The doping scandals that have swept the sports world have led Los Angeles attorney Maurice Suh into a new specialty: handling the cases of athletes who have been accused of using illegal performance-enhancing substances.

Suh, a former federal prosecutor and now litigator at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, started representing Floyd Landis in January of last year over charges that he took synthetic testosterone to win the 2006 Tour de France. The two were introduced by a mutual friend, cycling enthusiast and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

“Floyd has become not just a client, but a friend,” Suh said. “He is a wonderful guy who has been through a difficult circumstance.”

Their friendship, which includes cycling together, has led to Suh representing other pro athletes accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Since joining Los Angeles-based Gibson Dunn in 2006, Suh’s repertoire has expanded from more conventional white-collar criminal defense and commercial litigation to representing Kazakhstan cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov and Olympic gold medalist sprinter Justin Gatlin in doping cases.

Since the Mitchell Report on steroid use in Major League Baseball was released earlier this year, legal experts say the issue of doping in sports has risen to greater levels of controversy. As a result, doping cases will likely become litigated more frequently.

“Doping has been front and center over the last couple of years, culminating in the Mitchell report,” said Daniel Lazaroff, director of Loyola Law School’s sports law institute. “It promises to remain an important topic because it’s not a problem that has been completely solved.”

The wrangling between athletes and the World Anti-Doping Agency means more business for Suh, as a consultant as well as a litigator.

In February, a bicycle racing team sponsored by Los Angeles jean-maker Rock & Republic called on Suh to help the team develop an internal anti-doping program.

The program, initiated by Rock & Republic Chief Executive Michael Ball, comes after Suh began representing Rock Racing Team member Kayle Leogrande in a lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Leogrande sued to stop the agency from testing a second urine sample, even though his first sample passed the test.

Last week, Suh represented Gatlin before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in New York. Suh is appealing Gatlin’s four-year ban from track and field and has asked the panel to ignore an earlier doping case against the sprinter on the grounds that he shouldn’t have been punished for an attention deficit drug. A decision will be issued June 6.

‘A lot of trials’

“These arbitrations are like trials, and I have done a lot of trials,” Suh said.

Suh cut his teeth as a prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, including a stint as deputy chief of the Los Angeles office’s public corruption and government fraud section.

He then jumped to the private sector, joining litigation powerhouse Howrey LLP in Los Angeles. But he left when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tapped him to serve for a term as deputy mayor of homeland security.

“I was happy to join the office, and then return to private practice,” Suh said.

As a partner at 950-attorney Gibson Dunn, Suh is shifting his focuses from complex commercial litigation, white collar criminal defense and counseling clients on governmental regulations. The doping and sports cases are taking more of his time these days.

“It’s good to have a variety of matters in front of me,” Suh said. “It helps bring a different perspective when you are preparing and trying cases.”

Suh first defended Landis against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in May 2007 at Pepperdine University in Malibu. In the highly technical case, Suh contested the accuracy of the testing, which was done by a French laboratory.

Landis reportedly spent $2 million defending himself against the doping allegations. He raised money for the defense by selling tickets to presentations about his case on a tour.

The three-member arbitration panel found Landis guilty. In March, Suh represented Landis in an appeal of the Malibu ruling to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport in New York. Landis is expecting a decision this summer.

So when Suh went back to New York last week to defend Olympic sprinter Gatlin at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, he was in a familiar setting.

The appeal is Gatlin’s last attempt to reduce the four-year ban for testing positive for excessive testosterone at a 2006 race so he can go to Beijing for this year’s games.

The ban came in 2001, after the sprinter received a doping violation. Suh is hoping to have the violation wiped out and the suspension dropped.

In representing professional athlete clients, Suh said he and other Gibson Dunn lawyers have been able to develop a sports law practice that advises new organizations on business practices, including financing and contracts.

Sports such as NASCAR, motocross, bike racing and X Game sports, are gaining popularity with American audiences, and in turn creating a new client base for Suh and his fellow Gibson Dunn partners.

“I expect to see a different format for American bike racing, one that has stronger ties to business sponsorships and televised events,” he said. He predicts there will be a bicycle race in the United States that will vary from the European model to become more media-friendly.

In order to establish themselves, Suh said, new organizations need lawyers helping them raise capital, get sponsorships and tap into franchising opportunities.

“Our goal is to take American cycling to the next step and get it to a NASCAR-type venue,” Suh said, “with all the excitement.”