On 28 February 2025 The Rt. Hon. Lord Briggs of Westbourne delivered the 2025 XXIV Old Buildings Lecture entitled "Equitable Ownership".

Michael Townley Featherstone Briggs, Lord Briggs of Westbourne became a Justice of the Supreme Court in October 2017.

Lord Briggs grew up around Portsmouth and Plymouth, following his naval officer father between ships, before spending his later childhood in West Sussex. He attended Charterhouse and Magdalen College, Oxford. A keen sailor and the first lawyer in his family, he practised in commercial and chancery work before being appointed to the High Court in 2006. He was the judge in charge of the extensive Lehman insolvency litigation from 2009 to 2013.

Lord Briggs was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2013. He was the judge in charge of the Chancery Modernisation Review in 2013, and led the Civil Courts Structure Review in 2015 to 2016. In January 2016 he was appointed Deputy Head of Civil Justice.

Timings:

• Professor Graham Virgo - Introduction: 00:00
• The Rt. Hon. Lord Briggs of Westbourne: 02:07

The XXIV Old Buildings Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by XXIV Old Buildings.

More information about this lecture is available from the Private Law Centre website:

https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events

On 23 February 2024 Professor Lusina Ho (University of Hong Kong) delivered the 2024 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Re-imagining the Express Trust".

Lusina Ho is Harold Hsiao-Wo Lee Professor in Trust and Equity at the Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong. While pursuing her teaching and research in Trust, Restitution, and Comparative Trust Law (in particular Chinese Trust Law), she has been consulted by the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the enactment of the Chinese Trust Law and the Government of the Hong Kong SAR on the reform of the Trustee Ordinance. In 2019, she has successfully convinced the Hong Kong SAR Government to launch a trust service for special needs individuals in the territory.

She has published widely and her work has been cited in highest appellate courts in common law jurisdictions, and has been translated and published in Japanese. She received from HKU the Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2006, the Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017, the Faculty Knowledge Exchange Award in 2018, and the University Knowledge Award in 2018.

Timings:

• Professor Lionel Smith - Introduction: 00:00
• Dr Sinead Agnew - Introduction: 04:23
• Professor Lusina Ho: 07:00
• Dr Brian Sloan - Thanks: 50:15

The Cambridge Freshfields Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

More information about this lecture, including a transcript and photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:

https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/CambridgeFreshfieldsLecture

On 10 March 2023 Lord Philip Sales delivered the 2023 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Constitutional values in the common law of obligations".

Philip James Sales, Lord Sales became a Justice of the Supreme Court in January 2019. Lord Sales was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, before reading law at both Churchill College, Cambridge, and Worcester College, Oxford.

He was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Lincoln's Inn in 1985 and was appointed First Treasury Junior Counsel in 1997. He was an Assistant Recorder from 1999 to 2001, Recorder from 2001 and 2008, and Deputy High Court Judge from 2004 and 2008. Lord Sales became a Queen's Counsel in 2006 and continued to act in the re-named post of First Treasury Counsel Common Law until his appointment to the High Court, Chancery Division in 2008. He was a member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal between 2008 and 2015, and Vice-President of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal between 2014 and 2015. Between 2009 and 2014 Lord Sales served as Deputy Chair of the Boundary Commission for England. He was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2014.

Timings:

• Professor Lionel Smith Introduction: 00:00
• Professor Pippa Rogerson Introduction: 07:46
• Lord Sales: 11:46
• Professor Graham Virgo Thanks: 56:17

The Cambridge Freshfields Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:

https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/special-events

Speaker: Professor Jorge Feliu Rey (University Carlos III of Madrid)

Commentator: Professor Hugh Beale (University of Warwick)

Held in collaboration with CPLC.

3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners. The Cambridge Private Law Centre acknowledges with gratitude the generous financial support of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and of South Square.

On 16 November 2021 Lady Dame Sarah Falk delivered the 2021 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Modern Judging".

The Honourable Mrs Justice Falk DBE spoke about modern judging, her experience as a High Court judge having followed an unconventional path to the High Court bench, the selection of judges, and some lessons learned from the pandemic for the conduct of proceedings.

Dame Sarah Falk studied law at the University of Cambridge before starting her professional career at Freshfields. She was a partner at Freshfields between 1994 and 2013 and subsequently worked as a consultant. While at Freshfields she was involved in graduate recruitment as well as holding managerial roles. She became a High Court judge in October 2018, sitting in the Chancery Division, and was appointed to the Judicial Appointments Commission as the High Court representative in October 2019.

The Cambridge Freshfields Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:

http://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/past-events

On 27 October 2020 Lord Sumption delivered the 2020 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Government by decree - Covid-19 and the Constitution".

The disputes over Brexit last year saw an attempt to make the executive, not Parliament, the prime source of authority in the Constitution. The coronavirus crisis has provoked another attempt to marginalise Parliament, this time with the willing acquiescence of the House of Commons. Is this to be our future?

Lord Sumption is an author, historian and lawyer of note. He was appointed directly from the practising Bar to the Supreme Court, and served as a Supreme Court Justice from 2012-18. In 2019, he delivered the BBC Reith Lectures, "Law and the Decline of Politics", and is now a regular commentator in the media. He continues to sit as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. Alongside his career as a lawyer, he has also produced a substantial and highly-regarded narrative history of the Hundred Years' War between England and France (with volume V still to come).

More information about this lecture, including a transcript, is available from the Private Law Centre website:

https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/CambridgeFreshfieldsLecture

On 7 March 2019 Lady Brenda Hale delivered the 2019 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Principle and Pragmatism in developing Private Law".

Lady Hale is the current President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong.

In the lecture, Lady Hale gave her perspective on whether the development of the law should be guided by doctrine, or policy. She did this through a reflection and analysis of a number cases, including many on which she had presided, including Patel v Mirza and Radmacher v Granatino.

The Cambridge Freshfields Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre (CPLC), and the event is sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:

http://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/past-events

On 8 May 2018 Professor Stephen Smith of McGill University delivered the 2018 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled "Rights, Wrongs, and Injustices: Taking Remedies Seriously".

The Cambridge Freshfields Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Stephen Smith is internationally renowned for his work in private law. He is the James McGill Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, and teaches and researches common law and civil law obligations and legal theory. A former law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson, Professor Smith is the author of Contract Theory (2004) and Atiyah’s Introduction to the Law of Contract, 6th ed (2005). He is in Cambridge for the Easter Term as a Herbert Smith Freehills Visitor/British Academy Visiting Fellow.

More information about this lecture, including photographs from the event, is available from the Private Law Centre website:

https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/CambridgeFreshfieldsLecture