KEY POINTS:
New Zealand lawyer David Williams, QC, will chair the three-man panel that decides the appeal by disgraced Tour de France winner Floyd Landis.
Williams, a former High Court judge, was appointed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Landis' defence team selected Swedish arbitrator Jan Paulsson, while the United States Anti-Doping Authority selected New York lawyer David Rivkin.
Paulsson previously chaired a CAS panel that acquitted cyclist Inigo Landaluze of doping charges after finding that a procedural error occurred during Landaluze's positive doping test.
Williams is one of five New Zealanders in a pool of 270 arbitrators used by CAS.
The others are Tim Castle, a former chairman of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, former chief justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, Simon Jefferson and Barry Paterson, QC.
Williams sat on the CAS panel that considered Australian kayaker Nathan Baggaley's case.
The panel rejected Baggaley's claim that his positive test to two steroids was due to him drinking his brother's orange juice which had been laced with steroids.
Baggaley and his brother, Dru, were remanded in custody on Thursday pending trial in connection with the manufacturing and trafficking of Ecstasy.
Landis is seeking to overturn his two-year suspension.
The parties have until late January to submit their statements. A hearing is not expected before March.
A verdict could come as late as May, two months before Landis would have celebrated the two-year anniversary of his 2006 Tour de France victory, had organisers not since awarded the win to runner-up Oscar Pereiro after an American Arbitration Association panel found against Landis, 2-1, on September 20.
Landis tested positive for elevated testosterone following Stage 17.
His lawyers will claim procedural errors were made during the testing of Landis' samples.
