Macfarlanes and 20 Essex Street are acting as legal advisers to an independent commission set up by cycling's world governing body to investigate the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

Armstrong was recently banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after a string of revelations over systematic drug abuse.

Macfarlanes is advising the commission, which has been set up by the International Cycling Union (UCI).

The firm, whose team is being led by arbitration and contentious intellectual property head Geoff Steward, has instructed 20 Essex Street's Guy Morpuss QC as lead counsel to the commission, as well as a firm of forensic accountants and medical experts to act as expert advisers.

John Coates, the President of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS), has appointed former Court of Appeal Judge Sir Philip Otton, also of 20 Essex Street, to chair the commission.

Otton will be assisted by House of Lords Peer and former athlete Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, and Malcolm Holmes QC of Eleven Wenworth Chambers in Sydney, who also works as an arbitrator at 20 Essex Street.

The UCI said it would be appointing lawyers in due course, but no law firms were named at the commission's launch.

In October, as part of an investigation into the US Postal Service (USPS) professional cycling team, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) called into question the relationship between the UCI and the USPS, and the degree to which the governing body was aware of doping in the team.

The investigation found that Armstrong and the US Postal Service (USPS) team had engaged in the use, administration and trafficking of performance enhancing drugs and methods, and that his teammates in USPS also engaged in the use of performance enhancing drugs and methods.

UCI President Pat McQuaid said: "The Commission's report and recommendations are critical to restoring confidence in the sport of cycling and in the UCI as its governing body. We will co-operate fully with the Commission and provide them with whatever they need to conduct their Inquiry and we urge all other interested stakeholders to do the same."

The Commission is set to hold a hearing in London in April 2013, with the intention of reporting to the UCI at the beginning of June 2013.