Roland Foord
Senior Partner and Head of the Art and Cultural Property Law Group, Stephenson Harwood
Roland is a solicitor focused on art law, commercial law and dispute resolution by all available means. He is a founding member of Collections Legal as well as a member of the IBA Art and Cultural Law Committee and Professional Advisers to the International Art Market (PAIAM). Roland is a frequent speaker on issues related to art law and business and contributes regularly to his firm’s publications on the subject. Roland is ranked in Band One for Art and Cultural Property in both the Chambers and Legal 500 Guides.
Roland’s law practice has included arbitration and mediation as well as court work since 1986. He was appointed to the Arbitration Pool of CAfA in January 2020.
For more than thirty years a significant part of Roland’s practice has been in the art market, acting for and against the full range of participants in the market including agents, artists, auctioneers, brokers, collectors, dealers, experts, financiers and museums and other institutions. As well as leading the 12+ strong team at his firm, Roland’s practice encompasses (1) non-contentious advisory work eg private sale agreements, consignment agreements, conditions of sale, commission agreements and agency agreements, (2) regulatory work eg import/export, VAT, anti- money laundering and proceeds of crime, and (3) disputes eg authenticity, attribution, title, breach of warranty, auction disputes, agency disputes, valuation claims and commission disputes.
Roland has also conducted arbitrations on behalf of clients under the LCIA Rules and, in 2019, led a team which achieved the rare outcome of a successful court challenge to an arbitration award. He believes that arbitration is particularly suited to art market disputes which are usually best resolved confidentially and so often turn on how the market operates and on expert evidence.
Roland’s educational background includes an LLB from King’s College London. He qualified as a solicitor in 1985, became a partner in 1989 and was elected the Senior Partner of Stephenson Harwood LLP, an international law firm headquartered in London, in 2012.
Jurisdiction: U.K.