Michael Blair QC Editor

Michael Blair QC is a specialist on financial services and financial services regulation. He joined commercial Chambers (3 Verulam Buildings, Gray's Inn) in 2000 after serving as General Counsel to the Board of the Financial Services Authority from 1998-2000, and as head of the legal function in its predecessor body, the Securities and Investments Board from 1987-97. Before that he had served from 1982 to 1987 as an Under Secretary in the home civil service, latterly taking responsibility for the criminal and civil legal aid schemes in England and Wales as well as for the higher courts and matters affecting the legal profession. His practice is largely advisory though he has appeared before the Chancery Division the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal and the Financial Services Authority's Regulatory Decisions Committee.. He sits judicially as a Member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, and is the Chairman of SWX Europe, the Swiss equities exchange in London. He has been a Board member of the Dubai Financial Services Authority since 2004, and was Master Treasurer of the Middle Temple, his Inn of Court, in 2008. He is the author or editor of a number of works mainly in the financial services field.