Robert Rhodes KC > Chambers of James Counsell KC and Keith Bryant KC > London, England > Barrister Profile

Robert Rhodes KC

Work Department

Alternative Dispute Resolution, International Arbitration, Civil and Criminal Fraud, Disciplinary and Regulatory

Position

Barrister specialising in Alternative Dispute Resolution, International Arbitration, Civil and Criminal Fraud, Disciplinary and Regulatory.

Career

Bencher of the Inner Temple, and a member of the Bar Council. Has published and broadcast widely. Numerous appointments including Revenue Counsel for ten years, chairman of various regulatory and disciplinary tribunals. Crown Court Recorder since 1987. KC 1989.

Robert Rhodes KC acts as counsel, arbitrator and mediator, specialising in international arbitration, commercial, financial services, regulatory and disciplinary law, civil fraud and business crime (including civil and criminal fraud, asset forfeiture, tax investigations, bribery and money laundering). He was Standing Counsel to the Inland Revenue for 10 years before taking silk. He has lectured in various continents on international mediation, international arbitration, fraud, bribery, and money laundering, and has published extensively.

He is noted for his utter dedication to his clients and takes a commercial approach to problems, and always gives clear, practical advice.

Robert is a panel member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators’ Pandemic Business Dispute Resolution Service, as well as its Business Arbitration Scheme. He is also Adjunct Professor of the Academy of International Dispute Resolution & Professional Negotiation. Through Benchmark Chambers International and Benchmark International Mediation Centre, the Base of the Supreme People’s Court of The People’s Republic of China (SPC), Robert is a member of the SPC’s pool of experts for discerning foreign law.

He is a Mediator at the international Court of Arbitration for Sport, Switzerland. He is a member of the Arbitration and Mediation Panels of the Court of Arbitration for Art, Rotterdam. Robert is also appointed to the Panel of Mediators of the International Commercial Mediation Center for the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing.

Robert also sits on a number of Far Eastern panels of arbitrators / mediators, including the Arbitration Panel of the Beijing Arbitration Commission.

He has also been appointed a Senior International Mediation Expert at the Mainland-Hong Kong Joint Mediation Center, Hong Kong. He is an Invited Expert on the Professional Committee on Investment Arbitration of the China Academy of Arbitration Law.

Robert is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a member of the London Court of International Arbitration and of the International Chamber of Commerce, and a former member of the Corporate Panel of the Dispute Board Federation,

He has revalidated BPP University’s International Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Law modules for its LLM. Robert is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UK-Cyprus Enterprise Council, and a member of the Advisory Council to the UK Sichuan Business Association.

Robert is a Master of the Bench of the Inner Temple, and was a Member of the Bar Council of England & Wales for 14 years. He has been recommended as a Leading Silk in Fraud, Banking and Finance by the Legal 500.

Notable cases

X v A, B, C (Queen’s Bench)

Search and seizure case relating to a substantial art dispute.

Shah v Shah (Companies Court)

Company law dispute between brothers who were shareholders and directors of a plc.

BSAL v CHILUKIRI (Commercial Court)

Alleged advance fee fraud.

R (Lee) v General Commissioners of Income Tax & HMRC (Administrative Court)

Successful application for judicial review in respect of Commissioners’ adverse decision to a taxpayer.

Connelly v Law Society (Administrative Court)

Significant case on various areas of law relating to solicitors’ practice, including conflicts of interest, obtaining written instructions from a client and solicitor’s lien.

Accountancy Investigation & Discipline Board v PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP & Another

250 page judgment of tribunal (chaired by Robert Rhodes QC), relating to disciplinary proceedings arising from the collapse of Mayflower Plc. See www.frc.org.uk.

ICSID Tribunal

Robert was involved in an ICSID arbitration as Counsel.  The tribunal ruled that the insolvency administrator can represent a Latvian bank in an arbitration against the Baltic state – but that an ancillary claim over whether his appointment was itself a treaty breach should be argued by the bank’s former directors. 

Languages

French

Memberships

• Bencher of the Inner Temple
• Standing Counsel to Inland Revenue (1979 – 1989)
• Crown Court Recorder (1987 – 2018)
• Deputy Chairman IMRO Membership Appeals Tribunal (1992 – 2001)
• Member Appeal Tribunal ICAEW (1998-2004)
• Chair of Disciplinary Tribunals for AIDB / AADB (2004 to 2012)
• Chair of Disciplinary Tribunals for the FRC (Financial Reporting Council) (2012 – 2014)
• Member of the Bar Council (2009-2023)
• FCIArb (Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators)
• CBA (Criminal Bar Association)
• CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution)
• CMC (Civil Mediation Council)
• COMBAR (Commercial Bar Association)
• LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration)
• LMAA (London Maritime Arbitrators Association)
• The Advisory Council of the UK Sichuan Business Association
• Adjunct Professor of the Academy of International Dispute Resolution & Professional Negotiation.
• Robert is a member of the Supreme People’s Court of The People’s Republic of China’s pool of experts for discerning foreign law.
• Arbitration and Mediation Panels

Europe

• Bar Council of England & Wales: member of arbitration, mediation and expert panels.
• Chartered Institute of Arbitrators – panel member for its Business Arbitration Scheme
• Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Pandemic Business Dispute Resolution Service – panel member
• Mediator at the International Court of Arbitration for Sport
• Arbitrator and Mediator at the Court of Arbitration for Art, Rotterdam

Caribbean

• Member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the Arbitration & Mediation Court of the Caribbean

USA

• The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution: Panel of Distinguished Neutrals

Far East

• International Mediator at the Shenzhen Qianhai International Commercial Mediation Center
• Panel of Mediators of the Asia Pacific Centre for Arbitration & Mediation Centres (APCAM)
• Panel of Mediators of the International Commercial Mediation Center for the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing
• Member of the Beijing Arbitration Commission’s Panel of Arbitrators
• Panel Arbitrator of the China Maritime Arbitration Commission
• Lang Fang Arbitration Commission (arbitrator and mediator)
• Invited Expert on the Professional Committee on Investment
• Arbitration of the China Academy of Arbitration Law
• Senior International Mediation Expert at the Mainland-Hong Kong Joint Mediation Center, Hong Kong
• Senior International Mediation Expert of International Dispute Resolution & Risk Management Institute
• Member of the panel of Mediators of the Macao Mediation Centre
• Chinese Arbitration Commission, Taipei (arbitrator and mediator)
• Thailand Arbitration Institute (arbitrator)
• Member of the mediator panel of Japan International Mediation Center in Kyoto (“JIMC-Kyoto”)
• Member of the Panel of Arbitrators (Brunei)
• Former member of Jinan Arbitration Commission (arbitrator and mediator)
• China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (mediator) (2013-16)

Education

St Paul’s School, London (foundation scholar); Pembroke College, Oxford (MA).

Leisure

Opera, ballet, theatre, art, reading, playing real tennis, watching cricket, former international fencer.