Biographies of the Justices
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Biographies of the Justices
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Lord Reed

President of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon The Lord Reed of Allermuir

Robert John Reed, Lord Reed of Allermuir took up appointment as President of the Supreme Court on 13 January 2020, succeeding Lady Hale of Richmond. Upon this appointment, Lord Reed became a life peer.

Prior to his appointment as President, Lord Reed previously served as Deputy President of the Supreme Court from 7 June 2018 and was originally appointed as a Justice on 6 February 2012.

He studied law at Edinburgh University and undertook doctoral research in law at the University of Oxford. He qualified as an advocate in Scotland and as a barrister in England. He practised at the Scottish Bar in a wide range of civil cases, and also prosecuted serious crime.

He served as a senior judge in Scotland for 13 years. From 2008 to 2012 a member of the Inner House of the Court of Session, and from 1998 to 2008 a member of the Outer House of the Court of Session, where he was the Principal Commercial Judge.

As well as sitting on the Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, he is also a member of the panel of ad hoc judges of the European Court of Human Rights. Lord Reed is also the High Steward of Oxford University.

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Lord Hodge

Deputy President of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Hodge

Patrick Stewart Hodge, Lord Hodge, was appointed Deputy President of the Supreme Court in January 2020. He was originally appointed as a Justice on 1 October 2013.

Lord Hodge was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1983 and appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1996. From 1997 to 2003, he was a part time Law Commissioner at the Scottish Law Commission.

From 2000 to 2005 he was a Judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey, and Procurator to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was a Senator of the College of Justice between 2005 and 2013. In that role he was a Commercial Judge and the Scottish Judge in Exchequer Causes. He also served as one of the Scottish Intellectual Property Judges and as a Judge in the Lands Valuation Appeal Court.

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Lord Lloyd-Jones

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Lloyd-Jones

David Lloyd Jones, The Right Hon Lord Lloyd-Jones, was born and brought up in Pontypridd, Glamorgan where his father was a schoolteacher. He attended Pontypridd Boys' Grammar School and Downing College, Cambridge. He was a Fellow of Downing College from 1975 to 1991. At the Bar his practice included international law, EU law and public law. He was amicus curiae (advocate to the court) in the Pinochet litigation before the House of Lords.

A Welsh speaker, Lord Lloyd-Jones was appointed to the High Court in 2005. From 2008 to 2011 he served as a Presiding Judge on the Wales Circuit and Chair of the Lord Chancellor's Standing Committee on the Welsh Language. In 2012 he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal and from 2012 to 2015 he was Chairman of the Law Commission. He was appointed as the inaugural President of the Law Council of Wales in October 2021.

Lord Lloyd-Jones first served as a Justice of the Supreme Court between October 2017 and January 2022. He was the first Justice of the Supreme Court to come from Wales. He stepped down as a Justice on 13 January 2022 after reaching the then mandatory retirement age of 70. On his retirement Lord Lloyd-Jones was appointed to the Supplementary Panel of the Supreme Court. Following the increase of the mandatory retirement age for judicial office holders from 70 to 75 in March 2022, Lord Lloyd-Jones successfully applied to be re-appointed as a Justice.

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Lord Briggs

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Briggs of Westbourne

Michael Townley Featherstone Briggs, Lord Briggs of Westbourne became a Justice of the Supreme Court in October 2017.

Lord Briggs grew up around Portsmouth and Plymouth, following his naval officer father between ships, before spending his later childhood in West Sussex. He attended Charterhouse and Magdalen College, Oxford. A keen sailor and the first lawyer in his family, he practised in commercial and chancery work before being appointed to the High Court in 2006. He was the judge in charge of the extensive Lehman insolvency litigation from 2009 to 2013.

Lord Briggs was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2013. He was the judge in charge of the Chancery Modernisation Review in 2013, and led the Civil Courts Structure Review in 2015 to 2016. In January 2016 he was appointed Deputy Head of Civil Justice.

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Lord Sales

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Sales

Philip James Sales, Lord Sales became a Justice of the Supreme Court in January 2019.

Lord Sales was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, before reading law at both Churchill College, Cambridge, and Worcester College, Oxford.

He was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Lincoln's Inn in 1985 and was appointed First Treasury Junior Counsel in 1997. He was an Assistant Recorder from 1999 to 2001, Recorder from 2001 and 2008, and Deputy High Court Judge from 2004 and 2008.

Lord Sales became a Queen's Counsel in 2006 and continued to act in the re-named post of First Treasury Counsel Common Law until his appointment to the High Court, Chancery Division in 2008. He was a member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal between 2008 and 2015, and Vice-President of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal between 2014 and 2015.

Between 2009 and 2014 Lord Sales served as Deputy Chair of the Boundary Commission for England. He was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2014.

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Lord Hamblen

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Hamblen of Kersey

Nicholas Archibald Hamblen, Lord Hamblen of Kersey became a Justice of the Supreme Court in January 2020.

Lord Hamblen was educated at St John's College, University of Oxford and Harvard Law School, and was called to the Bar (Lincoln's Inn) in 1981.

He practised at the Commercial Bar from 1982-2008. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1997, an Assistant Recorder in 1999 and a Recorder in 2000.

Lord Hamblen was appointed to sit as a Justice in the High Court in November 2008 and was a nominated Commercial Court Judge.

In February 2016 he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal.

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Lord Leggatt

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Leggatt

George Andrew Midsomer Leggatt became a Justice of the Supreme Court in April 2020.

Lord Leggatt, read Philosophy at King's College, Cambridge, studied at Harvard University as a Harkness Fellow, was a Bigelow Teaching Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, and worked as a foreign lawyer at the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, before joining Brick Court Chambers in London in 1985.

He practised as a barrister from those chambers until 2012, specialising mainly in commercial cases. He was appointed a QC in 1997. He also sat as a Recorder on the Western Circuit for 10 years.

From 2006-2008 he was Vice-Chair of the Bar Standards Board. He was appointed a High Court Judge in 2012, assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, and was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 2018.

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Lord Burrows

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Burrows

Andrew Stephen Burrows became a Justice of the Supreme Court in June 2020.

He was educated at Prescot Grammar School, Knowsley, Merseyside and Brasenose College, Oxford. He has been a barrister at Fountain Court Chambers since 1989.

He was appointed QC (hon) in 2003 and is an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple. He has been sitting as a part-time judge for over 20 years, first as a Recorder and then as a Deputy High Court Judge.

He was a Law Commissioner for England and Wales (1994-1999) and the President of the Society of Legal Scholars (2015-16). He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Distinguished Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and has written many books and articles especially on contract, tort, unjust enrichment, and statute law.

He was formerly Professor of the Law of England at the University of Oxford and is the first, and so far only, person to have been appointed direct to the highest court from a full-time position as a legal academic.

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Lord Stephens

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Stephens of Creevyloughgare

Sir Ben Stephens became a Justice of the Supreme Court in October 2020.

Lord Stephens was educated at Manchester University. He was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1977, the Bar of England and Wales in July 1978 and to the Bar of Ireland in 1996.

He took Silk in 1996. He was a senior member of the Government Civil Panel of Counsel from 2004 to January 2007. He held a number of positions at the Bar including Vice Chairman of the Executive Council of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland and Vice Chairman of the General Council of the Bar of Northern Ireland.

He was appointed as a High Court Judge in Northern Ireland in 2007. He was assigned to the Family Division from 2008 and to the Queen's Bench Division from 2014.

He was Hague Convention Liaison judge for international cases involving child abduction between 2008 and 2014 and also served as Chairman of the Council of Law Reporting for Northern Ireland.

He was a Commissioner in the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission between 2013 and 2020, first as a High Court Judge and then as a Lord Justice of Appeal. He was a Senior Lord Justice of Appeal from 2017 to 2020.

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Lady Rose

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lady Rose of Colmworth

Dame Vivien Rose, Lady Rose became a Justice of the Supreme Court on 19 April 2021.

Lady Rose took her first degree at Newnham College, Cambridge and a post-graduate degree at Brasenose College, Oxford. She was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1984 and was in practice at Monckton Chambers for ten years. She was appointed Standing Counsel to the Director General of Fair Trading in 1992.

In 1995 she left private practice to join the Government Legal Service serving as a legal adviser on financial services at HM Treasury until 2001. In 2002 she was appointed to the Senior Civil Service and moved to the Ministry of Defence as Director of Operational and International Humanitarian Law. From 2005 to 2008 she was seconded to the Office of Counsel to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

In 2006 she was appointed to her first judicial role as a fee-paid Chairman of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. She was appointed to further tribunal posts and became a Recorder in the criminal jurisdiction, South Eastern circuit in 2010. In May 2013 Dame Vivien was sworn in as a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division. She was President of the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) between 2015 and 2018 and was a nominated judge of the Financial List from its inception. She was appointed to the Court of Appeal in January 2019.

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Lord Richards

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Richards of Camberwell

Sir David Anthony Stewart Richards studied Law at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar in 1974 and took Silk in 1992. Whilst at the Bar, Sir David’s principal area of practice was company law and corporate insolvency.

He was appointed a deputy High Court Judge in 2001, a High Court Judge (Chancery Division) in 2003, a chairman of the Competition Appeal Tribunal in 2004 and chairman of the Insolvency Rules Committee from 2005 to 2015. He was the Chancery Supervising Judge for the Northern and North Eastern Circuits and Vice–Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster from 2008 to 2011.

Sir David was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal and made a Privy Counsellor in 2015. He retired as a Lord Justice of Appeal, after reaching the then mandatory retirement age of 70, in June 2021. Thereafter, he practised as an arbitrator and legal expert, as well as continuing to sit in the Court of Appeal as a retired Judge on a part time basis. He also sat in appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

He was elected a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in 2000 and Treasurer of the Inn for 2020–21. He served as Chairman of the Lincoln’s Inn Finance and General Purposes Committee from 2014 to 2019. He was a director of the International Insolvency Institute from 2015 to 2019 and co–chair of its Judicial Committee from 2012 to 2019.

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Lady Simler

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lady Simler

Dame Ingrid Ann Simler, Lady Simler, became a Justice of the Supreme Court on 14 November 2023.

Lady Simler was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1987, having read law at Cambridge University, and completed a post-graduate diploma in EU law at the Europa Institute, University of Amsterdam. She practised at the Bar at Devereux Chambers where she became Head of Chambers before becoming a judge. She was appointed to the Attorney General's Civil Panel A in 2001 and as Junior Counsel to the Inland Revenue (Common Law) in 2002. She took silk in 2006.

In 2002 she was appointed Recorder on the South East circuit. She was appointed as a Deputy High Court Judge in 2010. She became a Judge of the High Court King's Bench Division in October 2013. In January 2015 she was appointed President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal for a three year term which ended on 31 December 2018.

Having served as High Court Liaison Judge for Diversity she was appointed chair of the Diversity Committee of the Judges' Council in 2019. She is also a member of the Civil Executive Team chaired by the Deputy Head of Civil Justice, reporting to the Master of the Rolls. She was sworn in as a Lady Justice of the Court of Appeal in June 2019.