Matrix silk confirmed as High Court judge in latest appointments

As revealed by The Lawyer this week, Singh is to become the first Sikh judge to sit on the High Court bench (25 July 2011).

He will join the Queen’s Bench Division (QBD) following the elevation of Mr Justice Kitchin to the Court of Appeal (CoA) earlier this month (5 July 2011).

He will be joined in the QBD by Brick Court’s Andrew Popplewell QC, who replaces Mr Justice Davis, who will also join the CoA.

Popplewell was called to the bar in 1981 and took silk in 1997. Most recently he has been instructed for Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich in his multi-million pound dispute with oligarch Boris Berezovsky (23 February 2011).

Also joining the QBD is Quadrants Chambers’ Charles Haddon-Cave QC, following the retirement of Mr Justice Steel at the end of October.

Haddon-Cave chaired the independent inquiry into the crash of an RAF Nimrod spy plane in Afghanistan in 2006 in which all 14 servicemen on board were killed.

They will be joined in the QBD by a former head of Exchange Chambers, Judge Henry Brian Globe QC.

Globe was called to the bar in 1972 and took silk in 1994. He was head of the set between 2000 and 2003 before being appointed as a senior circuit judge for crime and resident judge at Liverpool Combined Court.

Meanwhile, the Chancery Division will welcome 4 Stone Buildings’ Robert Hildyard QC, who will succeed Mr Justice Lewison, who is also moving into the CoA.  Having been called to the bar in 1977 and taken silk in 1994 Hildyard has long been considered a star of the chancery bar (18 February 1997).