Sir William Blair KC

Biography

The Hon Sir William (Bill) Blair is an expert in the field of banking and financial law and regulation, having practised as a KC (Kings's Counsel) at English bar, becoming a Judge in 2008. He was Judge in Charge of London's Commercial Court and a Judge of the Financial List established to try major financial cases until 2017.
On retiring from the bench, he joined 3VB Chambers in London from which he sits as an arbitrator. He has had LCIA, HKIAC, ICC and ICSID appointments as Chair, sole arbitrator and party-appointed arbitrator. He is a member of the LCIA and is listed on the Panel of Arbitrators of the Beijing Arbitration Commission (BAC), the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA), the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and HKIAC's Panel of Arbitrators and Panel of Arbitrators for Financial Services Disputes.

In the academic field, he writes and speaks regularly on financial law and regulation topics, is Professor of Financial Law and Ethics at Queen Mary University of London, visiting Professor at a number of Universities internationally, and a Fellow of the Oxford University Commercial Law Centre. He became an Honorary Senior Fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in 2020.

Sir William was the first President of the Board of Appeal of European Supervisory Authorities (a European Union body which brings together the EU banking, financial services and insurance regulators) from 2012-19. He is a member of London's Financial Markets Law Committee, the Monetary Law Committee of the International Law Association (of which he was Chair until 2021), and the Advisory Board and Panel of Experts of P.R.I.M.E. Finance of The Hague.
Further on the dispute resolution side, he is a judge of the Qatar International Court and Chair of the Regulatory Tribunal of the Qatar Financial Centre. He has sat as a Deputy Judge of the High Court of the Hong Kong SAR. He is a member of the Steering Group of the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts, and a member of the International Commercial Expert Committee of the Supreme People's Court of China. In 2021, he became a member of the International Financial Legal Experts Team of the Shanghai High People's Court.

Sir William Blair chairs the Enforcement Decision Making Committee of the Bank of England, which is the UK's central bank. He is a member of the Ethics Committee of start-up funder Digital Catapult.