Later he won a State Scholarship to study for a law degree at King's College London; he worked as a long distance lorry driver, baker's assistant and navvy on roadworks in the vacations, gaining an HGV lorry driver's licence and a qualification in bread baking.

During that period he was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1975,[7] a Recorder of the Crown Court in 1977,[8] and elected a Bencher of Gray's Inn in 1984.

[15][16] During his ensuing term of eight years in the post he was successively also a Member of the Judicial Studies Board and Chairman of its Criminal Committee, and Presiding Judge of the Western Circuit.

During his ensuing period of 12 years in the Court of Appeal he was also: the Senior Presiding Judge for England & Wales, 1995–1998, and he conducted A Review of the Criminal Courts of England & Wales, 1999–2001;[19][20][4] in the latter half of 2001 he was a Senior Resident Scholar at Yale Law School; he was also vice-chairman of the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee, 2004-2006[21] and vice-chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission from 2006 to 2007.

Following his retirement from the Court of Appeal, he has undertaken a variety of part-time judicial, academic and other work, including: Sole Commissioner of Inquiry into Governmental Corruption in the Turks & Caicos Islands from 2008 to 2009;[22] Visiting Goodhart Professor in Legal Science[23] at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Selwyn and Wolfson Colleges, 2009–2010; a Justice of the Bermuda Court of Appeal, 2008–2015;[24] President of the Solomon Islands Court of Appeal, 2009–2012; Member of the University of Oxford's Appeal Court, 2009–2015; Judicial Member, Tribunal of Inquiry into Misconduct of the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, 2010;[25] and, since 2012, Slynn Foundation Trustee & Consultant on Constitutional/Judicial and Procedural Reforms in Eastern Europe,[26] including their compliance with ECHR and EU norms[27] – in particular in Ukraine and Macedonia.