Personal bio
I am a former Mercantile Judge in England on the Western Circuit, and judge in charge of the Bristol Technology and Construction Court (TCC), having retired in May 2017. As a Mercantile and TCC judge my work covered a wide commercial field, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, banking, financial services, insurance, professional negligence, and a wide variety of disputes arising out of construction contracts and procurement. Since retiring from the Bench, I have accepted appointments as chair and sole arbitrator under LCIA and LMAA rules. In 2019, I joined the Market Supervision and Review Committee at Lloyd’s of London. Before becoming a judge in 2001, I practised for 25 years as a barrister in Chambers at 3 Essex Court (later becoming 20 Essex Street and now re-named Twenty Essex) specialising in all aspects of international trade, in particular in cases involving carriage by sea and by road, shipbuilding, the international sale of goods, commodity trading, the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, and arbitration law and practice. I appeared frequently as counsel in maritime arbitrations and in arbitrations before the London commodity trade associations, such as GAFTA, FOSFA and the Refined Sugar Association. I also sat as an arbitrator in LMAA arbitrations and at Lloyd’s of London, and I chaired the LMAA Supporting Members’ Liaison Committee at the time of the passing of the Arbitration Act 1996. As counsel, I also appeared in the Commercial Court, Admiralty Court, TCC, Court of Appeal and House of Lords. I sat as a Recorder in the Crown Court between 1994 and 2001 and as a Civil Recorder from 1998. I became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 1991 and was Patron of the Western Counties Branch 2005-2017. I was elected a Bencher of Inner Temple in 1995.