Sir Geoffrey Vos was appointed Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice in England and Wales on 11 January 2021. In addition to being President of the Court of Appeal’s Civil Division, the Master of the Rolls is chair of both the Civil Justice Council and the Civil Procedure Rule Committee. His office’s historical responsibility for records of national importance continues today in his chairmanship of the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives and of the Forum on Historical Manuscripts and Academic Research. As a member of the LawtechUK Panel and as chairman of its UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, he contributes to the government-backed initiative supporting the technological transformation of the UK legal sector.
Prior to his appointment as Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey was Chancellor of the High Court from October 2016, responsible for its Chancery Division and the work of the Business and Property Courts. Appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2013, he served as President of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary from 2015 to 2016.
Sir Geoffrey began his judicial career with appointment as a deputy High Court Judge in 1999. Having sat in the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey between 2005 and 2009, and in the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands between 2008 and 2009, he was appointed as a High Court Judge in October 2009.
Called to the Bar in 1977, Sir Geoffrey built a practice – both in the UK and internationally – in chancery and commercial law. He took silk in 1993 and later served as chairman of the Chancery Bar Association from 1999 to 2001 and as chairman of the Bar Council in 2007.
Sir Geoffrey was chairman of the Social Mobility Foundation from 2008-2011. He is a Master of the Bench at both the Inner Temple and Lincoln’s Inn and is an honorary fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.