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. He gave the keynote address at the 2010 Conference speaking to 'Keeping ahead of the challenges'.
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.
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.
