Michael Gordon Bloch KC (born 18 October 1951) is a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

who is a member of

Blackstone Chambers Blackstone Chambers is a set of barristers' chambers in the Temple district of central London. Established in the 1950s, as of 2022 it had 119 tenants, of whom more than 50 are silks. Current notable members include Robert Anderson, Michael Be ...

Life

Born at

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, a son of the marriage of John Bloch and Thelma E. Platzky, Bloch was educated at

Bedales School Bedales School is a coeducational boarding and day public school, in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by Amy Garrett Badley and John Haden Badley in reaction to the li ...

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

, where he graduated BA and MA, and the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

, where he gained the degree of M.Phil. He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

from

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...

in 1979."BLOCH, Michael Gordon", in ''Who's Who 2014'' (A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014) In 1975, Bloch married firstly Caroline S. Williams, in

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its name ...

. They had two daughters, Susannah and Claudia Bloch. Bloch first joined the

One Essex Court One Essex Court is a set of barristers' chambers in London, specialising in commercial litigation, which was founded in 1966. It is distinct from 1 Essex Court and Essex Court Chambers. It currently comprises 131 full-time members, 52 of whom ar ...

Chambers,Kate Beioley
Michael Bloch QC quits Wilberforce for Blackstone Chambers
at thelawyer.com dated 25 October 2013, accessed 20 March 2018 and was appointed a

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1998. The same year, he married secondly

Lady Camilla Bingham Lady Camilla Bingham ; (born 30 June 1970) is a British barrister. Her practice is in corporate and commercial law, in litigation and arbitration, specialising in jurisdiction and conflict of laws. She works mostly in England and Wales and is a ...

, a fellow barrister and one of the daughters of

Lord Lucan Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (born 18 December 1934 – disappeared 8 November 1974, declared dead 27 October 1999), commonly known as Lord Lucan, was a British peer and gambler who vanished in 1974 after being suspected of killing ...

. In September 2000, Bloch moved from One Essex Court to Wilberforce Chambers. In 2013 he resigned from there to join

, which was reported as a significant boost for Blackstone, filling a gap in commercial and arbitration law left by the departure of Thomas Beazley QC.

Notable cases

In March 2004, Bloch appeared in the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

representing the Bankers Trust in the case of Department of Economic Policy and Development of the

City of Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Bankers Trust Bankers Trust was a historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons in 1997 before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. Deutsche Bank sold the Trust and Custody division of Bankers Trust to State Street Corp ...

Company and International Industrial Bank, before Sir Andrew Morritt,

Mance LJ Jonathan Hugh Mance, Baron Mance, (born 6 June 1943) is a retired British judge who was formerly Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Early life Mance was born on 6 June 1943, (subscription required) one of four child ...

and Carnwath LJ. The case was to decide whether a judgment dismissing an application to challenge an

arbitration award An arbitration award (or arbitral award) is a final determination on the jurisdiction, merits, costs or other aspect of a dispute by an arbitration tribunal in an arbitration, and is analogous to a judgment in a court of law. It is referred to as ...

should be published. The Court found that in general the public interest required judgments to be published, but in this instance it decided that the judgment at issue should not be. In 2008, Bloch acted for

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

in its dispute with the British engineer Andrew Ainsworth of Shepperton Design Studios over the rights to the stormtrooper helmets as used in ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

''. In 2011 this case arrived in the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

as Lucasfilm Ltd v Ainsworth, in which Bloch and Jonathan Sumption QC represented Lucasfilm. The Court decided that the Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet was not a sculpture for the purposes of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48), also known as the CDPA, is an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory ba ...

. In 2013, Bloch was leading counsel for

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

in its battle with

Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. ...

s over the purple colour of its "Dairy Milk" bar wrappers. In 2014 he appeared in the High Court for Lush Cosmetics, who successfully challenged

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

's use of the word "LUSH", their registered trade mark, as a Google Adword and for directing Amazon web customers searching for "Lush" to similar products made by competitors. John Baldwin QC, sitting as a deputy judge, held that Amazon had thereby infringed the trade mark under Directive 2008/95/EC, and that the two Amazon defendants, one incorporated in the United Kingdom and the other in Luxembourg, were jointly liable, as they had "joined together and agreed to work together in the furtherance of a common plan". In 2016, Bloch represented

Simon Le Bon Simon John Charles Le Bon (born 27 October 1958) is an English singer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the new wave band Duran Duran and its offshoot Arcadia. Le Bon has received three Ivor Novello Awards from the Briti ...

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English pop rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. After several early changes, the band's line-up settled ...

, and other defendants in the High Court case of Gloucester Place Music Ltd v Simon Le Bon & Others, which resulted in a judgement by Mr Justice Arnold likely to have significant implications in the recorded music industry.Gloucester Place Music Ltd v Simon Le Bon & Ors

016 The Home Guard Special Division 016 (; abbreviated as HV-016) is a former military unit of Norway, that was a part of the Home Guard. It was established after 1985 to "stop terror- or sabotage actions that could weaken or paralyze Norway's abili ...

EWHC 3091 (Ch), dated 5 December 2016, accessed 19 March 2019

References

External links

Michael Bloch QC
at Blackstonechambers.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch, Michael Gordon 1951 births Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of East Anglia British King's Counsel English barristers Members of Lincoln's Inn People educated at Bedales School People from Hampstead Living people 20th-century King's Counsel