Lord Justice Cobb
Court of Appeal Civil DivisionCourt of Appeal Criminal DivisionBiographies
Lord Justice Cobb was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1985. Since 2011, he has been a Bencher of the Inn.
He started his professional life with a mixed common law practice, before specialising in family law. He took silk in 2003.
He was Chairman of the Family Law Bar Association between 2010-2011, and Head of Chambers for six years.
He was appointed as a Recorder in 2004, and in 2008 was appointed as a Deputy High Court Judge in the family jurisdiction.
He took up his appointment as a High Court Judge in January 2013 and was assigned to the Family Division. Since that time, he has also sat in the Administrative Court and the Court of Protection.
During his judicial career, he chaired the President of the Family Division’s Private Law Working Group from 2014-2021, and for over six years (2015-2021) he was the Family Presiding Judge for the North Eastern Circuit. He was appointed as the judicial member of the Ministry of Justice’s ‘Harm Panel’ in 2019-2021 (Assessing Risk of Harm to Children in Private Law Proceedings), and steered the panel on current and future judicial approach to domestic abuse in the family court.
In 2021, he was appointed by the Lord Chief Justice into a cross-jurisdictional leadership role (across all courts and tribunals), to support the judiciary in the implementation of change during a crucial phase of the HMCTS Reform Programme (digital transformation of the justice system).
He has been a consulting editor of the Family Law Reports and case editor of the Family Law Journal for many years. He is a school governor.
He has an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Liverpool.
He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in June 2024, and took his place on 1 July 2025.