Sir Richard David Jacobs (born 21 December 1956) is a British High Court judge.

Early life and education

Jacobs was educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgat ...

. He studied law at Pembroke College, Cambridge and graduated with a

first-class degree The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

Career

He was called to the bar at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1979 and practised from

Essex Court Chambers Essex Court Chambers is a set of commercial barristers in Lincoln's Inn Fields, central London. It has 96 tenants, of whom 45 are King's Counsels, also known as Silks. It is considered by legal commentators to be one of the 'Magic Circle' of Londo ...

, specialising in commercial law; he was co-head of chambers from 2013 to 2017. While in practice, he also sat as an arbitrator. He

took silk In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

in 1998 and served as a recorder from 2002 to 2018. In 2003, he was

visiting fellow In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

. In addition to practice, he co-authored ''Liability Insurance in International Arbitration: the Bermuda form'' in 2004 which was taken into a second edition in 2011.

High Court appointment

On 25 June 2018, he was appointed a judge of the High Court and assigned to the

Queen's Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...

. He received the customary

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the same year. Jacobs sits on the

Commercial Court Commercial Court is a type of specialized court on commercial law. List of existing commercial courts * Commercial Court (Belgium) * Commercial Court (England and Wales) * Commercial Court (Victoria) The Commercial Court is a sub-division o ...

Personal life

In 1990, he married Pamela Fine, with whom he has one son and two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Richard Living people 1956 births 21st-century English judges Knights Bachelor Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Members of the Middle Temple People educated at Highgate School English King's Counsel 20th-century King's Counsel 21st-century King's Counsel