Members of Essex Court Chambers welcome Lord Collins of Mapesbury

01 May 2012

The members of Essex Court Chambers are delighted to welcome Lord Collins of Mapesbury (Lawrence Collins) who, as from 01 May 2012, is a full time Arbitrator based at 24 Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Lord Collins was until 2011 a Justice of the UK Supreme Court. In 2000 he was the first (and so far only) solicitor  to be appointed direct from private practice to the High Court bench (Chancery Division, and subsequently also the Commercial Court), as Mr Justice Lawrence Collins. In 2007 he was appointed to the Court of Appeal, as Lord Justice Lawrence Collins, and then in 2009 appointed to be a member of the House of Lords Appellate Committee, whose functions were transferred to the UK Supreme Court in October 2009. He continues to sit on an occasional basis as an acting Justice of the UK Supreme Court and as a non-permanent judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.

He was in private practice as a partner in Herbert Smith for 30 years, and was head of its litigation and arbitration practice. In 1997 he was one of the first two solicitors to be appointed practising Queen’s Counsel. He acted as counsel and arbitrator in arbitrations, including ICC, LCIA, Cairo Centre and ad hoc arbitrations. As a judge in the Court of Appeal and the UK Supreme Court he delivered important judgments in the field of international arbitration, including Michael Wilson & Partners Ltd v Emmott (confidentiality in international arbitration); ETI Euro Telecom International NV v Bolivia (provisional measures in investment arbitration); and Dallah Real Estate & Tourism Holding v Pakistan (enforcement of foreign awards). He delivered the Freshfields lecture in 2009.

Since 1987 Lord Collins has been the general editor of Dicey and Morris (now Dicey, Morris and Collins), on the Conflict of Laws, the leading work in that field, and is co-editor of the chapter on international arbitration.