Christopher Quinlan KC > Chambers of Anna Vigars KC > Bristol, England > Barrister Profile
Guildhall Chambers Offices
Guildhall Chambers
23 BROAD STREET
BRISTOL
BS1 2HG
England
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Christopher Quinlan KC
Work Department
Crime; sports law; environment. Christopher is also a member at Farrar’s Building (Chambers of Patrick Harrington QC), London, 020 7583 9241.
Position
Christopher took silk in 2011. He has continued to prosecute and defend cases of the utmost gravity, including murder, manslaughter, and serious sexual allegations. He is instructed to prosecute a multi-handed slavery case, as well as two cases for the Environment Agency. He also specialises in sports disciplinary work, which complements his regulatory crime practice. In his extensive and varied sports law practice, he is involved in disciplinary tribunals at domestic, European and international levels. He advises, appears before as an advocate, and chairs disciplinary and other tribunals in a wide variety of sports, including rugby union, association football, horseracing and equestrian, motorsport, lawn tennis and golf. He is an expert in anti-doping law.
Career
- Recorder of the Crown Court
- Bencher, Inner Temple
- Judicial Panel Chairman, World Rugby
- Independent Judicial Panel Chair, Football Association
- Member, World Rugby Anti-Doping Advisory Committee
- International Association of Athletics Federation, Disciplinary Tribunal member
- Sport Resolutions Panel of Arbitrators
- Legal Member, National Anti-Doping Panel
- Legal Member, National Child Safeguarding in Sport Panel
- Deputy Chair, Appeal Board, Table Tennis England
Christopher is Head of the Guildhall’s Sports Team. He is a criminal, sports and regulatory law silk. He is an accomplished and very experienced trial advocate and Crown Court Recorder. He prosecutes and defends cases of the utmost gravity, including homicide and serious sexual allegations.
Christopher appears before and is a highly experienced chairman of numerous sport disciplinary bodies and panels. Author of the ‘Quinlan Review’, the LTA’s Independent Review into events at Wrexham Tennis Centre, and he is the independent Chair of World Rugby’s Judicial Panel and also the Independent Chair of The Football Association’s Judicial Panel. In 2020 he conducted a review to evaluate safeguarding provisions in UK Athletics. He is now firmly established as a leading member of the Sports Bar in England and Wales.
Memberships
- British Association for Sport and Law
- Bristol Medico-Legal Society
- Criminal Bar Association
- Western Circuit
- Wales & Chester Circuit
Education
LLB (Hons).
Lawyer Rankings
Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Sport
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Christopher Quinlan KC – Guildhall Chambers ‘He is a vastly experienced criminal advocate who is also outstanding at representing clients at sports disciplinary tribunals. His considerable experience as a tribunal chair and part-time judge have given him a very sharp instinct into how to best advise a client facing disciplinary issues.’
With ‘an unrivalled spread of sports work‘ Guildhall Chambers is a leading set both on the Western Circuit and nationally. Christopher Quinlan KC chaired the FA disciplinary tribunal after Cristiano Ronaldo knocked a mobile phone from the hands of a teenage spectator, as well as continuing to oversee the British Gymnastics independent complaints process, concerning allegations by a number of gymnasts of mistreatment, sexual abuse, physical abuse, bullying, harassment, and discrimination. Richard Smith KC and Samuel Jones are both notable for their rugby work, Jones having represented a number of Bath Rugby and Bristol Bears players.
Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Crime (general and fraud)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Christopher Quinlan KC – Guildhall Chambers ‘Christopher leaves no stone unturned in his preparation and presentation of cases. He thinks through every point and this enables him to present in a sensible and highly cogent manner. His legal submissions on paper and in court are second-to-none. His attention to detail is astonishing.’
Guildhall Chambers ‘has an unrivalled team of excellent criminal barristers‘. Richard Smith KC, ‘a formidable trial advocate‘, is well-known for handling murder cases and recently prosecuted a man who was convicted of murdering his ex-partner in the 1990s by setting her on fire; she died of her injuries more than two decades later, after the defendant had already served fifteen years of a life sentence for GBH. With a ‘beautiful advocacy style‘ Andrew Langdon KC regularly defends and prosecutes in homicide and gang-related cases, among others. Christopher Quinlan KC, ‘with impeccable judgement and a formidable grasp of the law‘ and Anna Vigars KC, whose ‘courtroom work is carried out with great skill and precision‘, also both have broad experience in serious crimes cases, as well as in cases with several complicating factors, both evidential and medical. Ray Tully KC ‘understands every nuance of a case‘ and recently acted for the defence in the case of a man who killed a stranger with a claw-hammer at a bus stop in Plymouth. Chloe Griggs, ‘a star in the making‘, was recently involved in a murder trial involving a defence of diminished responsibility founded on evidence of long-term coercive control and domestic abuse.