The King approves the appointment of Lord Justice Snowden to the Supreme Court bench
Lord Justice Snowden has been appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom following approval by His Majesty the King. The appointment was announced on 30 April 2026 by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Justice.
According to the announcement, the appointment was made by the King on the advice of the Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor following a recommendation from an independent selection commission.
Lord Justice Snowden, whose full name is Richard Snowden, was educated at a state school in Redcar in the North-East of England before studying law at Downing College, Cambridge. He later completed a Master of Laws degree at Harvard Law School. He was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn in 1986 and practised from Erskine Chambers. His practice focused on company law, corporate insolvency, financial services and commercial litigation.
Snowden was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2003 before beginning his judicial career as a Recorder of the Crown Court in 2006. He became a Deputy High Court Judge in 2008 and was appointed to the Chancery Division of the High Court in 2015.
During his time in the High Court, he served as Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster and also acted as Supervising Judge of the Business and Property Courts for the Northern and North-Eastern Circuits from 2019. Snowden was elevated to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in October 2021.
More recently, he was appointed to the judiciary’s Transparency and Open Justice Board when it was established in 2024. In March 2025, he also became Lead Judge for International Relations for the judiciary. The appointment adds another senior commercial and chancery specialist to the Supreme Court bench, which hears the most significant appeals across the UK legal system.
Supreme Court justices play a central role in determining cases involving constitutional issues, commercial disputes, public law and major points of legal interpretation. The government’s announcement did not specify the date on which Lord Justice Snowden will formally take up his new position.