The Right Honourable The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers KG PC QC |
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Coat of arms of The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers
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President of the Supreme Court | |
In office 1 October 2009 – 30 September 2012 |
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Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Deputy | The Lord Hope of Craighead |
Preceded by | Office created |
Succeeded by | The Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury |
Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
In office 1 October 2008 – 30 September 2009 |
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Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Deputy |
The Lord Hoffmann The Lord Hope of Craighead |
Preceded by | The Lord Bingham of Cornhill |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales | |
In office 3 October 2005 – 30 September 2008 |
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Preceded by | The Lord Woolf |
Succeeded by | The Lord Judge |
Master of the Rolls | |
In office 6 June 2000 – 3 October 2005 |
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Preceded by | The Lord Woolf |
Succeeded by | The Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony |
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
In office 12 January 1999 – 6 June 2000 |
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Preceded by | The Lord Lloyd of Berwick |
Succeeded by | The Lord Scott of Foscote |
Personal details | |
Born | 21 January 1938 |
Nationality | British |
Spouse(s) | Christylle née Rouffiac (now The Lady Phillips of Worth Matravers) |
Children | 2 |
Residence | Hampstead, London |
Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
Nicholas Addison Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers, KG PC QC (born 21 January 1938) is a British lawyer and former senior English judge.
Lord Phillips served as the inaugural President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, holding office between October 2009 and October 2012. He is also the last Senior Law Lord and the first Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales to be head of the English judiciary when that function was transferred from the Lord Chancellor in April 2006. Before his chief justiceship, he was Master of the Rolls from 2000 to 2005. He sits as a crossbencher.
Phillips was educated at Bryanston School; appointed a Governor of the school in 1975, he has been Chairman of its Governors since 1981. He undertook his National Service with the Royal Navy and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, being commissioned as an officer. After the two years' service he went to King's College, Cambridge, where he read law. In 1962, he was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, where he was the Harmsworth Scholar. He undertook pupillage at 2 Essex Court Chambers (with the Anglo-American QC, Waldo Porges) and subsequently obtained a Tenancy there, later moving to 1 Brick Court (now Brick Court Chambers). In 1973 he was appointed as Junior Counsel to the Ministry of Defence and to the Treasury in and Admiralty matters. On 4 April 1978, he became a Queen's Counsel (QC). His maternal grandparents, two young immigrants to this country were Sephardic Jews and had eloped to Britain from Alexandria.