Atkin Chambers

Sir Thayne Forbes is an arbitrator, adjudicator and mediator and chair of high profile public inquiries.

Following a successful career at the bar from 1966 to 1990, becoming Queen’s Counsel in 1984, he was made Official Referee from 1990 to 1993. He was then appointed as a High Court Judge and assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division and 2 years later as Presiding Judge of the Northern Circuit until 1999.

From 2001 to 2004 he was the judge in charge of the Technology and Construction Court. He was then Chair to the Working Group set up by the Judges’ Council to report on judicial welfare and support in 2005/6 and following the Working Group’s report was asked to Chair the Judges’ Council’s Standing Committee on judicial welfare and support. This committee has produced two further reports. At the request of the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Thayne continues to act as the chair of the Standing Committee and as the person with portfolio responsibility for judicial welfare for England and Wales. He retired from the High Court Bench in January 2009.