Senior judiciary biographies - Master of the Rolls
Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Master of the Rolls
The Rt. Hon. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury (in the county of Dorset) was appointed as Master of the Rolls with effect from 1st October 2009.
The Master of the Rolls is the Head of Civil Justice, and the second most senior judicial post in England and Wales, after the Lord Chief Justice.
Lord Neuberger was born on 10 January 1948, and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford University.
After working at NM Rothschild & Sons 1970-73, he was called to the Bar (Lincoln’s Inn) in 1974. He was made a Bencher for Lincoln’s Inn in 1993.
He was appointed as a Queen’s Counsel in 1987, and his first judicial appointment was as a Recorder, between 1990 and 1996. In 1996 he was appointed as a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division. He was the Supervisory Chancery Judge for the Midland, Wales and Chester and Western Circuits for 2000-04.
In January2004 he was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal.
In January 2007 he was appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (a ‘Law Lord’) and given a life peerage.
It was announced in July 2009 that he would succeed Lord Clarke of Stone-Cum-Ebony as the Master of the Rolls.
Lord Neuberger led an investigation for the Bar Council into widening access to the barrister profession. He also served on the panel on fair access to the professions led by Alan Milburn.
Since 1999 he has been the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Spoliation of Art (in the Holocaust), and since 2003 he has been the Chairman of the Schizophrenia Trust. He has been a governor of the University of the Arts London since 2000.
Lord Neuberger is married with two sons and one daughter.