One Essex Court is delighted to announce that The Right Honourable Lord Hodge and The Right Honourable Lord Richards of Camberwell have joined Chambers, following their retirement from the UK Supreme Court in December 2025 and June 2026, respectively.
The Right Honourable Lord Hodge
Lord Hodge was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1983 and appointed Queen's Counsel in 1996. Whilst at the Bar, his principal areas of practice were commercial law, judicial review and property law. From 1997 to 2003 he sat as a part-time Commissioner at the Scottish Law Commission, and from 2000 to 2005 he was a Judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey. He was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice in 2005, serving until 2013, during which time he sat as a Commercial Judge and the Scottish Judge in Exchequer Causes, as well as one of the Scottish Intellectual Property Judges and as a Judge in the Lands Valuation Appeal Court.
Lord Hodge was appointed a Justice of the UK Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on 1 October 2013, and became Deputy President of the Supreme Court in January 2020, a role he held until his retirement on 31 December 2025. Lord Hodge was appointed Chief Justice of the ADGM Courts effective 1 April 2026, and he also served as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong between 2021 and 2022.
The Right Honourable Lord Richards of Camberwell
Lord Richards was called to the Bar at Inner Temple in 1974 and took Silk in 1992. Whilst at the Bar, his principal areas of practice were company law and corporate insolvency, including takeovers and mergers, restructuring, acquisitions, joint ventures, shareholder disputes, directors' duties and governance, and corporate regulation, extending to general commercial disputes, auditing and accounting, and insurance and banking business transfers.
He was appointed a Judge of the High Court of Justice (Chancery Division) in 2003, and chaired the Competition Appeal Tribunal from 2004. He chaired the Insolvency Rules Committee between 2005 and 2015, before being appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in November 2015. Following his retirement from the Court of Appeal in 2021, he continued to sit part-time as a retired judge of that court and in appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, while also practising as an arbitrator and legal expert from One Essex Court. He was elected a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 2000 and served as Treasurer of the Inn in 2020–21.
In October 2022, Lord Richards was appointed a Justice of the UK Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, a position from which he retired in June 2026, bringing to a close a fifty-two-year career in the law spanning company and insolvency practice at the Bar, the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
Welcoming Lord Hodge and Lord Richards to Chambers, Daniel Toledano KC and Sonia Tolaney KC, Joint Heads of Chambers, said:
"We are absolutely delighted to welcome Lord Hodge and Lord Richards to One Essex Court. Between them, they bring an extraordinary breadth of judicial experience at the very highest level, from the Court of Session and the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Their insight and standing will be of enormous value to clients and to Chambers, and we are confident that both will be in great demand as arbitrators and mediators across the areas in which they built such distinguished careers."