14 May 2025
The Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr, has paid tribute to Lord Etherton, who passed away last week at the age of 73.
Lord Etherton, a member of the British fencing team from 1977 to 1980, was called to the Bar in 1974, practising at the Chancery Bar, and took silk in 1990.
He was appointed a High Court judge in 2001, chair of the Law Commission in 2006, and a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2008. In 2016, he was made Master of the Rolls, pressing reforms in the Court of Appeal, including the introduction of live streaming.
Baroness Carr said: ‘In all of the roles that he occupied, he was a force of nature.’
She also praised his ‘leadership and advocacy in advancing LGBT rights’—he is remembered as Britain’s first openly gay senior judge. She expressed her condolences, on behalf of the judiciary, to Lord Etherton’s husband Andrew and his family.
