William Blair

Sir William James Lynton Blair, born on 31 March 1950, is a retired British judge and legal professional. He is the elder brother of Sir Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Blair holds the position of Professor of Financial Law and Ethics at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London.

Educational and Early Legal Career:

Blair became a Queen's Counsel in 1984, specializing in domestic and international banking and finance law. He appeared and advised on numerous disputes in the financial sector. In 1998, he was appointed a recorder. He was also admitted as a barrister of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the Virgin Islands in 2003. He served as a visiting professor at various institutions, including the London School of Economics, Peking University Law School, East China University of Politics and Law, and the University of Hong Kong.

Judicial Appointments:

On 4 February 2009, Blair's appointment as a High Court judge was announced, with his assignment to the Queen's Bench Division. He was sworn in on 28 February 2009. In 2016, he became Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court. Blair served as a Deputy High Court Judge starting in 2003, and in 2016, he became the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court. He retired from the High Court on 1 December 2017. Subsequently, he has served as a part-time Deputy Judge of the High Court of Hong Kong SAR and as an international commercial court judge in the Qatar International Court.

Professional Memberships and Roles:

Blair has been a member of London's Financial Markets Law Committee since 2008. He served as the first President of the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities from 2012 until 2019. He has been involved in international legal forums, including serving as Co-Convener of the Qatar Law Forum of Global Leaders in Law in 2009. Blair is Chair of the Bank of England’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee (EDMC) and was appointed in 2018 to the International Commercial Expert Committee of the Supreme People’s Court of China. He also chairs the International Monetary Law Committee of the International Law Association (2004-2021) and the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Tribunal.

Academic and Advisory Roles:

Since 2017, Blair has been a member of 3 Verulam Buildings' International Advisory and Dispute Resolution Unit (IADRU). He has held positions as a visiting professor and academic adviser at prominent institutions and is a member of the Ethics Committee of Digital Catapult’s AI Machine Intelligence Garage. He also served as an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies from 1997.

Publications:

Blair has contributed to numerous legal publications, including serving as co-editor of the "Research Handbook on Ethics in Banking and Finance" (2019) and "Banks and Financial Crime, the International Law of Tainted Money" (2017). He was the general editor of "Bullen, Leake & Jacob's Precedents of Pleadings" (2015) and has been involved as an editor or co-editor of several other legal handbooks and encyclopedias related to banking and financial law.

Honors:

In 2024, Blair was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Glasgow.

Family:

He is the elder brother of Sir Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.