Anthony Houghton, SC > Des Voeux Chambers > Hong Kong, Hong Kong > Lawyer Profile

Anthony Houghton, SC

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Career

Anthony Houghton SC has a practice encompassing both advocacy in courts and in arbitrations, and acting as an arbitrator. These roles are undertaken in general commercial disputes, with a particular focus on construction and engineering matters that derives from his dual professional qualifications as a lawyer and as a surveyor.

Mr. Houghton began his professional career as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor in the UK and he practised in that field in Asia for some years in the mid – 1980’s. Mr Houghton read law and gained his LLB from London University, and was called to the Bar in 1989. He has practised as a barrister, in Des Voeux Chambers, since 1989.

He has acted as counsel on a wide variety of commercial and property related disputes in arbitrations, and before the courts at all levels in Hong Kong.

He has acted as arbitrator on disputes with claimed values of up to approximately US$ 650 million, and has acted as a sole arbitrator on many cases, primarily in Hong Kong. He has also been a tribunal member or chairman of arbitral tribunals on a variety of disputes, mainly seated in Asia and Middle East, with disputes and proceedings subject to several different legal systems and rules.

His advocacy practice has been recognised by leading independent directories in Asia and the UK, and he gets mention among “Leading Silks” in one such directory as “a highly civilised and fair-minded arbitrator and effective counsel”.

Mr. Houghton is a regular speaker at academic and professional conferences and a frequent tutor at courses organised by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators for whom he is an approved Course Director, as well as the Hong Kong Bar Association, and the Law Society.

Mr. Houghton is a Panel Member on many regional arbitration panels.

Languages

English

Memberships

• Chairman of the Committee on Construction Law (2018-2020) of the Hong Kong Bar Association
• Former Chairman of the Deposit Protection Appeals Tribunal
• Recorder of the Court of First Instance (2013 – )
• Chartered Arbitrator of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
• Fellow Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators
• Member of Special Committees of the Hong Kong Bar Association; on Arbitration and ADR and on Discipline ;
• Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors
• Founding Member of the Society for Construction Law, Hong Kong
• Former Honorary Legal Adviser to the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors
• Former Chairman of the East Asia Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

Education

LLB (London University)