7KBW is pleased to welcome Sir Julian Flaux and Sir Clive Freedman back to Chambers as full-time arbitrators following their retirement from the High Court.

From February 2021 until his retirement from the judiciary in October 2025, Sir Julian Flaux was the Chancellor of the High Court with responsibility for the Chancery Division and for the day-to-day operation of the Business and Property Courts both in London and in seven regional centres.

Sir Julian practised as a barrister at 7KBW from 1979 until 2007, and was joint head of Chambers from 2002 until 2007.

As a High Court Judge, in addition to his work in the Commercial Court (he was Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court from July 2014 until December 2015) he presided over cases in the general Queen’s Bench Division list, the Administrative Court and conducted a substantial number of criminal trials. He was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 2016 and sat in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions of the Court. He was the Supervising Lord Justice of the Commercial Court from February 2020 and Lead Judge for International Relations from November 2019 until February 2021 when he became Chancellor.

At the Bar, he had a broad practice in all areas of commercial law, particularly in marine and non-marine insurance and reinsurance, shipping, banking and finance, international sale of goods, energy disputes, professional negligence (including insurance brokers’ and solicitors’ negligence) and solicitors’ regulation. He led teams on several Bermuda Form arbitrations, in the Lloyd’s litigation concerning the writing of long-tail casualty and LMX business and in the Film Finance Insurance litigation. He acted as an arbitrator principally in insurance and reinsurance disputes. In 2017 he sat as a Judge Arbitrator in the case of Municipal Mutual Insurance v Equitas Insurance.
 
Sir Clive Freedman was a Judge of the King’s Bench Division from 2018 until his retirement from the judiciary in October 2025. He also sat regularly in the Chancery Division. He was a deputy High Court Judge from 2003.

As a Judge, he tried numerous trials, most of which  either were about commercial law or disputes relating to businesses.  These cases included the following areas, namely banking and finance, unjust enrichment, employment, franchising, professional negligence, civil fraud, company and insolvency, insurance, injunctions (especially in private international law disputes) and challenges of arbitral awards.

Prior to 2018, Sir Clive was in practice as a barrister for over 40 years. Before joining 7KBW he was at Littleton Chambers where he was Head of Chambers between 2006 and 2013. Sir Clive practised in a broad range of commercial law in the Chancery Division, the Commercial Court and the King’s Bench Division. He was highly-rated in the professional directories for commercial dispute resolution, commercial fraud, arbitration, banking and professional negligence.

He was in many high-profile cases and was The Times’ Lawyer of the Week. A large part of his work arose out of joint venture and commercial fraud in the CIS states following the break-up of the Soviet Union. He was called to the Bar in the BVI. In addition to being a trial lawyer, he appeared on numerous occasions in the Court of Appeal. He also appeared in cases in the House of Lords and the Supreme Court.

As an advocate, a significant part of this practice was as an advocate in LCIA, LME, ICC and Stockholm Chamber of Commerce arbitrations and ad hoc arbitrations. Sir Clive also appeared in the High Court and the Court of appeal in challenges to enforcement of arbitral awards, and applications to have them set aside. He has written about arbitration appeals in the first and second editions of Burton on Civil Appeals.