World Bar Conference
The Rt. Hon. Lord Ben Stephens
Justice of the Supreme Court, United Kingdom
Sir Ben Stephens became a Justice of the Supreme Court in October 2020. Lord Stephens was educated at Manchester University. He was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1977, the Bar of England and Wales in July 1978 and to the Bar of Ireland in 1996.
He took Silk in 1996. He was a senior member of the Government Civil Panel of Counsel from 2004 to January 2007. He held a number of positions at the Bar including Vice Chairman of the Executive Council of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland and Vice Chairman of the General Council of the Bar of Northern Ireland.
He was appointed as a High Court Judge in Northern Ireland in 2007. He was assigned to the Family Division from 2008 and to the Queen's Bench Division from 2014.
He was Hague Convention Liaison judge for international cases involving child abduction between 2008 and 2014 and also served as Chairman of the Council of Law Reporting for Northern Ireland.
He was a Commissioner in the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission between 2013 and 2020, first as a High Court Judge and then as a Lord Justice of Appeal. He was a Senior Lord Justice of Appeal from 2017 to 2020.