Michael Townley Featherstone Briggs, Lord Briggs of Westbourne, (born 23 December 1954) is a

Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom are the judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom other than the president and the deputy president. The Supreme Court is the highest court of the United Kingdom for civil and crimin ...

. He served earlier as a judge of the

Court of Appeal of England and Wales The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and second in the legal system of England and Wales only t ...

. By Royal Warrant, he bears the courtesy title of Lord Briggs of Westbourne.

Education

He was educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the ...

Legal career

Michael Briggs was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincol ...

in 1978 and was the Junior Counsel to Crown Chancery from 1990-94. He became a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

in 1994. He was made a

Bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...

of Lincoln's Inn in 2001, and was appointed Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster on 24 July of that year. He held the post until shortly after his appointment to the High Court. On 3 July 2006, he was appointed as a Justice of the High Court, receiving the customary

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...

and being assigned to the

Chancery Division The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...

. From 2012 to 2013, Mr Justice Briggs was

Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster The Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster is an office of the Duchy of Lancaster. The vice-chancellor is appointed by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster after consultation with the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. Since 19 ...

, a Chancery judge appointed by the

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. The position is the second highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minist ...

in consultation with the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...

to supervise Chancery business and hear cases in the North and North East. On 9 April 2013, Briggs was an appointed

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Justic ...

and consequently appointed to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...

. It was announced on 21 July 2017 that Lord Justice Briggs would become a Justice of the

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ( initialism: UKSC or the acronym: SCOTUK) is the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom for all civil cases, and for criminal cases originating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As the Unite ...

. He took office as a Supreme Court Justice on 2 October 2017.

Briggs report

Lord Justice Briggs was appointed as the Judge in charge of the Chancery Modernisation Review in 2013. The report was finally published in July 2016, and came to be referred to as the ''Briggs report''. Part of those recommendations included proposals for a new online court to try and create a more affordable dispute resolution procedure.

Notable judicial decisions

Accession Council of King Charles III - 07

Notable decisions of Lord Briggs include:

High Court

* , on the statutory definition of

insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-shee ...

* , invalidating "exit consents" in bond documentation * , on the proper construction of the standard form

ISDA Master Agreement The ISDA Master Agreement, published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, is the most commonly used master service agreement for OTC derivatives transactions internationally. It is part of a framework of documents, designed ...

(upheld by the Court of Appeal on appeal) * , on beneficiaries' information rights under a discretionary trust *''

Re Fort Gilkicker Ltd Re or RE may refer to: Geography * Re, Norway, a former municipality in Vestfold county, Norway * Re, Vestland, a village in Gloppen municipality, Vestland county, Norway * Re, Piedmont, an Italian municipality * Île de Ré, an island off the we ...

'' 013EWHC 348 (Ch) double derivative claims allowed

Court of Appeal

* , on ''Quistclose'' trusts * , on the " waterfall of payments" in insolvent liquidation * , on fixed costs for pre-action discovery

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, Michael 1954 births Living people Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford British barristers Chancery Division judges Judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor Members of Lincoln's Inn People educated at Charterhouse School 20th-century King's Counsel Attorneys-General of the Duchy of Lancaster Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People from Hampshire (before 1974)