A looming leadership gap at the High Court’s new Business and Property Division has been filled by the apppointment of Mrs Justice Joanna Smith as interim deputy president. She will take up her role on 1 November when Sir Colin Birss, the current president, steps up to succeed Sir Geoffrey Vos as master of the rolls.
Smith will be responsible for the day-to-day leadership of the division until a permanent president is appointed. This includes deciding on the deployment of judges and the allocation of cases, liaising with and overseeing the supervising judges of the Business and Property Courts outside London, and providing pastoral support for judges of the division.
Announcing the appointment, the lady chief justice said: 'I am pleased to announce the appointment of Mrs Justice Joanna Smith as Deputy President of the Business and Property Division on an interim basis. She takes up this important responsibility, shortly after the creation of the new division.
'Her extensive judicial experience in the Business and Property Courts will enable her to help former Chancery and King’s Bench Division judges, along with newly appointed members of the High Court, to navigate this period of transition.'
Mrs Justice Joanna Smith was called to the bar in 1990, took silk in 2009, and became a Deputy High Court Judge in 2017. She became a judge of the High Court, assigned to the Chancery Division, in 2021. Since her appointment she has regularly sat in both the Chancery and King’s Bench Divisions. She also sits in the Technology and Construction Court and the Patents Court. She was chair of the Tribunal Procedure Committee from 2020 to 2024 and has chaired the core group of the Online Procedure Rule Committee since January 2026.
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