Gilead Cooper KC
Barrister, Wilberforce Chambers
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Gilead is a barrister, mediator and arbitrator focused on art law, trusts, private client disputes and commercial law. He is a founding member of PAIAM (Professional Advisers to the International Art Market) and a committee member of ACTAPS (Association of Contentious Trusts and Estates Practitioners). He is the author of a chapter on Limitation of Actions in Palmer on Bailment (3rd edition) and a chapter on restitution claims relating to Cultural Property in Trusts, Artistic Estates and Collections (2019). Gilead is a frequent speaker at international conferences and has published extensively on issues related to art law and business. He is recognised in the UK directories (Chambers & Partners, Legal 500) as a “leading Silk” in the field of Art and Cultural Property. The Legal 500 says, “He is an experienced advocate with real knowledge of the art market and its issues.”
Gilead’s law practice has included arbitration and mediation since 2000. He is a CEDR Accredited Mediator.
He has served as Arbitrator and Mediator, and has also appeared as an advocate, in a wide range of art law and commercial disputes at both the domestic and international level. His experience includes court appearances in Hong Kong, Cayman, the BVI, Bermuda and St Kitts and Nevis; he has also advised in cases in Jersey, Guernsey, the Bahamas and Gibraltar. He is a member of the LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration), PAIAM (Professional Advisers to the International Art Market), and a Fellow of ACTEC (the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel). He was appointed to the original Arbitration and Mediation pools of CAfA in January 2020.
Gilead’s educational background includes: Christ Church, Oxford (M.A.), City University (Dip. Law).
After university, Gilead worked as an editor for the publishers Mitchell Beazley, where he edited books on astronomy and photography. Between 1977 and 1978 he lived in Iran, teaching English at the Farah Pahlavi University in Tehran.
He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1983. After completing his pupillage, he worked in the Litigation Department at Freshfields in London, where his experience included appearing as an advocate at an ICC Arbitration with Alan Redfern. He returned to the Chancery Bar in 1988, where he has remained in practice. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2006. He is also admitted to the Bar in the British Virgin Islands.
Jurisdiction: U.K. and British Virgin Islands