Election of Reader-Elect for 2023

Richard Salter QC was called to the Bar by The Inner Temple in 1975. The first of his family to go to university, he received the Inn’s Major Law Grant, which enabled him to complete his pupillage. As a student, he chaired the Debating Society and won the Advocacy Competition.

Master Salter practises from 3 Verulam Buildings in all aspects of commercial litigation and arbitration, specialising in financial law. He took Silk in 1995 and was appointed as a Recorder in 2000. He has been authorised to sit as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Queen’s Bench Division since 2010 and in the Commercial Court since 2016. He also sits as an Arbitrator in the International Chamber of Commerce, London Court of International Arbitration and other types of arbitrations. In addition to his extensive high-profile work in London, Master Salter’s practice has taken him all over the world. He is a member of the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and has appeared in the Commercial Court of the British Virgin Islands. He has been admitted pro hac vice for cases in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man, and has been involved in substantial advisory and litigious matters in India, Hong Kong, Singapore and other common law jurisdictions.

In 1986, Master Salter joined the committee of the London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association, becoming Chair in 2004/5. In that capacity, he was an ex-officio member of the Bar Council. He was later elected to the Bar Council and then nominated as one of the Inn’s Bar Council representatives. In all, Master Salter served on the Bar Council from 2004 until 2013. This included terms as Civil Vice-Chair of the Professional Standards Committee and Chair of the Legal Services Committee, where he supported the setting up of the Bar Nursery in Smithfield and the establishment of crèche arrangements for Bar Council meetings.

Since 2010, Master Salter has taught financial law to postgraduates at the University of Oxford, assisting with courses on Corporate Finance Law, Corporate Insolvency Law and Legal Concepts in Financial Law. From 2011 to 2017 he was a Trustee of the Oxford Law Foundation and, since 2016, has held the title of Visiting Professor.

He has been a Trustee of English Touring Opera since 2015 and of Les Azuriales Opera Trust since 2019, and is a liveryman of and Honorary Counsel to the Musicians’ Company. In 2015 and 2016 he organised the Inn’s commissioning and co-production with the Temple Music Foundation of “And London Burned”, an opera commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London.

Master Salter has made a very substantial contribution to the Inn. Elected as a Governing Bencher in 1991, that same year he was nominated to sit as one of the Inn’s representative members on the Council of Legal Education. He was Chair of the Board of Examiners for the Bar Vocational Course in 1992-3. He remained as the Inn’s representative on the governing body of the Inns of Court School of Law (in its various guises) until, as Chair of its Finance and General Purposes Committee, he assisted in the transfer of the School to City University in 2001.

Serving on the Cumberland Lodge Sub-Committee and its successor, the Qualifying Sessions Committee, continuously since starting practice, Master Salter has attended almost every student Cumberland Lodge residential training weekend to organise the evening entertainments. Until taking Silk he also acted as a Group Leader at the weekends. He was an advocacy trainer for the Inn for several years. He was also co-opted onto the Pupils and Student Affairs and Education and Training Committees early in his practising career and served on those committees for many years.

Master Salter also served on the Scholarships Committee and was appointed Chair from 2002 to 2009. In that capacity, he was an ex-officio member of the Executive Committee. He served as an elected member of the Executive Committee from 2016-2021, where his last task was to revise the wording of the Bench Table Orders (the Inn’s governance rules) to make the language gender-neutral. Master Salter is currently the Master of the Insurances.