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Matthew Gearing KC has left Fountain Court Chambers to focus on his practice with Duxton Hill Chambers, a Singapore Group Practice, following his call to the Singapore Bar last year.
The former co-head of international arbitration at legacy Allen & Overy (A&O) will now practice in London as a sole practitioner at the Bar, a distinction he shares with fellow Duxton Hill silk Toby Landau KC, who left Essex Court Chambers in 2021.
The move is understood to dovetail with the development of his practice following his call to the Singapore bar last May and warm welcome in that jurisdiction, where he has set up shop at Duxton Hill.
It also reflects similar developments at other sets: Judith Gill KC, another former A&O head of arbitration, joined Twenty Essex in 2018 before setting up as an independent arbitrator in 2022.
Gearing will continue to practice as counsel before the Singapore International Commercial Court, which has just celebrated its 10th anniversary, and arbitral tribunals while also sitting as an arbitrator in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere.
Gearing had initially planned to join Essex Court Chambers on his retirement from A&O in 2021 but joined Fountain Court instead after China issued sanctions against Essex Court.
Last year, he joined Temple Chambers in Hong Kong as an arbitrator member and became a door tenant at Quayside Chambers in Perth.
Gearing wrote on LinkedIn: “I am grateful to Fountain Court Chambers for having provided me with a home for the past three years or so, following my retirement from Allen & Overy in 2021.”
While disappointing to Fountain Court, Gearing’s exit is understood to have been amicably received by his former set, which has a long-standing commitment to Singapore, where Stephen Moriarty KC and Anneliese Day KC are seen as leading arbitrators, as are door tenants Michael Brindle KC and Darius Chan alongside Singapore-based counsel Andrew Pullen.
Earlier this month, the set welcomed Jackie van Haersolte-van Hof, the former director-general of the London Court of International Arbitration, as a London-based arbitrator member.
Van Haersolte-van Hof had spent a decade at LCIA, having previously practised as counsel and arbitrator at her name firm HaersolteHof and, before that, at Freshfields in Amsterdam, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in The Hague, and legacy Loeff Claeys Verbeke in Rotterdam.
In April last year Paula Hodges KC, one of Gearing’s contemporaries, retired from Herbert Smith Freehills after 16 years as global head of arbitration to become an independent arbitrator.
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