We all may have dreams of what our career will look like, but is there a danger in tying our identity to a specific outcome? Even before reaching the Supreme Court, Lord Leggatt seemed to have found the right mindset: “I didn’t want to end my career feeling that I’d failed, of course, so I didn’t want to set everything on having got to the Supreme Court or not. The right attitude was to do what I can to hope to go further, but just enjoy it as much as I can at the stage I’m at.”

This balanced mindset is all the more striking given that a legal career was once an unappealing idea for Lord Leggatt. As the son of a judge, he committed the ultimate act of teenage defiance: he “rebelled and read philosophy” instead of law at King’s College.

“It’s exciting to argue cases, but it’s even more satisfying to actually have a say in deciding the case”

His time at Cambridge was marked by a rich range of experiences. A classic sportsman, he recalls: “I played rugby; I was the captain of the King’s rowing crew,” before cheekily adding “I was in the University Wine Tasting team, although I came lowest of all the individual scores in the Cambridge team. I still beat some of the Oxford individuals - that’s what counts!” A true Cambridge spirit indeed.

Far from being useless, his philosophy degree later became a quiet asset in his legal career. Lord Leggatt posits: “Let’s say we have a case about what the meaning of a ‘newspaper’ is, and whether a statute which grants a VAT exemption for ‘newspapers’ applies to the online version. You enter into philosophical territory when you delve into abstract questions and engage with the underlying nature of interpreting legislation.”

Of course, not every courtroom welcomes philosophy. He recounts a moment when he cited Quine’s concept of an intentional fallacy in an appeal: “I brought along a copy of Quine to court to demonstrate this, and it wasn’t terribly well received. My opponent rather made fun of my philosophical argument […] I realised that not all judges may view philosophy with the same sympathy that I do.” Still, for those who might one day appear before him, it’s a reminder that quoting a philosopher might just earn you points.

After graduation, Lord Leggatt spent a year at Harvard as a Harkness Fellow, where he began to consider a legal career after delving into legal philosophy as a teaching assistant to Ronald Dworkin. He was the same age as a lot of the undergraduates there, and those students made up “most of [his] friends”. After all, “undergraduates have all the fun, and grad students are a pretty serious bunch.”

Lord Leggatt’s fondness for the “good American experience” lingered so much that after completing the law conversion course in London, he deferred his pupillage to continue volume two of his American adventures.

“Don’t always be thinking about the next step. Otherwise, we’re not enjoying life as it goes along”

For a year he taught at the University of Chicago, where the cold winters allowed him to “ski to the law school” (definitely a new bucket list item for me!). Then, he went on to practise at Sullivan & Cromwell, a corporate law firm in New York. Despite the good pay, he “didn’t much go for the legal culture in New York”. “I felt I was just a little cog in an enormous legal machine. You get paid lots of money, but you don’t have much autonomy.”

Ultimately, he returned to the UK to become a commercial barrister. Yet, one thought persisted: “It’s exciting to argue cases, but it’s even more satisfying to actually have a say in deciding the case.” The judicial role, with its interpretive and philosophical dimensions, “connects […] with philosophy and what I’d always been interested in.”

Still, realism accompanied his ambition. “My attitude was that there is nothing I would […] aspire to more than to be at the highest level, but […] I’m not going to spend all my time as a judge thinking, ‘Can I get to the next stage? ’” Instead, he focused on broadening his experience, taking on criminal cases as a Recorder to prepare for future opportunities.

Even though becoming a Supreme Court Justice wasn’t guaranteed, Leggatt remained determined: “I was going to put myself in a position where I could have the best chance of being promoted further.”

When three vacancies opened in the Supreme Court, he had only been in the Court of Appeal for two years. Though his original plan was to wait longer, he thought, “I’ve got to go for it now”. It was slightly earlier than his original timeline, but “the fact that I was successful” made it “all the more exciting”.

Yet through all this, Lord Leggatt circles back to a simple truth: “Don’t always be thinking about the next step. Otherwise, we’re not enjoying life as it goes along.” His reflections remind us that while ambition can guide us, it should never consume us. Prepare yourself for each opportunity, but never idolise it to the extent you forget to take life in.