Michael Briggs (judge)

Updated on Dec 24, 2023

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Name Michael Briggs Role Judge		Education Charterhouse School

Manchester police honor officer michael briggs on 10th anniversary of his death

The Right Honourable Sir Michael Townley Featherstone Briggs, PC (born 23 December 1954) is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. It was announced on Friday 21 July 2017 that Lord Justice Briggs will become a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

Education

He was educated at Charterhouse School and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Legal career

Michael Briggs was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1978 and was the Junior Counsel to Crown Chancery from 1990-94. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1994. He was made a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 2001, and was appointed Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster on 24 July of that year. He held the post until shortly after his appointment to the High Court .

On 3 July 2006, he was appointed as a Justice of the High Court,, receiving the customary knighthood and being assigned to the Chancery Division. From 2012 to 2013, Mr Justice Briggs was Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster, a Chancery judge appointed by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in consultation with the Lord Chancellor to supervise Chancery business and hear cases in the North and North East.

On 9 April 2013, Briggs was an appointed Lord Justice of Appeal and consequently appointed to the Privy Council.

It was announced on Friday 21 July 2017 that Lord Justice Briggs will become a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He will take office as a Supreme Court Justice on 2 October 2017.

Briggs report

Lord Justice Briggs was appointed as the Judge in charge of the Chancery Modernisation Review in 2013. The report was finally published in July 2016, and predictably came to be referred to as the "Briggs report". Part of those recommendations included proposals for a new online court to try and create a more affordable dispute resolution procedure.

Notable judicial decisions

Notable decisions of Lord Justice Briggs include:

High Court

Re Cheyne Finance plc [2008] EWHC 2402 (Ch), [2008] BCC 182, on the statutory definition of insolvency

Assenagon Asset Management SA v Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Ltd [2012] EWHC 2090 (Ch), invalidating "exit consents" in bond documentation

Lomas v JFB Firth Rixson Inc [2010] EWHC 3372 (Ch), on the proper construction of the standard form ISDA Master Agreement (upheld by the Court of Appeal on appeal)

Breakspear v Ackland [2008] EWHC 220 (Ch), on beneficiaries' information rights under a discretionary trust