Background:

London, as a leading national and world commercial centre, has always been an important centre for commercial dispute resolution, both by the state (the Royal Courts) and privately (through arbitration). However, recent opportunities have seen it react inventively and entrepreneurially to develop both new areas of dispute resolution and new techniques.

Sir Gary Hickinbottom, a former judge and now active in private dispute resolution, looks at some of these developments, with a particular focus on techniques used to hasten the resolution of large scale claims against institutions (such as the claims by former postmasters in respect of the Horizon computer system failures), and the development of the resolution of disputes in new areas such as sport, in both of which the City of London has featured strong.

Speaker:

The Rt Hon Sir Gary Hickinbottom was a London City solicitor for over 20 years, before he became a full-time judge. During his 20 years as a judge, he sat in a wide variety of tribunals and courts, from a London Parking Adjudicator to a Judge of the Court of Appeal. In 2021, he retired from the Court of Appeal to conduct a Commission of Inquiry into Governance and Corruption in the British Virgin Islands.  He is currently the President of Welsh Tribunals, and has recently been appointed to Chair the Post Office Overturned Convictions Independent Pecuniary Assessment Panel.  He is the Chair of the Judicial Panel of the Lawn Tennis Association and of British Wrestling, and is a member of several other sports arbitration panels and appeal boards, spending a good deal of his time involved in sports dispute resolution as well as commercial arbitration.  Gary is a Registered Mediator, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is a Freeman of the City of London, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators and, as Parish Clerk of St Faith’s under St Paul’s, a Member of the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks.