Brick Court scoops Lord Hoffmann as door tenant

16 April 2009 | By Katy Dowell

Hoffman, who is due to retire from the House of Lords later this month, will join the set as an arbitrator and will also look at mediation work.

Brick Court senior clerk Ian Moyler said: “We’re very happy. He’s undoubtedly one of the most revered judges of recent times.”

Moyler said there had been a significant increase in demand for arbitrators since October, with many clients preferring arbitration to litigation in the current climate.

Hoffmann is renowned as one of the most impressive Law Lords of his generation and one of the most daunting for lawyers to appear before.

In 1999 he upset the establishment when he failed to declare his links with Amnesty International before being one of the five law lords who sat in judgment on General Augusto Pinochet.

He also caused controversy when, as a High Court in 1989, he ordered a freelance journalist to reveal the sources of an unpublished article. Over a period of seven years the case went to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg before being thrown out.

Earlier this month he was back in the news after publicly criticising the European Court of Human Rights for going against domestic decisions and attempting to “teach grandmothers to suck eggs”.

The court should not be allowed to intervene in the detail of domestic law, he said, adding that this had led to the court being “overwhelmed” by a growing backlog of 100,000 cases.