Sir Brian Neill was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1949. A CEDR accredited mediator he is the current chairman of the newly-established Civil mediation council. For nineteen years he was in practice at the Bar specializing in media law and in drafting banking and other documents for financial institutions before being appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1968.

In 1976 he sat as sole arbitrator (with an engineer assessor) in the Plover Cove Reservoir arbitration between the Hong Kong Government and the French construction company.

He was appointed a High Court judge in 1978 and until the end of 1984 sat regularly in the Queen's Bench Division and in the Commercial and Admiralty Court, as well as a judge of the Employment Appeal Tribunal. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1985 and sat in the Court of Appeal until 1996. Following his retirement he sat from time to time in the Court of Appeal as a retired Lord Justice and also at as a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. From 1998 to 2003 he sat on a part-time basis as the President of the Court of Appeal for Gibraltar.

Since 1997 Sir Brian Neill has sat as sole arbitrator or as a member of a panel (usually as chairman) in a substantial number of international arbitrations, and some domestic arbitrations, including arbitrations involving shipping, insurance and re-insurance, commercial agency, construction and partnership disputes. He has also acted as mediator or conciliator in a number of matters including ship construction, book publishing, re-insurance and the maintenance of aircraft.

In 1983 Sir Brian Neill succeeded Lord Scarman as the President of the Society for Computers and Law and continued in that post until 1993. He has retained his links with the Society as a Vice-President. From 1985 to 1995 he was the first chairman of the Information Technology and the Courts Committee established by the Lord Chancellor to assist in the development of the use of IT in the courts system. Sir Brian is also a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

He is the chairman of the Trustees of the Lord Slynn of Hadley European Law Foundation and has spoken in Eastern Europe on various aspects of EU law.

He is co-author of a leading textbook on the law of defamation.

Arbitrations concluded or current

Shipping dispute re supply of Iraqi oil
Numerous major reinsurance disputes involving foreign insurance and reinsurance companies
Shipping collision in Mediterranean
Dispute re satellite communications in Asia
Dispute involving local authority re waste disposal site
Dispute re shipping agency in India
Dispute re engineering services in Saudi Arabia
Dispute re shipbuilding contract
Dispute re supply of electronic devices by foreign contractor

ADR concluded or current

Government Department and two contractors - shipbuilding dispute
University and member of academic staff - employment dispute
Government Department and foreign contractor - dispute re software ( This was an Early Neutral Evaluation)
Dispute re development value of land.