Master of the rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos, 70, is to retire on 31 October after four years in the role, he announced this morning.
He will by then have spent a decade in senior judicial leadership, having served as chancellor of the High Court between 2016 and 2021 and sat in the Court of Appeal for 13 years.
‘I have very much enjoyed being the master of the rolls, particularly in working with colleagues across the judiciary and in the Court of Appeal - both current and those who have retired,’ he said. ‘I very much hope that I have contributed towards improving and modernising both civil justice and our judiciary and I will continue that work for the coming 10 months. I am sure that those efforts will continue under the inspiring leadership of the lady chief justice.’
Lady chief justice Baroness Carr said: ‘Sir Geoffrey has been a tireless advocate for a modern and digitised civil justice system, setting a progressive course and encouraging court users and the judiciary to follow. He spoke enthusiastically of blockchain, AI and cryptocurrencies well before the terms were commonplace, and he has long been a (and was possibly the first) paperless judge, demonstrating digital justice in action.’
The MR is head of civil justice and the second most senior judge in England and Wales after the LCJ. As MR Sir Geoffrey is also president of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal, with responsibility for the deployment and organisation of judges’ work within it. His tenure has been especially notable for his advocacy of court digitisation. The MR also chairs the Civil Procedure Rule Committee, the Civil Justice Council and the Online Procedure Rule Committee.
Sir Geoffrey is also a member of the LawtechUK Panel and chairs the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce and International Jurisdiction Taskforce, which have been at the forefront of establishing clarity on the legal status of and legal principles applicable to new technologies.
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