Lord Goldsmith KC

Lord Goldsmith KC is a former Attorney General of the United Kingdom (2001-2007) former Chairman of the Bar of England and Wales and a pre-eminent legal practitioner renowned for his international arbitration and litigation work.

Lord Goldsmith KC re-joined Fountain Court on 1 January 2026 as counsel and arbitrator, having previously been a Member of Chambers from 1972 to 2001. Between 2007 and 2025 he practised at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, serving as London Co-Managing Partner and Chair of European and Asian Litigation.

He graduated with double First Class Honours in Law from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, holds a Master’s degree from Cambridge, and an LL.M. from the University of London. Lord Goldsmith KC practised from Fountain Court between 1972 and 2001, specialising in commercial, corporate and international litigation, with a particular emphasis on appellate advocacy. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1987 at the age of 37 and became Chairman of the Bar of England and Wales at 45. He has served as a Crown Court Recorder and Deputy High Court Judge. He has appeared in numerous leading cases before the UK Supreme Court, the House of Lords, the Privy Council and the Court of Appeal, as well as before the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice. He has also appeared before courts in overseas jurisdictions, including Singapore and the Caribbean Court of Justice.

Lord Goldsmith KC acts as counsel in arbitrations under all major institutional rules, including LCIA, ICC (where he co-chaired the Task Force on Arbitration Involving States and State Entities), SIAC, HKIAC, SCC and in ad hoc proceedings. He recently successfully represented an independent oil company in a claim exceeding US$50 billion against a major oil company concerning pre-emption rights.

He also sits as arbitrator and accepts appointments as chair/president, sole arbitrator and party-appointed arbitrator under major institutional rules, including ICSID and ad hoc proceedings.

He has served as Vice Chair of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre and currently sits on the Court of the International Arbitration Centre of Abu Dhabi (ArbitrateAD). He writes and speaks frequently on arbitration and public international law.

Lord Goldsmith KC was created a Life Peer in 1999 and appointed a Privy Counsellor in 2001. He served as the Prime Minister’s Personal Representative in negotiating the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. He is a Bencher of Gray’s Inn and has been Visiting Professor of European Legal Studies at Columbia University, New York. He was the inaugural Chair of the House of Lords International Agreements Committee, scrutinising and advising on the ratification of all new UK treaties.

He is registered as a Foreign Lawyer before the Singapore International Commercial Court and is admitted permanently in Belize (2010), the British Virgin Islands (2011), New South Wales (2010), Paris (1997) and Northern Ireland (2001). He has also been admitted on a case-specific basis in jurisdictions including St Kitts and Nevis, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and The Bahamas. He is included on the Delhi International Arbitration Centre’s panel of arbitrators and in the international database of the Arbitration Center at the Institute of Modern Arbitration, Moscow.

Lord Goldsmith KC has long been committed to pro bono work and access to justice. He founded the Bar Pro Bono Unit (now Advocate), a nationwide charity providing free legal services by barristers, and established the Attorney General’s Pro Bono Coordinating Committees. He was the first Chair of the Access to Justice Foundation and currently serves as Chair of LawWorks, the national solicitors’ pro bono charity. He has received a Lifetime Award for Extraordinary Contribution to the Development of Pro Bono Culture in Europe.

He is ranked Band 1 by Chambers & Partners in its Global, European, Asia-Pacific and UK Guides for International Arbitration (General Commercial & Insurance), Public International Law and Commercial Dispute Resolution. Legal 500 recognises him as a leading individual for Corporate Crime and International Arbitration and recommends him for Commercial Litigation and Public International Law. He is featured in the Legal 500 Hall of Fame for International Arbitration and has been recognised by Chambers Asia-Pacific and Chambers Global for work in Belize, India, Africa and South-East Asia. He has been named a Global Elite Thought Leader for Arbitration by Lexology.

Lord Goldsmith KC has acted in matters of the highest sensitivity for Prime Ministers, Presidents, senior government officials, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. He served as Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland for seven years, during which he had superintendence of the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office, and developed substantial experience in white-collar crime and public law.