The most senior civil judge in England and Wales Sir Anthony Clarke, the Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice, 64, has held the post since 2005, succeeding Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers. Like Lord Phillips, Sir Anthony’s career was in admiralty and commercial work: at the Bar he specialised in maritime and commercial cases and when he became a High Court judge in 1993 it was as the admiralty judge. He sat in the admiralty and commercial court for five years until being promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1998. Soon after he took charge of the Thames Safety Inquiry and in the following year the judicial inquiry into the Marchioness disaster. Likeable, sociable and thoughtful, since becoming Master of the Rolls he has sought to continue the civil reforms started by Lord Woolf. In a speech last year he was critical of the “aggressive posturing” adopted in some commercial litigation and urged better co-operation between parties and lawyers to “achieve justice in the individual case at a reasonable cost and within a reasonable time frame”. His pragmatic footnote was: “If past experience teaches us anything, it is that the successful implementation of reform is never easily achieved.” His high-flying career is expected to go one step more: he is tipped for the House of Lords.

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