Lord (Michael) Briggs practiced at the English bar from Serle Court across a broad range of chancery and commercial litigation from 1978 until 2006, becoming a QC in 1994.   He was recognised for many years in Chambers and Partners as a leading star at the bar.  He chaired the Bar Council Law Reform Committee and was a member of the Bar Council / Law Society working party on Civil Justice.  From 2001 to 2006 he was Attorney General to the Duchy of Lancaster, and a deputy High Court judge.

During the same period, as head of Serle Court’s management committee he took a main role in the merger between 13 Old Square and 1 Hare Court, from which Serle Court emerged, and in the move to new premises at 6 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn.

Appointed to the High Court in 2006, he served on the Civil Procedure Rules Committee, and on the Single Civil Court working party.  From 2011 until 2013 he was the northern chancery supervising judge, as Vice Chancellor of the County Palatine.  He was the judge in charge of the Lehman litigation before being appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2013.

As a judge he has played a major role in the reform of civil justice, for example in conducting the Chancery Modernisation Review in 2013 and the Civil Courts Structure Review in 2015-16.   

He was the Deputy Head of Civil Justice from January 2016 until September 2017, and led the civil judicial engagement with the programme for fundamental IT reform in the English courts, taking a particular interest in the development of a civil online court.

From 2013 until 2016 he was the liaison judge for the Personal Support Unit (now Support through Court), which provides practical help and support for litigants in person.  He is a patron of Law for Life, and a trustee of The Sixteen.

In October 2017 he was appointed as a Justice of the UK Supreme Court.  He is now its most senior English member.