Nick Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers

Phillips was born 21 January 1938. He was educated at Bryanston School (where he was later 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.[4] 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 Maritime and Admiralty matters. On 4 April 1978, he became a Queen's Counsel (QC).[5] His maternal grandparents were Sephardic Jews who had eloped to Britain from Alexandria.

In 1982, Phillips was appointed a Recorder and from 1987 was a full-time High Court Judge on the Queen's Bench Division, with the customary knighthood.[4] He took an interest in legal training, and was Chairman of the Council of Legal Education from 1992 to 1997.[4] He presided over several complex fraud trials including those covering the Robert Maxwell pension fund fraud and Barlow Clowes.[6] In 1995, he became a Lord Justice of Appeal and was appointed to the Privy Council.[4]

On 12 January 1999, he was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary[7] and created a Life Peer under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 as Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers, of Belsize Park in the London Borough of Camden.[8]

He then succeeded Harry, Lord Woolf as Master of the Rolls on 6 June 2000.[9] He conducted an inquiry into the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.[10] He served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2005 to 2008, when he was reappointed as a Law Lord.[4]

Since 2008, Phillips was the Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary until he became the first President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on 1 October 2009.[4]

Queen Elizabeth II elevated him as a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter on 23 April 2011.[11]

On 11 October 2011, Phillips announced his retirement on 30 September 2012, almost four months before the mandatory retirement age for British judges at turning 75 on 21 January 2013.[12]

After retiring from the bench, Phillips followed Woolf as President of the Qatar International Court at Doha[13] He served on the court from 2012 to 2018.[4] He also acts as an arbitrator.[6]

In March 2012, the Government of Hong Kong SAR appointed Phillips as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.[4] He also serves as President of the British Maritime Law Association and Chairman of the European Maritime Law Organisation.[14][4]

Phillips is married to Christylle Marie-Thérèse Rouffiac, with whom he has two daughters, and a stepson and stepdaughter,[4] and lives in Hampstead, London. His daughter Marie is a novelist. He is a member of Brooks's and the Garrick Clubs.[4] He is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Drapers and a Past Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, as well as being an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Advanced Legal Studies, University College London, Hughes Hall, Cambridge, and of King's College, Cambridge.

Phillips was also appointed the inaugural Distinguished Fellow and Visiting Professor of The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London.[15] He has received honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws (Hon. LLD) from Exeter (1998), Birmingham (2003), London (2004), Wake Forest University (2010), and the International Institute of Maritime Law, and of Doctor of Civil Law (Hon. DCL) from City University, London (2003).[4] Phillips served as Chancellor of Bournemouth University from 2009 until 2018, being succeeded by broadcaster and author, Kate Adie.[16]

• Nicholas Phillips Esq (birth–1978)
• Nicholas Phillips Esq QC (1978–1987)
• Mr Justice Phillips (1987–1995)
• Lord Justice Phillips PC (1995–1999)
• The Rt Hon The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers PC (1999–2011)
• The Rt Hon The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers KG PC (2011–present)

Decided cases

• Great Peace Shipping Ltd v Tsavliris (International) Ltd [2003] QB 679
• Shogun Finance Ltd v Hudson [2004] 1 AC 919
• Moore Stephens v Stone Rolls Ltd (in liq) [2009] 1 AC 1391
• R v Gnango [2012] 1 AC 827

• Dyer, Clare, He pointed a finger where it ought to be pointed. He didn't go over the top ... He has shown himself to be politic, The Guardian, 23 September 2005.
• BSE enquiry, UK Government
• Ministry of Justice: President, Supreme Court
• Phillips interviewed by ReConstitution, sharing views on the new UK's Supreme Court and the role of the Judiciary.
• Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 7 February 2014 (video)