Lord Neuberger has joined One Essex Court as an arbitrator after announcing his retirement from the bench.
Lord Grabiner QC, a commercial barrister at the set, confirmed that Former Supreme Court judge Neuberger would join chambers with immediate effect.
Neuberger said: “I am very pleased to be joining One Essex Court, and, having retired from the bench, I am looking forward to what I hope will be an equally stimulating time as an arbitrator.
Judging and arbitration have much in common, but there are also a number of significant distinctions.”
Neuberger retired from the highest juridical position at the end of September, following a career that saw him preside over the landmark Article 50 case, in which the court ruled that parliament could not rely on royal prerogative alone to trigger Article 50 and must seek parliamentary approval.
He became the country’s youngest Law Lord in 2007 after spending just two years in the Court of Appeal. His rise through the judicial ranks was one of the swiftest in legal history. In 2009, he became the 95th Master of the Rolls (MR) before he was made President of the Supreme Court in 2012.
In the summer Baroness Hale of Richmond was confirmed as Neuberger’s successor, the first women to become president of the Supreme Court.
Lady Hale graduated from Cambridge University in 1966 and qualified as a barrister. She practised family and social welfare law at the Manchester Bar but her main career was as an academic. She taught law at Manchester University until 1984, when she became the first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission, the statutory body which promotes the reform of the law.
She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1989 and in 1994 she became a High Court judge. In 1999 she was the second woman to be promoted to the Court of Appeal, following Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, before becoming the first woman Law Lord.
Well done on the career of Lord Neuberger so far. Also congratulations to Lady Hale on the Supreme Court appointment. As an ULaw law student it’s been fascinating reading the many judgments from the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court regarding those judges, so good luck to both.
My Lord, you have come such a long way since I first encountered you, when you acted for the respondent landlord in a 1987 rent review arbitration concerning a West End casino. This experience fostered my interest in arbitration, which in turn led to my appointment as Legal Adviser to the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) in 1988. It was a pleasure to meet you again at the CIArb’s Hong Kong Centenary Conference in 2015. I hope the CIArb will continue to benefit from your pearls of wisdom and wish you all the very best in your new arbitral career.