The Rt. Hon. Lord Dyson KC

Lord Dyson was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court in 2010 and Master of the Rolls (President of the Court of Appeal in England and Wales, and Head of Civil Justice) in 2012. Since retiring from the Bench in 2016, he returned to 39 Essex Chambers where he was Head of Chambers for many years. He is now appointed as an arbitrator, mediator, chair of inquiries and legal expert.

Lord Dyson has been appointed both as presider and co-arbitrator under a variety of rules, including ICC, LCIA, DIAC, UNCITRAL and ad-hoc across the spectrum of international commercial and construction disputes.

He has conducted early neutral evaluations in connection with the Post Office Horizon scandal. He has also given expert opinions in a range of commercial cases. These have included a claim arising from a subordinated loan agreement subject to the courts of Uruguay and an allegation of negligent tax advice in the Republic of Ireland.

Lord Dyson has a particular interest in sport-related disputes and is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the Sport Resolutions Arbitration Panel, the Premier League Judicial Panel and the Football Association Judicial Panel. He has been and continues to be appointed in many high profile sports cases, frequently as chair. These have included the appeal by Saracens against the Premier Rugby League’s Salary Cap decision; many Premier League cases such as the three challenges by Manchester City FC to the Premier League Associated Party Transaction Rules and appeals by Nottingham Forest FC, Sheffield Wednesday FC and Burnley FC. His CAS cases have included the appeal by Russia against the Olympic Games Committee decision to exclude Russia from the 2024 Olympic Games. In 2024, he also acted as chair in a complex case involving the refusal by the FIA of an application to join the Formula 1 Championship and in a boxing doping case (UKAD and BBB&C v Benn). Some of Lord Dyson’s most high-profile work has included his appointment by the BBC to conduct the inquiry into Panorama’s interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, and as chair by the Financial Reporting Council in relation to Deloitte’s audit of Autonomy’s accounts. He also led a group instructed to advise on the modernisation of the Civil Justice Procedure of Cyprus.

He is the author of Justice, Continuity and Change (2018) and A Judge’s Journey (2019). He is also a member of the Council of Justice.

He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and the US College of Trial Lawyers. He has honorary doctorates from University College, London and the Universities of Leeds and Essex.

Lord Dyson was awarded the ‘Chambers Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the Chambers UK Bar Awards 2021.