six Nations, July a November international ‘windows’
• British & Irish Lions 2021 & 2025 tours
• European and domestic professional rugby union.
• Premier League and Championship football

Leadership roles in sport –

• Rugby Union – World Rugby Judicial Panel Chair (2017- )
• Football – In August 2019 Christopher was appointed the Football Association’s first independent JPC. His term was extended for a final (permitted) term, which ends in July 2025.
• Football – In January 2023 Christopher was appointed Chair of the English Football League (‘EFL’) Club Financial Review Panel (‘CFRP’). That was extended in 2024. The CFRP has responsibility for determining the appropriate outcomes in respect of breaches of financial regulations.

Development roles in sport –

•  Racing – In 2016 Christopher led a review of the structure, composition, and operation of the British Horseracing Authority (‘BHA’) Disciplinary Panel, Appeal Board and Licensing Committee. The resulting ‘Quinlan Review’ made far-reaching recommendations to bring the process in line with current best practice. The BHA implemented all his recommendations.
• Athletics – In summer of 2020 Christopher conducted an independent review and evaluation of the safeguarding policies and procedures of UK Athletics. The executive summary and recommendations were published in July 2020 and were accepted in their entirety.
• Rugby union – Christopher helped develop the Head Contact Process (‘HCP’) which is used by match officials, citing commissioners and judicial panels to assess the seriousness of foul play involving head/neck contact in rugby union. The HCP is used at every level of the game from international to club rugby worldwide. When you see a referee assessing whether a high tackle merits a yellow or red card, they are applying a process Christoper helped create.
• Rugby union – Christopher helped develop a new expedited Off-Field Sanctioning Process, which aims to make the foul play disciplinary system more efficient and streamlined. It will be trialled this summer (2025) in the British & Irish Lions tour, Wolrd Rugby U20s Championship and other international matches.

Author & speaker –

Christopher has conducted other reviews commissioned by national governing bodies.

• Tennis – In January 2019 Christopher led an independent review into events at Wrexham Tennis Centre. The Lawn Tennis Association (‘LTA’) commissioned the review into events at Wrexham Tennis Centre following the imprisonment for sexual offences of its former head coach in July 2017. The report (which was published) found fault on the part of the centre, as well as Tennis Wales and the LTA and made safeguarding recommendations.
• Gymnastics – Christopher oversees and manages the British Gymnastics (‘BG’) specialist Independent Complaints Process which handled a wide range of safeguarding complaints. He made decisions about the investigation and management of those complaints. He chairs case management team meetings, deciding cases or referring them to independent case panels.
• Christopher often collaborates with other professionals outside of chambers and the bar. He frequently speaks at disciplinary, anti-doping, safeguarding and sports law conferences.
• In July 2024 Christopher chaired LimeCulture’s 1st Safer Sport Knowledge & Network Conference during which individuals and sporting organisations shared best practice in making sport safe and discussed successes and the challenges in so doing. He has accepted an invitation to do so in 2026.
• He writes about the interface of sport and the law. For example, read about his  experience at the Pairs Olympics in 2024 here –

https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/a-silks-story-what-its-like-to-experience-and-officiate-at-the-paris-2024-olympics

• You can read about the new expedited sanctioning process in rugby union which Christopher helped to develop and is overseeing –

https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/the-expedited-off-field-sanctioning-process-in-international-rugby-union

• In the autumn of 2025 he will appear in a safeguarding podcast recorded with leading sports lawyers Bird & Bird, London and Gemma White KC, Blackstone Chambers.

Christopher is a very experienced criminal silk who prosecutes and defends cases of the utmost gravity, including homicide and serious sexual allegations. He prosecuted of the first slavery and servitude trial brought in England and Wales. All five defendants were convicted after a three-month trial. Very substantial confiscation orders we made in consequence. He prosecuted a high-profile murder which received daily national newspaper coverage and went viral worldwide.

Together with his ongoing homicide practice, some recent examples of his cases are set out below.

All of this complements his substantial and established sports law practice.

Notable Cases:

• In the summer of 2024, Christopher to conviction two men charged with the murder and robbery of a suspected drug dealer in his own home.  The case was especially difficult given the only other persons present in the house at the material time were an associate of the defendants and the other with his own motives to serve. Both defendants were convicted of murder and robbery.
• Christopher represented a seventeen-year-old boy charged with double murder in the notorious trial arising out of the unlawful killing of children Max Dixon and Mason Rist in Bristol in 2024. The trial in Bristol received national publicity.
• Christopher prosecuted three young boys charged with murder arising out the unlawful killing of a child at a sixteenth birthday party in Bath. One boy was convicted of murder and the other two are to be retried in the autumn 2025.
• Christopher prosecuted a four-week murder trial in Winchester, arising out of a dispute on the Isle of Wight. The two defendants were alleged to have murdered an armed man who attacked them in their own home. A tough case, given the deceased attacked them twice, armed and at night.
• Christopher prosecuted to conviction this tricky murder case. The defendant was a victim of domestic violence who killed her partner. There were no eyewitnesses, she had injuries and neighbours overheard her screaming just before she stabbed him to death. Notwithstanding those and other challenges, the defendant was convicted of murder largely because of cross-examination.

Christopher is a very experienced silk with a substantial regulatory and disciplinary practice.

Christopher appears before and is a highly experienced chairman of numerous sport disciplinary bodies and panels. He has led a number of substantial reviews including the ‘Quinlan Review’ which restructured the British Horseracing Authority’s disciplinary procedure. He is the independent Chair of World Rugby’s Judicial Panel and also the Independent Chair of The Football Association’s Judicial Panel. In November 2020 he was appointed to lead British Gymnastics Independent Complaints Process to handle individual complaints made to British Gymnastics and to the British Athletics Commission. He will oversee the whole process. This follows publication in July 2020 of his safeguarding Review for UK Athletics and in January 2019 of his Safeguarding Review for the Lawn Tennis Association.

Christopher appears before and is a highly experienced chairman of numerous sport disciplinary bodies and panels. He has led a number of substantial reviews including the ‘Quinlan Review’ which restructured the British Horseracing Authority’s disciplinary procedure.

He is the independent Chair of World Rugby’s Judicial Panel and also the Independent Chair of The Football Association’s Judicial Panel. In November 2020 he was appointed to lead British Gymnastics Independent Complaints Process to handle individual complaints made to British Gymnastics and to the British Athletics Commission. He will oversee the whole process. This follows publication in July 2020 of his safeguarding Review for UK Athletics and in January 2019 of his Safeguarding Review for the Lawn Tennis Association.

Environmental & Planning:

Christopher developed his regulatory junior practice in silk, with an expertise in Environmental Law. He has prosecuted several high-profile cases for Natural Resources Wales (and its predecessor Environment Agency Wales). Those complex cases concerned the illegal depositing of millions of pounds of waste within and outside the UK.