John Mehrzad KC is the current Legal 500 ‘Sports Law Silk of the Year’.

The legal issues he is instructed on are often multi-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional in nature, drawing on his core specialisms of sports, employment and commercial law and related areas, such as arbitration, regulatory, competition, EU, human rights and tax law. He is also renowned for his expertise in chairing high-profile independent reviews or conducting sensitive independent investigations.

In 2020 he was appointed QC (now KC) after only 12 full years’ practice – the fastest barrister appointee of that competition. He is a Band 1 ranked KC in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500, and has been nominated as ‘Sports Law Silk of the Year’ by Legal 500 every year since 2022. He was also listed in The Lawyer’s ‘Hot 100 2023’.

Legal directories describe him as “exceptional and a true heavyweight in his field” with the recommendation that “if you want to win – you want him on your side before the opposition snaps him up”.
John is also regularly instructed in injunction applications, trials and appeals in employment and commercial disputes, often involving restrictive covenants, contractual or fiduciary duties, confidential information, economic torts and conspiracy allegations.

He is also recognised for conducting reviews or investigations into issues including workplace misconduct, equalities and discrimination and governance. For example, he was the only lawyer on the cultural review of British Cycling, chaired the governance review of the British Equestrian Federation, chaired the review into British Athletics’ handling of allegations relating to Alberto Salazar, and has been repeatedly appointed to investigate other national governing bodies and international federations.

John is a Governing Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2025, and speaks working French.