Former High Court judges, Sir Julian Flaux and Sir Clive Freedman, have rejoined 7 King’s Bench Walk as full-time arbitrators following their retirement as judges.
Flaux was formerly the Chancellor of the High Court with responsibility for the Chancery Division and the Business and Property Courts. Among the memorable cases over which he presided was the mammoth FCA Test Case litigation, concerning business interruption insurance, which was ultimately resolved by the UK Supreme Court, with partial upholding of his decision.
He also issued a series of judgments arising from the Competition Appeal Tribunal, including one of the Sainsbury’s cases relating to interchange fees, which was later partially settled, and in the Apple litigation, a judgment which was handed down in April. Among the commercial cases and appeals he decided, Flaux ruled in the Boreh litigation, which ultimately saw a former partner at Gibson Dunn struck off, and on an appeal by solicitor Seamus Andrew that a non-party witness against whom Mr Justice Robin Knowles CBE had made findings critical of his veracity had no right of appeal to the Court of Appeal because of section 68(4) of the Arbitration Act 1996.
Flaux’s return to 7KBW reunites him with a set with which he had practised since 1979, having previously been joint head of chambers from 2002 until 2007. As a High Court judge, he is best known for leading the Commercial Court from July 2014 to December 2015, before being promoted to the Court of Appeal in 2016, serving in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions.
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, across all the set’s main areas of business. He acted as an arbitrator principally in insurance and reinsurance disputes.
Freedman rejoins the set he joined in 2014, having left to sit in what is now the King’s Bench Division from 2018 until his retirement as a judge in October 2025. He also sat regularly in the Chancery Division. He was a deputy High Court judge from 2003.
A commercial and chancery judge, he managed numerous first-instance trials, most of which involved commercial law or business disputes, for which he was well regarded.
A barrister for more than 40 years, he formerly practised at Littleton Chambers, where he was head of chambers between 2006 and 2013. In 2014, he was succeeded in that role by Gavin Mansfield KC, who left the set last week to take up his own High Court appointment.
Much of Freedman’s work involved commercial litigation or civil fraud-related matters, arising from fraud in the CIS states following the breakup 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, House of Lords and the Supreme Court, alongside a thriving arbitration advocacy practice, including at the appellate level.
Welcoming both men back as arbitrators, Greg Leyden, the set’s senior clerk, said: “They will be in high demand and will add further strength to [our] already impressive bench of full-time arbitrators and of senior counsel who actively take on arbitral appointments.”
Separately, Glenn Hendrix, a leading US attorney, has joined Freedman’s old set as an arbitrator, joining Littleton as a door tenant.
Hendrix, who also launched his arbitration practice – Hendrix Dispute Resolution – in August 2025, was a litigator for 40 years at a 200-lawyer Georgia firm, Arnall Golden Gregory, where he served as managing partner from 2008 to 2012 and as chair from 2016 to 2023.
He previously served as chair of the International Law Division of the American Bar Association (ABA) and, during the Obama administration, as its representative to the US Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Law.
Hendrix has served as an arbitrator under ICC, ICDR, CPR, and UNCITRAL Rules, and is on the arbitration rosters of HKIAC, SIAC, KCAB, TIAC, AIAC, and other leading European, Asian and Eurasian centres.
Adam Solomon KC, a co-chair of Littleton’s management committee, welcomed Hendrix, saying: “His distinguished career and extensive international arbitration experience across leading global institutions further strengthen our offering.” The set previously hired leading arbitration lawyer, Louis Flannery KC, last year.
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