The Liver Building

Conkerton Memorial Lecture

Details

Speaker: The Hon. Mr Justice Cobb

Date: Thursday 10th October, 2024

Time: 5.30pm for 6.15pm

Venue:
Rathbone Hall
Port of Liverpool Building

Event Code: S4844

Description

***bookings for this event have now closed***

We are pleased to announce that the 2024 Conkerton Memorial Lecture will be given by

The Hon. Mr Justice Cobb

on

Justice must be seen to be done: One hundred years since Rex v Sussex Justices [1924]

Transparency in the courts: awareness and fairness; confidence and confidentiality:

public interest in the justice system in the twenty first century.

This biennial Lecture is arranged in memory of John & Mary Conkerton and by this Society’s Education & Charities Committee.  The Conkertons were two hugely popular and well-respected law lecturers in the 1960s and 1970s who taught many of the university law students at the time.  Read more about them here .

The Lecture is aimed at all legal professionals and current university law students and it is free to attend.  Read more about this year’s speaker in the biography section below.

The Lecture will take place at Rathbone Hall in the historic, Grade II listed Port of Liverpool Building which was constructed between 1904 and 1907.  The building was the headquarters of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board for 87 years, from 1907 to 1994. It was the tallest building in Liverpool at 220 feet (67 m) when built.

Refreshments will be available from 5.30pm with the lecture commencing at 6.15pm. There will be a Q&A session before the event concludes at 7.15pm.

Dress code is formal or business attire.

You can make a booking for multiple people.  If you do so, please give first and last name of any guests you are booking on.

Speaker Biographies

Mr. Justice Stephen Cobb was appointed to the High Court Bench in January 2013, and was assigned to the Family Division.  He sits also as a Judge of the Court of Protection and in the Administrative Court.   In June 2024 it was announced that he had been approved by the King for appointment as a Lord Justice of Appeal; he will take up his place in the Court of Appeal in the forthcoming months.

He has delivered judgments across the spectrum of family law issues and the Court of Protection, and has sat as an appeal judge both in the High Court and in the Court of Appeal.

He was the Family Division Liaison Judge for the North-Eastern Circuit from 2015-2021.  He then spent two years (2021-2023) as the Lead Reform Judge, supporting the judiciary at all levels in the Courts (all jurisdictions) and Tribunals through HMCTS’ digitisation programme.

During his judicial career, he has also chaired the President’s Private Law Working Group (2014-2021); he has been a member of the Ministry of Justice ‘Voice of the Child’ Working Group, and in 2019-2020 was the judicial member of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) ‘Harm Panel’.  He is currently the Chair of the Cross-Jurisdictional Judicial Advisory Panel on Access to Justice within the MoJ’s Overarching Reform Evaluation (2020-date). He is a ‘Nominated Judge’ of the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office.

He is a Consultant Editor of the Family Law Reports, and Family Law Journal, and has written and lectured on family law and Court of Protection issues in the UK and abroad, most recently in South Africa [June 2024].

Before his appointment to the Bench, he was Chair of the Family Law Bar Association (2010-2011), Head of Chambers (1 Garden Court) (2007-2013), and one of the founder members of the Family Justice Council (2004-2010).

He is a graduate of the University of Liverpool (LLB Hons) (1984) and has received an Honorary Doctorate (LLD h.c.) from the University (2019).