extremely

client-

focused,

dynamic

and

professional"

Legal 500

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC

Profile

DoB 21st October 1945

1971 - Called to the Bar

Practiced at:

  • Farrar's Building, Temple 1971 to 2000;
  • Temple Garden Chambers, as Head Chambers for 2 years, from 2001 to date. 

26 years of general common law work as a junior and as Queen's Counsel.

1998 Recruited to International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia - ICTY - by Justice Louise Arbour (later UN HCHR) in 1998. 

Prosecuted ICTY's then biggest case about a mid level politician (Kordic), and ICTY's first case to reach a conclusion charging genocide (Jelisic).

Returned to The Hague in November 2001 and led all Miloševic team(s) from then until the end of the trial. 

Prosecuting in the ICTY required leadership in all aspects of investigations, trial related issues, advocacy in court and developing 'International Humanitarian' and other relevant international law.  

On return to UK in 2006 have remained involved in advising and acting for international organisations and governments together with 'domestic' practice in civil litigation and government work. 

Have appeared for the Sudan Trade Union SWTUF (together with NGO SIDG) in applications to, and attendances at, the ICC for Darfur situation cases.  Together with Rodney Dixon have found ways into the ICC system by use of the ICC's own laws and rules permitting representations to be made on behalf of citizens of a state that has not been prepared to cooperate with the Court.

Education

St Dunstan's College Catford, London

Keble College Oxford (Philosophy, Politics and Economics)

College of Law London

Notable Cases

  • Prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic for the United Nations 2001-2006
  • Prosecution of Goran Jelisic and Prosecution of Dario Kordic 1998-2001
  • Callery v Gray(HL) (2002) 1 WLR 2000 (Costs)
  • Sarwar v Alam(CA) (2002) 1 WLR 125 (Costs)
  • Callery v Gray(No.2) (CA) (2001) 1 WLR 2112 (Costs)
  • R v (1) Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd (2) Geoconsult GES(Central CriminalCourt) (1999) CILL 1487

Appointments

Several part time judicial and quasi-judicial appointments over the past 27 years

Recorder (Civil, Criminal, Family cases) 1984 to date (sitting at Old Bailey, England's senior criminal court, since 1995)

Member Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (making awards of compensation for victims of crimes) 1995 - 2001

Chairman Medical Tribunals

Commissioner (ad hoc judge) Royal Court Jersey 2006-2009

Deputy Chairman (senior professional member) of the Bar Standards Board (regulatory body of the Bar of England and Wales) 2009 -  

Other appointments include

Board Member 'Indict' (NGO for gathering evidence for indictment of Saddam Hussein)

Advisory Board 'Impunity Watch', Netherlands based NGO (dealing with accountability for past atrocities in countries emerging from a violent past, providing policy advice to assist states with compliance with legal obligations towards the victims of crimes.)

Board Member 'Burma Justice Committee', 2007 to date

Commissioner of Harvard Report into Burma (with Justice Richard J. Goldstone (South Africa) Patricia M. Wald (United States) Retired Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Circuit), and former Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal

Steering Committee Iran Tribunal (for establishment of inquiry into 1988 mass killings in Iran)