Chambers & Partners 2021
Chambers & Partners 2021
Julia Dias joined 7KBW in 1985 as their first female tenant and rapidly acquired a formidable reputation as a leading commercial junior before taking silk in 2008. She is also a member of the Gibraltar Bar, to which she was called in 1994.
Julia’s principal areas of practice, in which she has extensive experience, are in arbitration, shipping, insurance and reinsurance and professional negligence, including associated jurisdiction disputes and injunctions. She is regularly asked to provide expert evidence for use in proceedings abroad, and to give binding and non-binding opinions on particular points.
She also has wide experience of commercial disputes generally and over the years has built up considerable expertise in many other areas such as international trade and sale of goods, shipbuilding, conflicts of laws, guarantees and letters of credit, and agency. She has been instructed in construction and oil and gas disputes.
Julia sits as a Deputy High Court Judge. She is also increasingly in demand as an arbitrator and is available to accept appointments both in England and abroad. She is a member of the LCIA and CIArb and a supporting member of the LMAA. Julia is a qualified mediator and has successfully mediated in her field of expertise.
Julia frequently lectures on topics within her areas of expertise, including most recently the issues raised by Halliburton v Chubb. Her article on the subject She is a co-author of the new edition of Carver on Charterparties (published April 2017), to which she contributed the chapter on Time Charters.
Julia is conversationally fluent in French and competent in Russian with a working knowledge of Italian and a basic understanding of German.
Insurance and Reinsurance is one of Julia’s main areas of practice. Whilst at Eversheds, she carried out advisory and advocacy work on a range of matters, including film finance cases, aggregation issues in relation to pensions mis-selling and the WTC attacks, brokers’ duties and a wide variety of coverage disputes. She has been retained in a number of long-running arbitrations and High Court cases in the insurance/reinsurance field.
Julia Dias KC (now a Justice of the High Court) and Jason Robinson succeed in the Court of Appeal
7KBW is delighted to congratulate Julia Dias KC on her appointment as a Justice of the High Court to the King’s Bench Division, and wishes her all the best.
7KBW publication – Carver on Charterparties, Second Edition
Julia Dias QC publishes – Resignation in the Face of Confidentiality?
7KBW is proud to be a founding member at the London International Disputes Week
Resignation in the Face of Confidentiality? (June 2019) Transnational Dispute Management – a substantial article discussing the consequences of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Halliburton v Chubb.
Carver on Charterparties (2nd ed. 2019) (Sweet & Maxwell). Julia has contributed the chapter on Time Charters in this completely re-written edition of a major shipping textbook: accessed here.
Spar Shipping, The Astra and the Status of the Obligation to Pay Hire Punctually: Watching a Falling Star (2016) 22 JIML 345. This article can be found in the December edition of The Journal of International Maritime Law. Please click here to view a copy of the article.
Julia was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inner Temple in July 2012 and served for ten years on the Inn’s Finance Committee (of which she was Chair from 2017-2021), Executive Committee and Investment Committee. She currently serves on the Archives Committee.
She served as a Disciplinary Tribunal Chairman for the Council of the Inns of Court (latterly BTAS) from 2009 to 2019 and has recently been appointed as the Inner Temple representative on the Tribunal Appointments Body.
In 2018 Julia was appointed to sit as a Deputy High Court Judge and frequently hears disputes in the Commercial Court and Chancery Division. A number of her judgments have been reported.
Julia is a member of COMBAR (serving on the Equality and Diversity Committee from 2005-2010), BILA, the London and Common Law Bar Association, and the London Shipping Law Centre. She is also a supporting member of the London Maritime Arbitrators’ Association and a Member of the LCIA and Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Julia is a Fellow of the RSA and served for ten years as trustee of a learning disability charity, Magpie Dance.
Trinity Hall, Cambridge (1978-1981): Julia was awarded a scholarship to Trinity Hall to read law where she gained a triple first, winning numerous scholarships and prizes, including the George Long Prize for Roman Law (1980); Squire Scholarships for performance in the Law Tripos (1979, 1980); Trinity Hall Henry Bond Prize for Law (1980) and a Trinity Hall Studentship (1981). In her first year she also gained a Certificate of Competent Knowledge in Russian with distinction in the oral examination. She was awarded a tennis blue in all three years and captained the university team, played in the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra and was invited to lead CUMS 1.
Inner Temple/Inns of Court School of Law, London (1981-2): While studying for her Bar Finals, Julia was awarded an Inner Temple Major Scholarship and the Hughes Parry Prize for Equity.
Institut de droit comparé, Paris, France (1982-1983): Following her Bar Finals, Julia worked as Assistante Associée de langue anglaise at the Institute of Comparative Law in Paris where she taught a course of basic English law and terminology (in French) and became a competent French speaker. She contributed to the Institute’s then current research project which was subsequently published in June 1989 as La Détermination du Prix dans les Contrats.
In 1985, Julia was invited to serve on the Rawlinson Committee on the Constitution of the Senate of the Inns of Court and the Bar which led to wholesale reform of the governance of the profession and of the relationship between the Inns and the Bar. She was substantially responsible for drafting the report which was published in April 1986.
She is frequently asked to speak at conferences and regularly lectures on arbitration and legal topics.
Languages: French and Russian (conversationally fluent); Italian (working knowledge).
“Julia is fantastic, a delight to work with.” “Her knowledge is encyclopaedic.”
Chambers & Partners 2022