Henry Carr: “I would never have had a day like that as a barrister”

Mr Justice Henry Carr dismisses the misconceptions about the life of a judge being lonely, saying it’s extremely collegiate and sociable and that he loves the variety of the role.

“Often I come home at the end of a day and think, ‘I would never have had a day like that as a barrister. I’m not trying to sell anything, not trying to push anything, just trying to do the right thing,’” he says.

He “loves” the fact that one week he might hear a case about patents and then the next week one on trademarks, “and then I’ll hear something very interesting about insolvency, then tax, then landlord and tenant.”

Carr, an IP specialist by trade but who is not exclusively an IP judge at the England & Wales High Court, says that attracting more top talent to the judiciary requires senior judges to sell the role.

In a wide-ranging interview, which will be published in full this week, Carr also says that:

·       He gets irritated when he is interrupted in court;

·       Good points get lost because of legal teams’ approaches;

·       Writing a full judgment takes twice as long as the trial;

·       He finds foreign IP developments very influential; and

·       AI offers a big opportunity to remove the “drudgery” of cases.  

This is the second in our series of judge interviews. You can read the first, with Mr Justice Arnold, here.