Warm tributes were paid at the Online Procedure Rule Committee event to Lord Justice Colin Birss, who as deputy head of civil justice and lead judge for artificial intelligence has been a driving force in the online civil justice programme. The distinguished IP practitioner was last month named as the next chancellor of the High Court on the retirement of Sir Julian Flaux.
But his current boss, master of the rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos, had a word of warning in case Birss was feeling demob-happy. ‘Your new role doesn’t begin until 1 November and I am negotiating a lengthy handover period with the lady chief justice,’ Vos said.
Apart from AI, the new chancellor is known for his enthusiasm for Victorian engineering: he is a declared fan of the great Joseph Whitworth, whose specification of the first national screw thread standard in 1841 underpinned the development of mass production. (Despite metrication, Whitworth’s 55-degree screw thread angle lives on in pipe threads – and classic British motorbikes.)
But Law Society deputy vice president Brett Dixon hinted that Birss might have another secret passion. Dixon told the conference that one of the first claims to be made to test the Online Civil Money Claims system was against one Colin Birss – who gave his address for service as ‘The Death Star’. Of course, that was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
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