Tony Willis > Brick Court Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Tony Willis

020 7379 3550 tony.willis@brickcourt.co.uk

Position

Areas of practice include mediation, arbitration, dispute resolution, process design and negotiation. Tony Willis is an independent mediator in commercial, business and regulatory matters. He was for more than 25 years a partner in Clifford Chance, London spending two years as a full time managing partner and then seven years leading the litigation practice there. Since 1998, he has been engaged full time as a mediator, negotiator, and in designing dispute resolution processes. He joined Chambers when he transferred to the Bar in 2004. With a background of advising on, running and managing some of the largest international litigation in the English Courts, in the US, elsewhere in Europe and in Asia, he has a profound knowledge of dispute resolution of all kinds and of managing teams of professionals. He has for many years ranked highly in the top of the published lists of mediators in ‘Chambers’ directory and ‘The Legal 500’. He has conducted many hundreds of mediations and advised on many more, some outside the UK in locations such as New York, Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania, Jersey, Guernsey, Ireland, Dubai, the Bahamas and Hong Kong. He has also been appointed Settlement Counsel. Sums in issue have ranged up to $1.2bn. Issues include professional negligence, board room and shareholder disputes, partnership, pensions, information technology, employment, family trusts and related disputes, insolvency, tax, charity, oil and gas, civil engineering and construction, insurance and re-insurance. Parties have included multinationals and other companies, individuals, governments and departments such as the Home Office, MOD, Revenue & Customs and DEFRA. He has been appointed mediator by the FSA and dealt with other regulatory matters, including competition cases. Important cases: all the matters dealt with as a mediator are confidential, but information can be provided about cases dealt with in recent times provided it is understood that the names of the parties must remain confidential. He has spoken widely on the civil justice system for organisations such as the Society of Practitioners in Insolvency, COMBAR, the Franco-British Lawyers Society, the British Israel Law Association, the Law Society, the TMC Asser Institute in the Hague, the Academy of European law in Trier, the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Arbitrators & Mediatiors Association of New Zealand, PRIME Foundation and others.

Career

Practice in Wellington 1996-1970; Clifford Chance 1970, partner 1973, joint managing partner 1987-89, led the litigation practice 1989-1997, (one of the first major City of London litigators to become interested and then closely involved in the development and practice of mediation as a serious tool for his then clients as a litigator), where he undertook heavy commercial litigation in many jurisdictions round the world for a wide variety of financial and business clients; concerned in the early discussions that led to the formation of CEDR in London in 1990 and on the first training course for mediators CEDR ran in 1991 (with Eric Green from Boston); non-executive director CEDR and member of their teaching faculty for some years; barrister Brick Court Chambers 2004 to date; called 2004, Middle Temple; Chambers of Jonathan Hirst QC and Helen Davies QC (where he now practises in all aspects of dispute resolution).

Languages

English

Memberships

Fellow Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK); Fellow International Academy of Mediators (US); International Panel of Distinguished Mediators of CPR New York; panel member American Arbitration Association; WIPO; CEDR; ADR Group; founder member PIM Senior Mediators; trained as a mediator by CEDR London and non-executive director and member of their training faculty for some years; member of several mediator panels, including founding member Panel of Independent Mediators (now PIM Senior Mediators) 1999 (chairman during its re-organisation 2009/10); fellow and board member (US) International Academy of Mediators; fellow Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; CPR (New York) International Panel of Distinguished Mediators; founding chairman solicitors pro bono Group (now LawWorks) 1997-2001; chairman of the governing body Wycombe Abbey School 1999-2009.

Education

Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (1966 LLB).