The process to appoint his successor as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales will begin in early 2013.

Appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court in 1976, Lord Judge was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1979. In 1988 he was appointed a High Court Judge, Queen’s Bench Division, and was knighted. In 1993 he became Presiding Judge of the Midland and Oxford Circuit. Three years later, in 1996, he was appointed Lord Justice of Appeal and soon afterwards sworn in as a Privy Councillor.

From 1998 until 2003 he was Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales, and in 2005 was appointed as the first President of the Queen’s Bench Division.

On 1 October 2008 Lord Judge was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the Head of the Judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. He was created a life peer, as Baron Judge of Draycote in the County of Warwickshire on 6 October 2008.