Who we are
ROBIN CALLENDER SMITH – PhD, LLM and Barrister
Honorary Professor of Media Law, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and a founder member of its Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Institute at its post-graduate Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS).
He has served as Member and then Deputy Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s Regulatory Decisions Committee (RDC) and dealt with early LIBOR decisions. He was a member of energy regulator OFGEM’s independent Enforcement Decisions Panel, an Executive Board member of the Chartered Institute of Insurers and a legal Chair of the Phonepaid Services Authority’s Code Adjudication Panel.
An English judge for over ten years, he dealt with data protection and information rights’ appeals, immigration & asylum appeals and criminal cases.
He was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1977. As an elected Member of the Bar Council for England and Wales, he was Vice Chair of its Disability Committee and a member of the Law Reform Committee and an elected Member of Gray’s Inn Barristers Committee.
VALERIE ELIOT SMITH - BA, DipLaw and Barrister,
Director and Company Secretary
Visiting Scholar, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)
Member: QMUL’s TMT Institute, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London
valerieeliotsmith.com
Valerie was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1987 after completing her Diploma in Law at the University of Westminster. She received a BA (hons) in English Literature from Bedford College, University of London in 1977.
She worked as a Barrister in private practice and as a Prosecution Team Leader in the Crown Prosecution Service, before co-founding ARBITA. Prior to that, she worked with the international public relations consultancy, Hill & Knowlton. Her specialist interests include privacy and confidentiality, open justice and the legal and policy issues relating to cyberspace and the internet, with a particular focus on the feminist perspective.
Valerie completed a Certificate in Psychotherapy and Counselling at the SPC, Regent's College, London in 2002.