Lauren Pagé

Bird & Bird

In 2013, a newly qualified associate based in Quebec fired off an email to an eminent disputes partner in London, asking for a job. The associate was Dentons’ Lauren Pagé; the partner, Jonathan Taylor QC. The two had no prior connection: the young Canadian just had a desire to work in England, specifically for Bird & Bird. Fortunately, Taylor responded, Pagé crossed the Atlantic and eight years later the two still work together on some of the leading sports matters of the day.

Investigations loom large in Pagé’s work: she acted as legal secretary to the IBU External Review Commission, which conducted a two-year investigation into past misconduct at the highest levels of the International Biathlon Union. She was closely involved in setting up the Biathlon Integrity Unit, which now handles all integrity-related matters relating to biathlons and presents a new model for sports governance that is being replicated in other sports.

Trilingual Pagé also worked for the Fédération Internationale Equestre, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile last year, the last one in relation to the protest filed by the Renault DP World F1 Team challenging the legality of the BWT Racing Point F1 Team’s 2020 F1 cars.

She is also enjoying seeing another side of dispute resolution as an arbitrator for the Euroleague Basketball Dispute Resolution Chamber. Partnership surely beckons in 2022.