William Blair
 Sir William Blair      (Judge, barrister, professor) | ||||||||||
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| Born | William James Lynton Blair 31 March 1950 Scotland | |||||||||
| Nationality | British | |||||||||
| Alma mater | Fettes College, Oxford University/Balliol College, Inns of Court School of Law | |||||||||
| Parents | • Leo Blair • Hazel Corscadden | |||||||||
Older brother of Tony Blair, Queen's Counsel and former High Court Judge
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Sir William Blair is a former UK High Court Judge (2008 to 2017). He was previously a Queen's Counsel, specialising in domestic and international banking and finance law.[1]
Sir William Blair is the Chair of the Bank of England’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee (EDMC) and chairs the Law and Ethics in Finance Project, a group concerned with raising standards in the financial sector.[2]
Contents
Background
Sir William's younger brother is the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.[3]
Career
Blair took Silk in 1994 and was appointed a Recorder in 1998.
Tax haven barrister
Blair became a Deputy High Court Judge in 2003 and was in the same year admitted as a barrister of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the Territory of the British Virgin Islands.
High Court Judge
On 4 February 2008 it was announced that the Queen had approved his appointment as a High Court Judge, assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. He was sworn in on 28 February. In 2016 he became Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court.
He became a member of London's Financial Markets Law Committee in 2008.
In 2012, he became president of the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities.
He is visiting professor of law at the London School of Economics (since 1994) and at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London (since 1999). He has also been, since 1999, an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies (1997), and an academic adviser to the Asian Institute of International Financial Law.
From 2001 to 2008 he served, part-time, as a chairman of the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal (Finsmat) and from 2003 to 2005 he was chairman of the Commercial Bar Association (Combar). He is also chairman of the International Monetary Law Committee of the International Law Association (from 2004), and of the Qatar Financial Centre Appeals Body (2006).
Along with Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, he served as the Co-Convener of the inaugural Qatar Law Forum of Global Leaders in Law, held in Doha, Qatar, from 29–31 May 2009.
Libya's $67 billion sovereign wealth fund
In March 2016, adjourning a case in London’s High Court over the leadership claims of two rival heads of the Libyan Investment Authority, which controls Libya’s $67 billion sovereign wealth fund,[4] Judge Blair declared it would be premature to rule while moves were afoot to form a Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya. Four years later, in August 2020, the GNA's head Fayez al-Sarraj and Aguila Saleh Issa, speaker of the rival eastern-based parliament backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, were calling for elections to resolve Libya's long-standing divisions.[5]
Post-retirement
Sir William Blair retired as a High Court Judge on 1 December 2017 to take up a position as Professor of Financial Law and Ethics at Queen Mary University of London.[6][7]
In 2018, he was appointed to sit part-time as a Deputy Judge of the High Court of Hong Kong[8]
References
- ↑ "Mr Justice Blair"
- ↑ "The Bank of England’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee decides on contested enforcement cases"
- ↑ "Blair's brainy brother, in law"
- ↑ "Spare a Thought for Libya’s $67 Billion Wealth Fund"
- ↑ "Protests against Libya’s GNA erupt in Tripoli over living conditions"
- ↑ "High Court: Retirement of the Honourable Sir William James Lynton Blair"
- ↑ "Sir William Blair appointed as Professor of Financial Law and Ethics at Queen Mary"
- ↑ "G.N. 1375" Hong Kong Government Gazette (No. 9, Vol. 22, 2 March 2018)
