Etherton advances to Master of the Rolls

Former champion fencer Sir Terence Etherton has been chosen as the new Master of the Rolls, the head of civil justice in England and Wales.

He replaces Lord Dyson, who is retiring, and will take up his post on 3 October 2016.

Sir Terence, formerly of Wilberforce Chambers, was called to the Bar (Gray’s Inn) in 1974 and became a QC in 1990. He became a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division in 2001, a chairman of the Law Commission in 2006, a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2008, and President of the Council of the Inns of Court in 2009. In 2013, he was appointed the Chancellor of the High Court, head of the Chancery Division.

Born in 1951, he was in the British sabre fencing team from 1977 to 1980, which won gold at the Commonwealth Championships in 1978 and qualified for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

Lord Thomas, the Lord Chief Justice says: “Following his excellent work as Chancellor over the last three years, I look forward to continuing to work with him closely in the major reform of our system of justice.”

NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School says: “The big question for me is how he will address reforms.

“Will he accept costs management which lay at the heart of the 2013 reforms? There are judicial dissentients. Next month he will receive the Briggs report. Who knows in which direction he will head?”