The new IDRC premises at St Paul’s includes a comfortable and well-equipped arbitrators’ lounge, which will be the hub for relaxation, socialising and networking for the many hundreds of arbitrators who attend the Centre every year. 

IDRC has named this excellent lounge “The Veeder Lounge” in fond memory of one if its founding Members and longest-serving directors, VV (Johnny) Veeder QC, who, tragically, died  in March 2020, whilst still at the peak of his career.

Johnny is known as a towering figure, both metaphorically and literally, to all in the arbitration world. His great intellect and legal skills were complemented by great humanity and good humour. Called to the Bar in 1971, he progressed inexorably towards his role as one of the world’s most recognised and busy arbitration specialists. He played a key role, with Sir Michael Kerr and Bertie Vigrass, in the renaissance of the LCIA in 1985, and served for many years on the Court and Board of the LCIA. In 1999, he joined the IDRC Board, on which he was an active participant right up to the time of his final illness.

Johnny is greatly missed by those who knew him, but we hope that his memory will live on in The Johnny Veeder Lounge, in which hangs a new portrait of him painted by his sister-in-law, the eminent artist, Patrice Lombardi.