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The Rt. Hon. Sir Gary Hickinbottom
Sir Gary, a former Judge of the Court of Appeal, accepts appointments as arbitrator, mediator and the chair of disciplinary or safeguarding proceedings, and also conducts independent investigations and inquiries.
Following a double First from Oxford, where he also later tutored, Gary became a solicitor and was a partner in McKenna & Co (later CMS Cameron McKenna) until 2000, when he was made a full-time judge.
As a solicitor, for many years he acted in construction disputes, before focusing on complex litigation notably pharmaceutical product liability group claims.
On the Bench, Gary was appointed to a succession of judicial posts in both the court and tribunal systems including Designated Civil Judge for Wales, Chief Social Security and Child Support Commissioner, Chief Pensions Appeal Commissioner, President of the Administrative Appeals Chamber of the Upper Tribunal and Deputy Senior President of Tribunals, before being made a High Court Judge and then a Judge of the Court of Appeal. He also sat as a High Court Judge in the Falkland Islands. He has chaired a variety of committees and working parties including the project board on judicial training which resulted in the formation of the Judicial College; and the working party on litigants-in-person resulting in “The Hickinbottom Report” which was the basis for reforms in the way in which unrepresented parties were engaged in claims in which they were involved. He currently chairs a JUSTICE Working Party on Government Outsourcing, which is due to report in early 2024.
As a judge, he case managed and determined the most complex fact-finding exercises in a wide variety of technical and commercial fields, including personal injury and product liability. In all courts and tribunals, he spent a substantial amount of his time on public law claims of all types including claims involving governance, and regulatory and disciplinary decisions.
He retired from the Court of Appeal in 2021 to conduct a Commission of Inquiry into corruption and governance in the British Virgin Islands. In April 2023, he was appointed President of Welsh Tribunals.
A significant amount of his work as a judge was sport-orientated with a wide range of subjects, including the funding football club, the development of football and other sports grounds, and liability for injuries suffered whilst playing sport. He is particularly experienced in sitting on sports disciplinary and safeguarding panels, regularly chairing hearings relating to a wide variety of sports. He is currently the Chair of the Judicial Panels for the Lawn Tennis Association and British Wrestling, and a member of the Appeal Board of the British Horseracing Judicial Panel, the Premier League Judicial Panel, the FA Safeguarding Review Panel, and of the Sport Resolutions Arbitrators’ Panel and National Safeguarding Panel.
Gary holds a Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration, has been a registered mediator since 1991 and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators since 1995. He is a Past Master Arbitrator of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators.
He has written widely in academic and professional periodicals and books on procedural and substantive law and dispute resolution, and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Blackstone’s Civil Practice.