Lord (Peter) Goldsmith KC, PC is the London Co-Managing Partner and Chair of European and Asian Litigation at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. He served as the UK’s Attorney General from 2001–2007, prior to which he was in private practice as one of the leading barristers in London.

Lord Goldsmith has a long practice in arbitration and in the interface between arbitration and litigation. He appears as counsel for leading cases in a number of jurisdictions and different arbitral institutions, including ICC, LCIA and ad hoc in London, Paris, Singapore and India. He also sits as arbitrator in London, Paris and Singapore, and is included in the international arbitration database of the Arbitration Center at the Institute of Modern Arbitration, Moscow. He is Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, on the panel of arbitrators for the Dubai International Arbitration Centre, a member of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, a member of the International Advisory Board of the Association of Caribbean Corporate Counsel and a Council Member of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) and is closely connected with both the LCIA and the ICC.

Lord Goldsmith is a nominated member of the P.R.I.M.E. Finance Panel of Experts. P.R.I.M.E. is a panel of recognised international market experts in finance based in The Hague, established to assist judicial systems in the settlement of disputes on complex financial transactions. The panel of experts comprises some of the most senior people in the financial markets sector. He has also been a visiting professor of European Legal Studies at Columbia University, New York and has an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from The University of Law, London.

Lord Goldsmith regularly speaks on arbitration issues. Recent engagements include teaching international arbitration at the University of Milan Summer School. He is a member of the European Commission Expert Group on the interface between Brussels I Regulation and Arbitration.

Consistently acknowledged for his prominence, The American Lawyer states that “…[he has] the advocacy skills of one of the finest barristers of his generation.” He is recommended as a leading lawyer by Chambers & Partners in its Global, European, Asia-Pacific and UK guides. The guides have stated he is “a phenomenal lawyer” who is “extremely experienced and knowledgeable.” Clients say “it is a real pleasure to work with someone with such wisdom and experience,” and that “his insights are invaluable.” The Legal 500 guides rank Lord Goldsmith in similar esteem. He is included in the guide’s inaugural International Arbitration Powerlist, and in its Hall of Fame for international arbitration, as well as for regulatory investigations and corporate crime, in recognition of having received constant praise by clients over a number of years.

Lord Goldsmith has a strong history and life-long support for pro bono assistance to bring legal advice to the disadvantaged. As a young lawyer, he started a legal advice center in the East End of London and, later in his career, founded the Bar of England and Wales’ Pro Bono Unit, a nationwide charity providing the free legal services of thousands of barristers (of which he remains President) and the Attorney General’s pro bono coordinating committees (which coordinates pro bono activity in England and Wales) and became first chair of the Access to Justice Foundation, a cross-profession initiative which raises money to support pro bono organisations across the country and is by statute the sole recipient of pro bono costs award (a role in which he continues).

Lord Goldsmith is a graduate in law from Cambridge University with double first–class honours and a Master’s from University College London. He was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales in 1972, Paris in 1997, Belize in 2010, St. Kitts and Nevis in 2010, New South Wales in 2010 and the British Virgin Islands in 2011. He is also a Registered Foreign Lawyer at the Singapore International Commercial Court.