His Honour Simon Staley Brown KC comments on the Reservation Service offered by Gazeal Limited and its implications for Conveyancers and their clients. 

About our Chairman, His Honour Simon Staley Brown KC

Simon Brown KC was for 10 years the Designated Mercantile Judge of the Midlands and the Senior Circuit Judge for Birmingham, which is the equivalent of a permanent regional High Court Judge.

Simon Brown is an SRA-approved assessor for Higher Court advocacy in England & Wales. As well as assessing Higher Rights for CPD Training (UK), Simon Brown teaches all aspects of advocacy skills. He was a member of the teaching team at the Tasmanian Advocacy Conventions in 2012 and 2014 and taught arbitration advocacy at Bär and Karrer in Zurich in 2022. He regularly teaches and assesses interim advocacy on the Basic Litigation Skills Course for patent attorneys.

Simon Brown KC was the Chair of the Higher Rights Assessment Board for CPD Training (UK) from 2010 to 2019. He is also a senior external examiner for the SRA.

Simon Brown KC practised for 19 years as a junior barrister in London. In 1995, he was appointed a Queen’s Counsel. As a London commercial and common law silk for 11 years he appeared for both claimants and for defendants, mainly in the various areas of insurance claims.

He was also an accredited arbitrator and mediator in complex disputes. He conducted 2 large public parliamentary boundary inquiries, reporting to the Boundary Commission. He provides his services as a Mediator, Arbitrator and Expert to Gazeal Limited, the leading provider of Reservation services in the property sector in England and Wales, where he is at the cutting edge of developments in the legal and property technology world.

As the Designated Mercantile Judge for the Midlands, Judge Brown ‘actively’ case managed all his cases and kept his court at the cutting edge of the electronic age. Its modern efficient practice made it an ideal and popular forum for business litigation.

Simon Brown KC devised and developed the innovative and now universally used website for all mercantile courts. As part of the Review of Civil Litigation Costs by Lord Justice Jackson, Simon Brown assisted with chapters on Electronic Disclosure and Case & Costs Management, and piloted Costs Management being extended to all Mercantile and Technology & Construction Courts. He lectured for the Judicial College on electronic disclosure. He has spoken on case management and electronic information (disclosure and privacy) at major conferences all over the world. He has also been on the consultation board of Practical Law.

In his private life Simon is a noted horticulturist, working closely with his wife over the last 20 years to design, create and nurture their acclaimed garden that is open to the public by prior appointment.