Lord Snowden

Justice of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Snowden

Richard Snowden grew up and was educated at a state school in Redcar in the North-East of England. He studied law as an undergraduate at Downing College, Cambridge and obtained a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School.

Lord Snowden was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn in 1986. He practised from Erskine Chambers, specialising in company law, corporate insolvency, financial services and related commercial litigation. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2003.

Lord Snowden’s judicial career began when he was appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court in 2006. He was appointed a Deputy High Court Judge in 2008 and a High Court Judge of the Chancery Division in 2015. He served as Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster and Supervising Judge of the Business and Property Courts for the Northern and North-Eastern Circuits from 2019.

Lord Snowden was promoted to the Court of Appeal in October 2021. He was appointed to the Transparency and Open Justice Board on its inception in 2024, and was appointed Lead Judge for International Relations for the judiciary in March 2025.

He is a regular speaker at professional conferences at home and abroad, and was elected a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in 2010, and became an Honorary Fellow of Downing College in 2022.