Takes top role January 2027
Lord Briggs has been appointed as the next president of the Supreme Court, succeeding Lord Reed when he retires in January 2027.
The King approved the appointment on the advice of the Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor, following a recommendation from an independent selection commission.
Briggs, who has sat on the Supreme Court since 2017, will become its fifth President since the country’s top court was established in 2009.
Speaking following the announcement, the Oxford grad said it was a “great privilege” to land the top judicial job.
“I look forward to working with colleagues across the Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) to deliver justice of the highest quality, transparency and accessibility,” Briggs said.
Outgoing president Reed, meanwhile, described his successor as “a judge of the highest distinction” and highlighted Briggs’ work on improving the accessibility and efficiency of the justice system.
Briggs’ route to the top of the judicial pile began not with a law degree, but with history at Magdalen College, Oxford. The first lawyer in his family, he went on to practise from from the chambers of Charles Sparrow QC which later became Serle Court, specialising in business and property litigation, before taking silk in 1994.
He joined the High Court in 2006 and later found himself overseeing the sprawling Lehman Brothers insolvency litigation between 2009 and 2013. He was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 2013 before making the jump to the Supreme Court four years later.
He will take over from Reed in January next year.