Who? Gregory Ioannidis, 33-year-old advocate at the Greek bar, law lecturer at the University of Buckingham and specialist in sports and criminal law.

Why is he in the news? Represented Greek athlete Kostas Kenteris who, with his team-mate Katerina Thanou, was cleared last month by an independent tribunal of the Greek Athletics Federation of charges that they tried to evade doping controls. The claims caused both athletes to withdraw from the 2004 Athens Olympics. Their coach, Christos Tzekos, has been banned from participating in athletics for four years for obstructing the doping control process. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Mr Kenteris and Ms Thanou also face criminal charges brought separately by Greek prosecutors of missing the drugs tests and faking a motorcycle accident to avoid testing at the Athens Games. They deny the charges.


Background: Law degree, followed by a masters degree in sports law in the UK before returning to Greece to pass the Greek bar exams in 2000 and practise criminal law at Halikias & Partners. He returned to the UK in 2003 to lecture in sports law at Buckingham and is nearing the completion of a PhD on the criminalisation of doping with the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki.


Route to the case: 'I have published several articles on doping and was involved in some doping cases at home. The clients had heard of me and just gave me a call.'


Thoughts on the case: 'It was a complicated and important case. We had to interpret for the first time the new IAAF rules. There were no precedents and the jurisprudence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport was non-existent. We had to examine the intention of the legislator in order to determine the correct application of the rules. We were able to establish that the drug testing procedures had not been properly followed. Doping matters should be taken away from sports' governing bodies. What is needed is the creation of a new framework based on a strong legal foundation that will safeguard the rights of the individual and balance them against the public interest. Such a framework can only be achieved by the criminalisation of doping.'


Dealing with the media: 'It was interesting. The majority of the media assumed from the start that the two athletes were guilty of missing drugs tests - there was no presumption of innocence until proven guilty. I think we have managed to change the picture slightly. They have received fairer treatment now and some positive coverage from the media.'