For such a successful barrister and judge, Sir William Blair has always had a strangely low profile. The political career of his younger brother Tony Blair, the U.K. Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, is no doubt partly to blame.

But the diminutive and softly spoken figure is a giant of industry in his own right.

The sons of a legal academic, both the Blair boys became barristers, but it was Sir William – or Bill to his friends – who achieved the rank of Queen's Counsel aged 44, became a judge in 2008 and served on the bench for almost 10 years during which he was Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court. He helped set up the Financial List – a collection of specialist judges for financial cases – and played a key role in re-establishing the QC rank, as well as spearheading various projects aimed at raising ethical standards in the financial sector.