It was announced yesterday that Matthew Nicklin QC, a media law specialist and Joint Head of 5RB, has been appointed as a Justice of the High Court with effect from 2 October 2017.

Matthew Nicklin is aged 46 and will be one of the youngest judges on the High Court bench.  The Judicial Appointments Commission website has the following profile

Matthew grew up in Pembrokeshire, Wales and attended Tasker Milward Comprehensive School in Haverfordwest. He went to Newcastle University and was the first member of his family to qualify as a lawyer. Matthew became a barrister and was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn in October 1993. He was awarded a Pegasus Scholarship by the Inns of Court in 1998 and undertook a placement in Sydney Australia with King Wood Mallesons and Justice David Levine at the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Matthew was a barrister member of the Board of the Bar Standards Board from 2008 to 2013. During his legal career he represented the UCATT claimants in their successful group action against a large number of construction companies arising from the covert blacklisting of construction workers. He also appeared in the Supreme Court for the child OPO in his claim to stop publication of his father’s autobiography. He was appointed a Recorder in 2009.

Matthew Nicklin has appeared for both claimants and defendants in a many notable media law cases including, most recently,

It seems likely that Mr Justice Nicklin will join his former Chambers colleague Mr Justice Warby as a judge dealing with cases in the new Media and Communications List.