Our new Master’s Message

Our new Master, John Rushton, was born just after the half-way mark of the last century in Southport, Merseyside. He was educated at Uppingham School, his peer group ranging from the cooking guru, Rick Stein, to the former Health Minister, Stephen Dorrell. On leaving school he was a volunteer at Starehe Boys’ Centre in Nairobi, which had been set up as a refuge for poor children in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and is now one of the premier schools in Kenya. On returning to this country he went up to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to read Law before serving his articles of clerkship at Freshfields in the City between 1973 and 1975. He joined the firm’s litigation department on qualifying as a solicitor.

In 1980 John moved on to Rowe & Maw and began specialising in construction and engineering law. At that time it was a modest sized firm in two buildings, divided by an alleyway which was quite literally the City boundary. He worked in the eastern office and is thus able to claim that he has spent the whole of his working life in the City. The firm’s size and reputation grew and is now part of one of the largest firms world-wide – Mayer Brown.

John has experience of all forms of dispute resolution. He has also advised a wide range of clients - from a prime minister to the bass guitarist of an iconic pop group of the 1970s as well as more traditional clients, such as architects and contractors. He has also been the Client Partner for the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators for more than twenty years. He is presently masterminding the move of his firm’s London office to new premises at Bishopsgate and will retire from the firm upon completion of its relocation in the spring of next year. He has therefore been concentrating of late on dispute avoidance!

John joined the Company as a Freeman in 1993. The Master at the time was his former MP, Ian Percival. He became a Liveryman in 1997, when Douglas Smith, who had originally introduced him to the Company, was the Master. Shortly after joining the Court in 2002 he became Chairman of the First Charitable Trust and subsequently took the chair of the Second Charitable Trust. Both Trusts have since been combined. He chaired his last meeting of the Trustees in September.

John is married to Jenny, who is a physiotherapist, and they live in Loughton, Essex. They have two children - Carolyn (who is also a physiotherapist) and Mark, who is with Macquarie Bank in the City.

Commenting on the year ahead John remarked:

”It is a great honour to have been elected the Master of a Livery Company, and I look forward to the year ahead with much relish and some trepidation.  Rome was not built in a day, but I would like to see us contributing more to the work of the Financial Services Group of the Modern Livery Companies, of which we are members. After all, we can be fairly described as the premiere dispute resolution Company and have much to offer in these difficult economic times.

I would also like to see an increasing number of our members participating in our events over the next twelve months. With this in mind a wide ranging social programme has been put together. Besides the annual – and important - civic events, trips to Wood Street Police Station and the Tower of London (to witness the “ceremony of the keys”) are planned, as are a family day at the Royal Dockyard on Sunday 19 April 2009 and a Livery weekend in Berlin in the autumn. It should be interesting and fun”.