Expert resume of Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd

Former Commercial Court Judge and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. Arbitrator, Essex Court Chambers. President of Qatar International Court Committee. Chairman London Financial Markets Law Committee. 

Lord Thomas read law at Cambridge and the University of Chicago Law School (as a Commonwealth Fellow). He practiced at the Commercial Bar from 1972 (from 1984 as a KC) specialising in banking, shipping and reinsurance. He also acted as an arbitrator and appeared in overseas jurisdictions including Singapore and Bermuda. In 1992 he was appointed by the Department of Trade to inquire into the affairs of Mirror Group Newspapers when owned by Mr Robert Maxwell and its IPO. In 1996 he was appointed a judge of the Commercial Court where  he was judge in charge in 2002-3. In 2003 he became a Lord Justice of Appeal and held appointments as Senior Presiding Judge of England and Wales (2003 to 2006),  Vice-President of the Queen’s Bench Division (2008-11), President of the Queen’s Bench Division (2011-2013) and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (2013-2017).  As Lord Chief Justice he initiated major reforms including digitalisation of the court system, the establishment of the Financial List and the founding of the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts. He gave lectures worldwide on the judiciary, commercial law, commercial courts,  and arbitration.

He returned to Essex Court Chambers as an arbitrator in 2017. Since 2018 he has been President of the Qatar International Court and Chairman of the London Financial Markets Law Committee. He serves as a member of the House of Lords European Committee and the EU Services sub-committee. 

He was President of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary from 2008 to 2010, having participated in its founding in 2003/4. In 2011 he participated in the founding of the European Law Institute based in Vienna and is currently its First Vice-President.  He is Chancellor of Aberystwyth University and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall Cambridge and of other Universities.