Lord Burnett of Maldon

Lord Burnett of Maldon, the former Lord Chief Justice, joined Blackstone Chambers on 1 February 2024.

His extensive experience makes him ideally suited to conduct and lead inquiries and investigations, as well as to sit as an arbitrator and to mediate. He became an Accredited CEDR mediator in 2024.

Lord Burnett studied law at Pembroke College, Oxford and was called to the Bar in 1980. Lord Burnett was Junior Counsel for the Crown, Common Law from 1992 to 1998 when he took silk.

From 2017 to 2023 he served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Head of the Judiciary and President of all the Courts in England and Wales. As a High Court Judge from 2008 he sat in the Queen’s Bench Division dealing with civil, criminal and public law cases and in the Court of Appeal from 2014 sat on appeals across the full range of cases. As Lord Chief Justice he sat in both divisions of the Court of Appeal and in the Supreme Court.

At the Bar, Lord Burnett had a broad common law practice dealing with tort and contract cases with a later focus on public and administrative law and public inquiries. He was instructed in some of the most complex and high-profile cases of the day.

The public inquires, including into the King’s Cross Fire, various rail crash inquiries and alleged wrongful convictions, were factually and scientifically complicated and document heavy.

He was involved in many notable judicial review and public law cases and, in particular, in the years following 9/11 those concerning the Government’s response to the risk of terrorist attack. His final case at the Bar, before joining the High Court Bench, was as Counsel to the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi al Fayed.

Lord Burnett is Chief Justice of the Astana International Financial Court and is a member of the Supplementary Panel of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.