Lady Justice Cockerill
Sara Cockerill was educated at her local state primary school and then Lady Eleanor Holles School (on the Assisted Places Scheme) before reading Jurisprudence at Oxford.
In 1990 she was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn, and joined Essex Court Chambers (then 4 Essex Court) in 1991. She practised as a barrister from those chambers until 2017, specialising in commercial cases and in compelled evidence.
She was appointed a QC (now KC) in 2011. She was appointed as a Deputy High Court Judge in 2015, sitting in the Queen’s Bench Division (now King’s Bench Division), specifically in the Administrative Court and the Commercial Court.
She became a High Court Judge in 2017, assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division (now King’s Bench Division) and as one of the Judges of the Commercial Court. She was authorised to sit in cases in the Financial List, the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the Technology and Construction Court as well as in the Administrative Court and other King’s Bench work, including crime. She was the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court from August 2020 until 31 July 2022.
She is the author of ‘Compelled Evidence in Civil Proceedings’ (2012 OUP), Eleanor of Castile – The Shadow Queen (2014 Amberley) and Eleanor of Aquitaine – Queen of France and England, Mother of Empires (2019 Amberley).
She became a Lady Justice of Appeal on 9 October 2025 and Deputy Head of Civil Justice on 1 November 2025.