Ernest Ryder

Ryder was called to the Bar in 1981 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1997. He became a Recorder in 2000, and a Deputy High Court Judge in 2001.^[2] Ryder was appointed a High Court judge in 2004,^[3] receiving the customary knighthood, and was allocated to the Family Division. On 9 April 2013, he was promoted Lord Justice of Appeal,^[4] consequently being sworn of the Privy Council.

Ryder was appointed to the post of Judge in Charge of Modernisation of Family Justice in November 2011,^[5] and under his stewardship published the Judicial Proposals for the modernisation of family justice in July 2012.^[6] Many of the recommendations were implemented by the Children and Families Act 2014, including a 26-week time limit for determination of care and supervision proceedings.^[7]

In July 2015 it was announced that Ryder had been appointed Senior President of Tribunals with effect from 18 September 2015.^[8] He retired from that role on 19 September 2020.^[9]

Ryder has been involved in a number of notable cases. He was lead counsel for a respondent mother in the leading domestic violence child contact order case, Re LVNH (Children) (Contact: Domestic Violence) [2001].^[10] He was Counsel to the North Wales Tribunal of Inquiry 1996–99.^[11]

He was appointed as a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation in September 2014.^[12]

In January 2014, he was installed as Chancellor of the University of Bolton.

In January 2020, he was elected as the next master of Pembroke College, Oxford.^[13] He took up the post in July 2020,^[14] in succession to Dame Lynne Brindley.^[15]

Ryder has served as a Territorial Army officer in the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (later Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry) and received the Territorial Decoration in 1996.

He received a Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire Commission on 26 May 2023.^[16]