Martin Moore Bick

Early and private life

Moore-Bick was born in Wales, the son of John Ninian Moore-Bick and his wife Kathleen (née Beall). His younger brother, John Moore-Bick, is a retired major-general in the British Army.

He was educated at The Skinners' School, Tunbridge Wells, and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became an honorary fellow in 2009.

Moore-Bick married Tessa Gee in 1974. They have four children: two sons and two daughters.

Legal career

Moore-Bick was called to the Bar at Inner Temple in 1969, and was elected a bencher in 1992, serving as treasurer in 2015.

He practised as a barrister from chambers at 3 Essex Court, later 20 Essex Street. His practice was in commercial law and, in particular, shipping law. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1986 and was appointed a Recorder in 1990. He was appointed to the High Court on 2 October 1995, receiving the customary knighthood. He was assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, serving in the Commercial Court. On 7 April 2005, Moore-Bick became a Lord Justice of Appeal, and he was appointed to the Privy Council on 7 June of that year.

Moore-Bick served as Deputy Head of Civil Justice from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2012. Lord Justice Richards took over this role from 1 January 2013 for an initial three-year period. From 1 October 2014 until his retirement, Moore-Bick was Vice President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal. He took over the role on the retirement of Lord Justice Maurice Kay.

Moore-Bick retired from judicial office on 6 December 2016. According to his Chambers' website, on 14 August 2017, "He now accepts appointments as an arbitrator."

Grenfell Tower fire public inquiry

It was announced on 29 June 2017 that Moore-Bick would lead a public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. On 29 and 30 June it was widely-reported that the tenant's solicitor in the case against Westminster City Council had said, after Moore-Bick's ruling, that it gave "the green light for social-cleansing of the poor on a mass-scale". The local Labour MP, Emma Dent Coad, said on 4 July that local people have no confidence in Moore-Bick and that he should stand down.

On 25 July, at the second public meeting held by the Inquiry before finalisation of its terms of reference, Moore-Bick faced further calls for his resignation, many residents saying that he did not represent them. In response, Moore-Bick said that he was qualified to lead the investigation, because in his 20 years as a judge, he had looked into "the sort of problems that have to be considered in relation to this fire." He promised that the inquiry would consider the deregulation of fire safety standards, as well as the multi-million pound refurbishment to Grenfell Tower. "We are going to investigate and find the facts in relation to the whole course of events." he said.

Decided cases