Lord Justice Stephen Phillips

Lord Justice Stephen Phillips grew up in Chester as the son of two Welsh parents from Llanelli in Carmarthenshire. He attended a state primary school before being awarded a free place at the King’s School, Chester.

After training as a barrister he was called to the Bar in 1984 where he specialised in banking and financial law. He was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2002 and then Master of the Bench at Gray’s Inn in 2006. He was made a Justice of the High Court within the Queen’s Bench Division (now King’s Bench Division) in 2013 and was nominated a judge of the Commercial and Admiralty Courts in 2014. Lord Justice Phillips is also a nominated Judge of the Financial List and has been the Director of Civil Training at the Judicial College from 2014 to 2019.

Lord Justice Phillips is a supporter of the National Theatre and during his time at Gray’s Inn he ran the football team for 12 years, during which time the team won the London Legal League six times.