It is with great sadness that we report that Lord (Roger) Toulson died last night.
Roger was a member of chambers between 1970 and 1996, taking silk in 1986. He was head of chambers between 1991 and 1993. He developed an enviable practice in insurance, professional liability and commercial law. He was known as a formidable cross-examiner, a brilliant lawyer and a man of the utmost integrity.
In 1996 he was appointed to the High Court, sitting in the Commercial Court, Administrative Court and on his own circuit, the Western. He followed in the tracks of an earlier member and head of chambers, Ralph Gibson, serving as Chairman of the Law Commission of England and Wales between 2002 and 2006.
Promotion to the Court of Appeal followed in 2007 and then to the Supreme Court in 2013. He retired from that court last year and returned to chambers as a door tenant, accepting appointments as an arbitrator. Tragically his new flourishing practice has been cut short.
It is a great loss to chambers but even more to Roger’s wife, Lizzie, their four children and their family who are in all our thoughts.
