Masters of the Bench

Blondel Thompson is an international criminal and sports barrister, based at St Philips Chambers in Birmingham.

She specialises in sports law, crime, and regulatory work. As a result of her background in professional sport, Blondel has numerous appointments to sports disciplinary bodies across Britain and Europe.

Her family background is in medicine, teaching and sports; she was the first member of her family to read Law.

She recalls her mother saying, ‘Aim for the stars, as you may just reach the tree-tops’. Surrounded by brothers, she played marbles and cricket, ran, argued – and demonstrated very clearly that girls have voices. As a tomboy who also loved dressing up, she feels that she had the best of both worlds.

Blondel received help and support from her lecturer at Sutton Coldfield College, who encouraged her to take her Law A Level in one year. Melbourne Inman QC of 1 Fountain Court (now the Recorder of Birmingham) fought for her to be taken on as a pupil and became her pupil master; she is greatly indebted to him.

Over the years, Blondel has combined her knowledge of, and passion for, sports with the law, developing her expertise by drawing on her own experience as a former British and Commonwealth record-holder (in the 100m hurdles) and on her observations of the careers of her brothers and her son – all sportsmen.

She was appointed to the List of Victims’ Counsel to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and to the International Criminal Court List of Counsel in The Hague.

This alignment of criminal law and sports law led Blondel to  be appointed as a Judge in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (which serves as the appeal court for all sports). She is an Arbitrator for the Football Association, a Specialist Adviser to the National Anti-Doping Panel as well as a panellist for Sport Resolutions’ Safeguarding Children in Sport and the England Boxing Disciplinary Panels.

On being elected a Bencher in 2017, Blondel said: ‘Life at times showers you with untold blessings, of which this is one’.