Terra Firma Chambers is delighted to announce that Lord Hope of Craighead (David Hope QC) has joined the Chambers as a senior arbitrator with immediate effect. 

Lord Hope called to the Scottish Bar in 1965 taking silk in 1978. Over his 24 years in practise he developed an extensive practice in tax, construction and oil and gas law and sat occasionally as a sole arbitrator.  He served as Standing Junior for the Board of Inland Revenue in Scotland from 1974 to 1978 and as an Advocate Depute from 1978 to 1982.  From 1986 to 1989 he was Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. 

In 1989 Lord Hope was appointed direct from the bar to the bench as Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General of Scotland.  He held these offices until 1996, when he was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.  He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1989 and a Life Peer in 1995. 

In 2009 he was appointed to be the Second Senior Lord of Appeal, and became Deputy President of the Supreme Court when that court was established in October 2009.  He continued to hold that office until he retired in June 2013, having sat as an appellate judge for 24 years.  For 17 of those years Lord Hope was a member of the UK’s highest court.  During that period he gave judgment in a number of important appeals raising issues of arbitration law, including the Fiona Trust case.  He is the author of the original title on arbitration law in the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia of Scots law and a member of Brick Court Chambers, in London.

Gordon Reid QC, Chairman of Terra Firma Chambers said “As chairman of Terra Firma Chambers, and as a Member of Faculty, I am delighted that Lord Hope has returned to practice as a senior arbitrator.  It is a great honour for Terra Firma and the Faculty that he has chosen to do so in Scotland as well as in England.  This will promote arbitration as a means of dispute resolution in Scotland and will also boost Scotland’s aspirations to become a major venue for international arbitration.”