Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer litigation partner Ian Terry is retiring from the magic circle firm to join One Essex Court as a mediator later this year.
Terry has spent his entire professional life at Freshfields, joining as a trainee and rising to managing partner between 1996 and 2001. He headed the firm’s global dispute resolution department between 2006 and 2008.
Terry told The Lawyer: “I’m really excited to be joining such a pre-eminent set of chambers. It’s a new challenge and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Terry will be retiring from Freshfields in April and is set to join chambers as a tenant in October.
At Freshfields Terry worked closely with One Essex Court, particularly in recent years when his practice was dominated by high-value Russian and Ukrainian disputes.
Head of chambers Tony Grabiner QC said: “I’m very pleased Ian has chosen One Essex Court as his preferred base as a mediator. In addition to his excellent personal qualities, he’s very clever, his judgment is impeccable, and he’s got an unrivalled experience of big clients in domestic and international commercial disputes.
“I think he’ll be the first choice of parties seeking to resolve their differences through mediation.”
While numerous commercial chambers have arbitrators, mediation specialists are less commonly deployed on complex commercial disputes. In developing a mediation offering as part of its services One Essex Court is following Brick Court, where Stephen Ruttle QC has developed a well-known mediation practice, and Blackstone Chambers, which boasts Charles Flint QC and former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf on its mediation team.