Lord Phillips studied Economics and Law at Cambridge, before training in Sudbury and qualifying as a solicitor in 1964. He moved to the City in 1965 and set up his own firm there in 1970 (Bates, Wells and Braithwaite, named after his father’s firm), where he worked as a specialist in charity law. He fought five elections between 1970 and 1983 for the Liberal Democrats, and was made a Life Peer by Paddy Ashdown in 1998.

Lord Phillips appeared on the Jimmy Young Show as the ‘Legal Eagle’ for 26 years until 2001, and as the presenter of LWT’s ‘London Programme’, in addition to other regular broadcasting roles. He is a freelance journalist and the author of four legal books. He has also founded a number of charities: the Citizenship Foundation, Solicitors Pro Bono Group, and Legal Action Group, and is a trustee, patron or president of various others. He has been Chancellor of the University of Essex since 2003.