After working abroad in Australia and New Zealand on a sheep farm, Hobhouse returned to Christ Church, Oxford in 1951, where he read Jurisprudence.
Following a pupillage with Michael Kerr, Hobhouse became a tenant at 7 King's Bench Walk, the chambers of Henry Brandon, and joined the Northern Circuit.
Hobhouse was made a High Court judge in 1982, receiving the customary knighthood, and was assigned to the Queen's Bench Division.
He was made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1993, when he was also sworn of the Privy Council.
He said, "Hobhouse was a desiccated calculating machine, unsuited to trying cases involving human beings.