Mr Justice Picken | |
---|---|
Justice of the High Court | |
Assumed office 8 June 2015 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Personal details | |
Born | United Kingdom | 23 April 1966
Alma mater | Magdalene College, Cambridge University College, Cardiff |
Sir Simon Picken (born 23 April 1966)[1] is a British High Court judge.
Picken was educated at Cardiff High School, then completed an LLB at University College, Cardiff in 1987 and a starred first-class LLM from Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1988.[1]
He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1989, then established a practice at the bar in the area of commercial law, practising from 7 King's Bench Walk chambers from 1991.[2][3] He took silk in 2006, served as a recorder in 2005 to 2015, a Deputy High Court judge from 2010. From 2009 to 2015, he was the Commercial Law QC to the Welsh Government.[2] In addition to practice, he wrote Good Faith and Insurance Contracts which was taken into a fourth edition.[1]
He was appointed a High Court judge in 2015, and received the customary knighthood. He has been a judge of the Commercial Court since 2016, is on the Financial List and is lead judge for European relations. From 2018 to 2021, he was the Presiding Judge of Wales.[2][1]
In April 2022, he presided over Microsoft's £270 million competition case in which Microsoft encouraged customers to return unused licences in turn for a discount on Microsoft products; a Derbyshire-based company who bought and sold unused these licences said this stifled competition and was a violation of competition law.[4][5]
He married Sophie Victoria Seddon in 1992, with whom he has one son and three daughters.[1]