William Blair (judge)

Sir William James Lynton Blair (born 31 March 1950), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Blair, is a British judge. He was previously a QC, specialising in domestic and international banking and finance law. His younger brother is the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Early life and education

Blair was born in Scotland to Leo Charles Lynton Blair, a barrister and later a lecturer in law, and Hazel Corscadden. Like his brother Tony, the future Prime Minister, he was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh before studying Jurisprudence (Law) at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1972.

Career

Blair took Silk in 1994, becoming a Queen's Counsel (QC) and was appointed a Recorder in 1998. He 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 Virgin Islands.

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. [cite web
url = http://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=350033&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True
title = Judicial Appointments
accessdate = 2008-09-16
date = 4 February 2008
work = News Distribution Services
publisher = Ministry of Justice] He was sworn in on 28 February. [The London Paper, 28 February 2008]

He is Visiting Professor of Law at the London School of Economics (1994-) and at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London (1999-). He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies (1997), and an academic adviser to the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (1999-).

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 was also Chairman of the International Monetary Law Committee of the International Law Association (2004) and of the Qatar Financial Centre Appeals Body (2006).

Publications

* Co-editor of the "Encyclopaedia of Banking Law", Butterworths, London
* Co-author of "Banking and Financial Services Regulation" (3rd edition), Butterworths, London, 2002,
* Editor of "Banks and Remedies", LLP, London, 1999,
* General editor of "Bullen & Leake & Jacob's Precedents of Pleadings", 14th edition (London, Sweet & Maxwell, 2001)
* Editor of "Banks, Liability and Risk", 3rd edition, (LLP, London, 2001).

External links

* http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/keyfacts/list_judiciary/senior_judiciary_list.htm

References