[1] He then joined the chambers of Fergus Morton, later a law lord, and practised at the Chancery bar.
[citation needed] Brightman was appointed a High Court judge in 1970 and assigned to the Chancery Division, receiving the customary knighthood.
He was overruled by Lord Denning's Court of Appeal, giving rise to the Anton Piller order that remains in use today.
[citation needed] Like his colleague on the NIRC, John Donaldson, Brightman had to wait until shortly after Thatcher won the 1979 general election in 1979 to be appointed as Lord Justice of Appeal.
[citation needed] He also ruled against the taxpayer in the case of Furniss v. Dawson; upheld the manslaughter verdict in R v Hancock and Shankland, the case of a taxi driver killed during the 1984 miners' strike, modifying the test of intent required for a conviction of murder; and joined the majority judgment that refused to grant the government an order banning on newspaper articles about Spycatcher in 1988.