Mr Justice Robin Knowles CBE

Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court

Sir Robin sits in the Commercial Court, the Administrative Court, and the Court of Appeal Criminal Division. He is also a nominated judge of the Financial List. Before appointment to the High Court, he sat as a Recorder in the Crown Court for 15 years, and as a Deputy High Court Judge in both the Commercial Court and the Chancery Division. He is a qualified mediator and has sat as an arbitrator. He was Chairman of the Commercial Bar Association from 2005-7.

Sir Robin was involved in rewriting the Commercial Court Guide as part of the Woolf Reforms and edits the current (10th) edition. He was a member of the Aikens working party on “supercases”. With Sir William Blair, he worked successfully to secure the new Queen’s Counsel system. With others, he led work to bring about the Rolls Building – the world’s largest dedicated business dispute resolution centre. He is a member of the Civil Justice Council and of the Financial Markets Law Committee. He is the Chairman of the International Committee of the Judicial College of England & Wales, and the judge with day to day responsibility for the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts. Throughout his professional life he has sought to encourage legal pro bono work and he chairs or sits on the board of a number of bodies in this connection.

Sir Robin was one of two judges on the Disclosure Working Group responsible for drafting the proposed new rules for modernising the approach currently taken on disclosure within the Business and Property Courts.