Lord Thomas has been President of the Qatar International Court since 2018.

Lord Thomas was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1969, becoming a Queen’s Counsel in 1984. In 1996, he was appointed a High Court Judge and was assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division, serving on the Commercial Court. In 2003, he became a Lord Justice of Appeal and was appointed to the Privy Council. He served as the Senior Presiding Judge from 2003 to 2006. 

In 2008, he was appointed Vice President of the Queen’s Bench Division and Deputy Head of Criminal Justice. In 2011, he became President of the Queen’s Bench Division. Thereafter, in 2013, he succeeded Lord Judge as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. He retired from that post in 2017, prior to taking up the present position in Qatar where he succeeded Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers. 

Lord Thomas holds several extra-judicial posts, including as Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Fellow of the Universities of Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Swansea and Bangor and Honorary Doctor of Law of the Universities of South Wales, the West of England, Wales and of Cardiff Metropolitan University. He is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.

In 2016, he formed the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts. He was appointed Chairman of the Financial Markets Law Committee in November 2017. He has been Chancellor of Aberystwyth University since January 2018.
 

Ali Malek KC has been a judge of the Qatar International Court since 2019.

He is recognised as one of the leading silks at the Commercial Bar of England and Wales. He is ranked in six different practice areas in both the Chambers & Partners guide, and the Legal 500. Ali has a wide and substantial practice with many of his cases having a strong international element. He has expertise in the field of international arbitration, banking and finance.

Ali, who is of British-Iranian heritage, was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1996, an Assistant Recorder in 1998, and a Recorder in 2000. He was appointed a Deputy High Court Judge in 2008 and is authorised to sit as a Deputy Judge at the Commercial Court of England and Wales. He also sits as an arbitrator in institutional and ad hoc commercial arbitration cases, including ICC, ICSID, LCIA and SIAC.

Helen Mountfield KC has been a judge of the Qatar International Court since 2019.

She was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1991 and appointed Silk in 2010. She has a wide-ranging practice, particularly in the fields of Administrative and Public Law, Human Rights and Civil Liberties and Employment Law. She is particularly well-known for cases concerning discrimination and equality questions as they arise in public law, employment, commercial and other contexts. Helen is on the Equality & Human Rights Commission’s panel and sits as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Administrative Court, a civil and criminal Recorder, and on the Courts of Appeal of Jersey & Guernsey.  She is Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford.