The Rt Hon Lord Justice Stephen Cobb has been appointed President of the Family Division by the King.
His appointment, which follows the retirement of Sir Andrew McFarlane on 13 April 2026, was made on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor following the recommendation of an independent selection panel.
Lord Justice Cobb was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1985 and took Silk in 2003. He started his judicial career as a Recorder in 2004 and was authorised to hear cases under section 9(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 in 2009.
He was appointed as a High Court Judge in 2013 and was assigned to the Family Division; he also sat in the Administrative Court of the Kings Bench Division and was a nominated judge of the Court of Protection.
He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in June 2024, and took his place in 2025. He served as a Family Presiding Judge (North Eastern Circuit) between 2015 and 2021.
The President is the Head of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice and may sit as of right in the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the Family Court either alone or as part of a panel. He is also Head of Family Justice, Head of Probate, President of the Court of Protection and chairs both the Family Procedure Rule Committee and Family Justice Council.
The independent selection panel was chaired by Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, the Lady Chief Justice. Other panel members were Lord Lloyd-Jones (Justice of the Supreme Court), and three lay Judicial Appointments Commissioners namely, Professor Chris Bones (lay JAC Commissioner), Professor Clare McGlynn (lay JAC Commissioner) and Uche Igbokwe (non-legally qualified judicial JAC Commissioner).
Image licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
