Expert resume of Lord Collins of Mapesbury

Former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Lord Collins was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from its inauguration in October 2009 until July 2011, and was previously a Law Lord.

He qualified as a solicitor in 1968. He was a partner in the firm of Herbert Smith & Co (later Herbert Smith) between 1971 and 2000, specialising in international commercial litigation and arbitration. In 1997 he was one of the first two solicitors to be appointed Queen’s Counsel, and between 1997 and 2000 sat as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Chancery Division.

In 2000 he became the first solicitor to be appointed direct to the High Court bench (Chancery Division), as Mr Justice Lawrence Collins. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2007 as Lord Justice Lawrence Collins, and to the House of Lords in 2009 as Lord Collins of Mapesbury.

In 2011 he was appointed a Professor at University College London. He is also an Honorary and Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London. In 1989 he was elected a member of the Institut de droit international, and in 1994 he was awarded the degree of LLD by Cambridge University, and was elected a fellow of the British Academy.

He is the author of many books and articles on international law, including since 1987 the general editorship of Dicey and Morris (now Dicey, Morris and Collins) on the Conflict of Laws.