Sir Jeremy Cooke > Chambers of Gavin Kealey KC > London, England > Barrister Profile

Sir Jeremy Cooke retired from the High Court Bench at Easter 2016, having been appointed in 2001. He sat regularly in the Commercial Court presiding over the full gamut of business conducted in that court and being the Judge in charge of that court from 2012 – 2014. He is now an international arbitrator and a Justice of the Dubai International Financial Court and an International Justice of the Singapore International Commercial Court.. He regularly sits as party appointed arbitrator or as chairman in arbitrations conducted under the rules of the ICC, LCIA and LMAA and is appointed to the panel of Shanghai International Arbitration Center (SHIAC) and other panels elsewhere as well as sitting in ad hoc arbitrations or abritrations under the auspices of other international institutions.

Apart from his extensive experience in commercial matters, he also had substantial  experience of sitting in serious criminal cases including those involving corruption or fraud. He was during his time on the Bench, so the statistics show, the Commercial Judge whose decisions were least likely to be overturned in the Court of Appeal and has been, on more than one of those few occasions, upheld in the Supreme Court. He was renowned for the speed at which he produced his judgments, for his informal and down to earth approach and the firm but fair and polite efficiency with which he conducted trials, including some lengthy commercial trials with litigants in person. Since retirement from the High Court bench, he also continues to sit occasionally as a Deputy Judge in the Commercial Court.

As Queen’s Counsel, appointed in 1990, Sir Jeremy’s practice was largely in the areas of shipping, marine insurance, non-marine insurance, reinsurance, professional negligence (particularly insurance brokers’ negligence), banking, international sale of goods and energy (oil, gas and electricity disputes). He sat regularly as an Arbitrator in shipping, insurance and reinsurance (including Bermuda Form Arbitrations) and oil trading disputes and led teams in such litigation as the Names claims against their Lloyds Agents over the writing of LMX business, the Agents defences to the Names’ claims in relation to long tail casualty business, in Aviation Reinsurance, in the Film Finance Insurance disputes, in the Metro Litigation, and in large International trade, insurance, shipping and oil disputes in arbitration. He became accredited as a Mediator and gave expert evidence of English law in courts in the USA. His practice as an advocate took him to Bermuda and Singapore.

As an arbitrator, he continues to sit in cases of the same nature as those over which he presided when on the Bench and those in which he acted as advocate and adviser when at the Bar. They range over the fields of agency, aviation including aviation construction, banking, company sale and purchase, corruption, derivatives and financial instruments, energy, fraud, insurance and reinsurance, international trade, shipbuilding and shipping. Many involve issues under foreign systems of law.