Masters of the Bench

Mr Justice Macrae was brought up in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia and completed his early schooling in what was then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Secondary education and University (St John’s College, Durham) in England were followed by his Call to the Bar in 1979, when he received the Winston Churchill Scholarship.  After practising briefly in Chambers in Nottingham in 1981, he joined the Attorney General’s Chambers in Hong Kong in 1982 and entered private practice in 1983, taking Silk in 1999.  He was appointed to the High Court of Hong Kong in 2010, the Court of Appeal in 2013, becoming Vice President of the Court in 2018.  He has practised in England, in Hong Kong and in Brunei, both as a trial and an appellate advocate, primarily in the criminal law.  He lives in Hong Kong, Japan, France and Portugal, plays competitive tennis on the international Senior circuit and is a collector of Tudor and Stuart silver.