Spring 2005 NewsletterThe Master’s MessageThe New Year opened to a good start with the Lord Mayor’s Children’s Party at the Mansion House. Fortunately I have two granddaughters between the ages of 6 and 10 who were eligible to attend suitably attired in fancy dress and it was wonderful to see so many children having such fun! They were professionally entertained, well fed and watered and finally snaked their way all around the Mansion House in a never ending Conga with the Lord Mayor at its head. I had seen a very different side of the Lord Mayor when he gave his annual speech to the Livery in December in which he emphasised that not only is he the head of the Corporation and the business and financial heart of the City but that he also has an important part to play in the foreign and trade policy of this kingdom. He stressed the fact that these overseas commitments impinge on the time that he can spend with his constituency, the Livery, and these pressures on his diary no doubt account in some degree for the fact that our Banquet could not be accommodated at the Mansion House this year. This was however more than compensated for by the delightful surroundings of the Draper’s most impressive Livery Hall with its splendid collection of royal portraits and magnificent ceiling paintings depicting scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. The toast to the guests was proposed by the Senior Warden and I was also delighted to welcome Dame Margaret Seward who has not only enjoyed a very successful clinical career, but was Editor of the British Dental Journal and President of the General Dental Council before becoming Chief Dental Officer for the Department of Health. She gave us a very entertaining speech and proposed the health of the Company. We were also royally entertained by the Sundial String Quartet from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I had a very interesting meeting with the Master of the Management Consultants when I had the opportunity to discuss fund raising and charitable objectives with him and share some of his Company’s initiatives. I understand that the Charity Commission is now encouraging such communication between the Livery Companies. The Clerk and I spent a most enjoyable evening at the Constructors’ Livery and Awards Dinner. The Master, Peter Knight is of course one of our own Liverymen. I was also a guest at the Installati on Dinner of Diana Uff as Master of the Clockmakers. Not only is she the wife of one of our Liverymen but she is the first lady Master since the Company was founded in 1651. Most recently I was entertained to a splendid Lunche on at the Farmer’s Company whose Master I met many times when we sat together on the Committee for the Lord Mayor’s Show. The Company has also continued with its initiative to liaise more closely with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the London Court of International Arbitration and the London Maritime Arbitrator’s Association and to this end the Immediate Past Master, Past Master Russell and I spent an evening at the Carlton Club with representatives from each of the arbitral bodies, when much fruitful discussion ensued. In the run up to Easter we had the Master’s Lecture and the United Guild’s Service, together with the Modern Livery Companies’ Dinner and the Lord Mayor’s Dinner for Masters. The programme is not for the faint hearted! We are also sponsoring another essay competition at the University of Greenwich to encourage further interest in alternative dispute resolution among the students. We also admitted three new Freemen to the Company at our last Court meeting; Stephen John, a civil engineer, Matthew Molloy, a quantity surveyor and my eldest son Simon, a licensed insolvency practitioner. It gave me particular pleasure to admit him to the Freedom as it is the first time the son of a Master or indeed a Liveryman has come into the Company. Finally, I would like to remind all Freemen that they are invited to progress to the Livery as soon as they have been admitted to the Freedom of the City, and the Clerk will be very happy to advise them on all phases of the procedure. The Master with Guest Speaker, Dame Margaret Seward, on the occasion of the recent Banquet at Drapers’ Hall The Master's Lecture The Master’s Lecture this year was delivered by Alan Redfern, the well known arbitrator from One Essex Court, who has over 30 years experience of complex international commercial arbitration cases. Before being called to the English Bar in 1995, Alan was a solicitor and the senior litigation partner of the international law firm Freshfields. He is co-author with Martin Hunter of the leading textbook on the “Law and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration”, which since 2004 is now in its fourth edition. Alan (pictured below) is fluent in French, though happily his lecture to the Company on 16 March 2005 was delivered in English. But commercial arbitration is different, and borrowing from a spaghetti western, he categorised dissenting opinions in arbitration as either “good, bad or ugly”, depending on how far they go in self-justification of the dissenter’s view, at the expense of his fellow arbitrators and the award, and at the risk of bringing the arbitral process itself into disrepute. Amidst very much more, Alan cited three sound reasons for his view, and for anyone who missed the lecture, or indeed for anyone who attended but wishes to remind themselves of Alan’s apt associations and closely reasoned arguments, it is available to be downloaded free of charge from our website at www.arbitratorscompany.org. It certainly repays a visit, and to further the educational objectives of the Company, members are encouraged to draw it to the attention of friends and colleagues. To Alan Redfern we offer our grateful thanks.
Assistant Graham Perry asking a question during the discussion following the Master’s Lecture on 16 March 2005 Recent and future eventsThe fun of the Company’s daytime events is evident from IMP Andrew Drysdales’ following account of a recent two: Albert Hall: A large group of Arbitrators with 4 Chilean Drysdales as hangers-on visited the Albert Hall in February. £70,000,000 has been spent on improvements and it really shows. Completely refurbished, the auditorium is magnificent in its regal maroon plush. Its statistics are staggering; 5200 seats, 1,200,000 tickets sold each year, 200,000 light bulbs used and a four storey basement underneath it all. Sumo wrestling, John Currie skating, the Proms, the Chelsea Arts Ball in former days, Madame Butterfly. You name it, the Albert Hall can supply it. They even put on a Drysdale playing tennis against Borge; beaten in three sets, sensible fellow, he swapped the Stock Exchange for tennis. Amazed and excited by what we had seen, we adjourned to the Polish Hearth Club in Exhibition Road for refreshment. Ukrainian beetroot soup, grilled breast of chicken a la Russe followed by Polish apple cake and we were ready for anything. What we got was the sensational Cirque du Soleil, a Canadian circus troupe where western and eastern ideas of the circus have been melded for an absolutely astonishing performance, jugglers, trapeze artists, tumblers and clowns. We were all entranced and our ages covered all the stages of man. National Portrait Gallery On March 7 th, 16 Members of the Company enjoyed a morning of cultural delights. We started at the National Portrait Gallery where we were met by our guide Alison Kusner. Clutching stools we stopped in front of our first picture, a portrait of Henry VII, and the oldest portrait in the Gallery. It had been commissioned for his wife-to-be and showed him to best advantage. Even more to regal advantage was Holbein`s huge cartoon of his son Henry VIII. Dress magnificent. Pose challenging. Gaze imperious. Looking for all the world like a beadle of one of the Great 12 Livery Companies, and we all know how haughty they can look! Our hour at the Gallery sped by and then we were off to the Wigmore Hall for their Monday lunchtime concert where the Master, who had had terrible car problems trying to reach us, joined us. The Zehetmair Quartet had also suffered and, having lost their second violin to flu, we were treated to music of the highest quality by the Zehetmair Trio! Schubert followed by a Mozart Divertimento with no less than two Minuets and two Andantes and all the rest as well. Some stayed for lunch afterwards and some went on to the Wallace Collection to admire again Franz Hal’s Laughing Cavalier hanging opposite Rembrandts’s Titus. Some found Boucher’s bosoms and bottoms a trifle distracting. Others seemed to be drawn to them. Something for all tastes at the Wallace Collection apparently. Altogether a charming morning. Immediate Past Master Andrew Drysdale SPECIAL DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Spring Livery Dinner: Mon. 23rd May Drapers Hall Banquet Photograph Album
Chartered Institute ElectionsWe are very pleased to announce that one of our Court Assistants, Assistant Hew Dundas, was elected Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators during the Chartered Institute’s recent Congress in Cyprus on 1 March 2005. Twelve candidates nominated by CIArb Branches worldwide competed for just three positions; namely that of President, Deputy President and Vice President, on the understanding that the Deputy and Vice Presidents would become President in turn in subsequent years. Each Branch of the Chartered Institute was represented at Congress, and each had three votes per round of voting in the presidential election, weighted according to Branch size. Votes were cast according to Branch representatives’ instructions or inclination, expect that representatives from Branches nominating a candidate were permitted to vote only once for their own candidate per round. In the first round of voting the twelve candidates were whittled down to six, and in the second round, the six were reduced to the successful three. Dr Eugen Salpius of the European Branch, who lives in Salzburg, Austria, was elected President for the remainder of this year. Colin Wall of the East Asia Branch, who lives in Hong Kong and Surrey, will take over as President in 2006, and our own Hew Dundas will become President in 2007. Very many congratulations Hew. We take great pride in your achievement. 
In a separate development, we should also like to congratulate Hew Dundas on his appointment to the Editorial Board of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. In recent years, Hew has become a prolific contributor to the pages of “Arbitration”, and it is fitting that his industry in that direction has been recognised by a place on the Editorial Board. Hearty congratulations Hew on this achievement also. 
Past Master Douglas A SmithIt has been a depressing feature of recent issues that we have had to say good-bye to so many recently deceased Past Masters. In this issue we remember with affection our friend and colleague Past Master Douglas Smith, FRICS, FCIArb, who sadly passed away on 31 January 2005 after being unwell for some considerable time. On behalf of the very many members who know her, we extend our sincerest condolences to Joyce, his wife and constant companion for so many years. I first met Douglas and Joyce in the Potters Heron, Ampfield, at a CIArb Southern Branch meeting in the autumn of 1992. Mr Justice Forbes (as he now is) was the speaker, and afterwards we dined in the hotel as a group, as was the tradition in the Southern Branch. As a new recruit, I was intrigued by the fact that so many wives attended that meal, as it created such a friendly sense of occasion, which Douglas and Joyce enthusiastically promoted. Douglas was a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He was elected Chairman of the Chartered Institute for the year 1987/88 and was elected Master of our Livery Company nine years later for the year 1996/97. These were fitting tributes to his long and energetic career as an arbitrator and partner of surveying firm Baker Wilkins & Smith. Douglas was a founder member of Arbrix, the Construction Dispute Resolution Group of the RICS, which was inaugurated in October 1991, but it was his driving influence in the early 1980s in establishing the Hampshire Interest Group within the Western Counties Branch that created a very personal legacy, as in or about 1987 that Interest Group obtained independent status as the Southern Branch of the Chartered Institute. That achievement was fondly remembered by Richard Hawkins at a recent Arbrix event, at which he aptly caught Douglas ’ temperament and style by the following remarks:
Douglas was always eager to facilitate a settlement by the parties themselves if he could, and was never afraid to try to make them see sense. The parties were not always appreciative of such efforts, and occasionally retaliated, but that was a risk he was prepared to take, and he was much respected for it. He will be sadly missed for his strength of character, his integrity and his devotion to Joyce. To Joyce we offer our comfort and support, and the hope that she can find the strength to endure her very sad loss. Assistant Derek Ross Admissions to the Company Freeman Stephen John MCIArb, FICE, a Chartered Civil Engineer with a Masters in Law in Commercial Dispute Resolution and Arbitration, who was admitted to the Freedom on 26 January 2005.
Freeman Matthew Molloy DipArb, FRICS, FCIOB, FCIArb,a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and Accredited Mediator with an MSc in Construction Management, who became a Freeman on 26 January 2005.
Freeman Simon Underwood, the Master’s son, a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner and member of the Insolvency Practitioners’ Association’s Council and Investigation Committee, who was admitted to the Freedom on 26 January 2005.
Apprentices
Apprentice Quentin Tannock MCIArb, LLM, founder of the Harare Arbitration Centre in 2000, and a Visiting Scholar at Lauterpacht Research Centre of International Law who is studying for CIArb Fellowship.
Apprentice Colin Featherstone MRICS, CEM Dip, MCIArb, a self-employed Quantity Surveyor and Dispute Resolution Consultant who is currently engaged in CIArb Fellowship training.
Apprentice Kirsten Beckett MCIArb, a Quantity Surveyor and registered CIArb Pre-Panel Pupil who has completed her CEM course and is currently progressing with CIArb Fellowship Assessment and Pupillage.
Admissions to the Court
Assistant Kim Franklin, a London based Barrister and Chartered Arbitrator specialising in construction law, who was welcomed onto the Court on 26 January 2005.
Assistant David Altaras, also a London based Barrister and Chartered Arbitrator, and a Recorder in the Criminal, Civil and Family Courts, who was also welcomed onto the Court on 26 January 2005.
Diary of Events 27 April: Concert at St John ’s, Smith Square and Supper |
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