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Areas of Practice
Experience
Lord (Peter) Goldsmith QC, PC, Chair of European and Asian Litigation, joined Debevoise as European Chair of Litigation in September 2007. Lord Goldsmith served as the UK’s Attorney General from 2001-2007, prior to which, he was in private practice as one of the leading barristers in London.
Lord Goldsmith practised from Fountain Court Chambers from 1972-2001, specialising principally in commercial, corporate and international litigation and appellate work. During this time he was ranked by Chambers UK 2000-01 as being in the top tier of leading silks in London for international arbitration and commercial litigation. He became Queen’s Counsel in 1987 at the early age of 37 and has judicial experience as a Crown Court Recorder and a Deputy High Court Judge. Consistently acknowledged for his prominence, American Lawyer states that “[he has] the advocacy skills of one of the finest barristers of his generation”. Chambers Global (2012) describes him as “breathtakingly persuasive” and “one of the great doyens of the English bar.” According to Chambers UK (2013), clients and peers praise Lord Goldsmith for his ”overwhelmingly brilliant advocacy”. He is recommended as a leading lawyer by Chambers UK (2012) for his experience in International Arbitration, recognising him as being “enormously accomplished” and a “brilliant advocate”. He is ranked as a leading individual for Dispute Resolution by Chambers Europe (2012) and described as both ‘”enormously accomplished” and a “brilliant advocate”’. He is also ranked as a "leading individual" for International Arbitration by Legal 500 UK (2012) and is recognised as a “brilliant lawyer” and “an exceptional advocate who gets to the root of any dispute”.
Chambers Asia-Pacific (2013) holds Lord Goldsmith as highly regarded amongst the Indian legal community, with one source saying: "He has two skills that form a deadly combination in a litigator: firstly, the ability to dissect any complicated legal problem to one or two basic issues; and secondly, the ability to present a solution to the judge or arbitrator in the simplest possible manner."
Lord Goldsmith was appointed Attorney General in 2001, acting as chief legal adviser to the government on matters of domestic, European and international law. He represented the government in numerous cases in UK and international courts.
He has appeared in many cases in the House of Lords, the Privy Council and the Court of Appeal as well as international and European courts and in the courts of a number of other jurisdictions. Significant work includes leading cases on auditors’ liability; insurance and takeover law; banking law; company law; insolvency litigation; revenue cases; public law and public international law; and arbitration. A list of representative cases is available on request.
Appointments include Council member of the International Section of the American Bar Association; Board Member of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative; co-Chairman of the ICC Task Force on States and State Entities; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Access to Justice Foundation; Chairman of the Bar of England & Wales (1995); Chairman of the Financial Reporting Review Panel (1997-2000); co-Chairman of the IBA’s Human Rights Institute (1998-2001); elected to membership of the American Law Institute (1997); and made a member of the Paris Bar (1997). He was a Council member of the International Bar Association (IBA) and the Union Internationale des Avocats. Lord Goldsmith was made a Life Peer in 1999 and Privy Counsellor in 2001. In 1996, he founded the Bar of England and Wales’ Pro Bono Unit, of which he is now President. He is a Bencher of Gray’s Inn. Lord Goldsmith is a nominated member of the P.R.I.M.E. Finance Panel of Experts. P.R.I.M.E. is a panel of Recognised International Market Experts in Finance based in The Hague, established to assist judicial systems in the settlement of disputes on complex financial transactions. The panel of experts comprises some of the most senior people in the financial markets sector.
He was a graduate in law from Cambridge University with double first class honours and a Master’s from University College London. He was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales in 1972 and New South Wales in 2010.
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