Leicester alumnus and honorary professor Sir Nicholas Green appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal

A Leicester alumnus and honorary graduate has been appointed by HM The Queen as Lord Justice of Appeal.

Sir Nicholas Green is among three Lady Justices and four Lord Justices of Appeal who will fill current and forthcoming vacancies in the Court of Appeal.

Professor Francois du Bois, Head of the Leicester Law School, said: “On behalf of the University of Leicester, and the Law School in particular, I would like to congratulate Sir Nicholas most warmly on his appointment as a Lord Justice of Appeal. It is an honour for us to be linked to someone of such eminent distinction, and we are very grateful for the many different ways in which he is supporting legal education at Leicester and the University generally.”

Sir Nicholas has contributed to the life of the University in many ways.  He has regularly participated in Law School activities, giving lectures and talks to students and staff as well as judging extra-curricular court competitions. He has been an Honorary Professor since 2014 and in November 2016, he played a leading role in the Law School’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, delivering a keynote lecture in honour of the founding professor of the Law School, Professor Jan Grodecki.  The lecture was called “The Common Law after Brexit.”  Sir Nicholas stressed the importance of students continuing to study EU law as it will be the basis of major changes to UK law and, of course, this process will provide employment for lawyers for many years to come.

He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 2017

Sir Nicholas Green was brought up in Birmingham, attending a local state primary school before studying at King Edwards Camp Hill Grammar School. He completed his LLB at Leicester in 1980 and an LLM at the University of Toronto in Canada in 1981. He started professional life as a lecturer in law at the University of Southampton where he completed a PhD in 1985. He also taught for some years on the Master’s degree at UCL.

He was called to the Bar in 1986 completing pupillage in 1987 and he was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1998.

The first of his family to become a lawyer, Sir Nicholas is a specialist in European, commercial and constitutional law. He has previously served as Chairman of the Bar Council and the Advocacy Training Council. During his extensive career, one case of note was R (Factortame Ltd) v Secretary of State for Transport which was the first case which established the right of the court to grant an injunction against Parliament. He was a judge of the High Court of Justice (Queen’s Bench Division) since 2013.

• The appointment of Lord and Lady Justices of the Court of Appeal are made by Her Majesty The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor following the recommendation of an independent selection panel.

Watch a video of Sir Nicholas Green QC receiving an Honorary Degree from the University: