Sir Andrew McFarlane is retiring from the judiciary and retiring as President of the Family Division, President of the Court of Protection and Head of Family Justice after a long and distinguished career guiding the Family Court through significant change and progress.
The Family Court exists to help families resolve disputes quickly, with the minimum of disruption to those involved, and in the least adversarial way. The President leads the Family Division of the High Court, which was created in 1971. Sir Andrew became President and Head of Family Justice in 2018.
During his time as President, Sir Andrew has played a huge role in modernising the family courts. In 2021 he published a report on transparency, exploring the question of whether there should be more openness in family proceedings. A successful pilot on family court reporting followed in 2023, which was rolled out across England and Wales in January 2025 in what was a “watershed moment for family justice”. This has enabled media to report on issues affecting some of the most vulnerable in society – balanced carefully with safeguarding and maintaining confidentiality.
More recently, in March 2026, Sir Andrew was pleased to welcome the roll-out of Child Focused Courts across England and Wales. This groundbreaking model enables the court to gain an early understanding of the impact a dispute is having on the child and to focus the parties on how to address that. It improves the whole family court experience – from fewer hearings to improved outcomes for survivors of domestic abuse.
As President during the Covid-19 pandemic, Sir Andrew guided the family courts through this difficult period and is proud to have kept them open throughout. In the summer of 2020 as the first lockdown ended, he published ‘The Road Ahead’, which charted a framework to recovery based on a new bedrock of experience of remote working and facilitation of digital hearings.
As well as being Head of Family Justice, the President of the Family Division oversees the work of the 19 High Court Judges that make up the Family Division of the High Court. These judges determine cases relating to public law care proceedings, private law child arrangements, divorce, including disputes over children, property or money; and adoption, medical treatment, wardship, surrogacy and other matters. They also hear appeals from certain decisions made by Circuit Judges and Recorders in the Family Court.
Sir Andrew is also President of the Court of Protection, which makes judgments on behalf of those who are unable to make decisions for themselves, and chair of both the Family Procedure Rule Committee and Family Justice Council.
Sir Andrew was brought up in Solihull and on Merseyside, educated at Shrewsbury School, and read law at Collingwood College, Durham. He was called to the Bar in 1977 and practised in chambers in Birmingham until 1993, when he moved to specialist family law chambers in London.
He took Silk in 1998 and began his judicial career as an Assistant Recorder in 1995, becoming a Recorder in 1999 and a Deputy High Court Judge in 2000. In April 2005, he was appointed a High Court Judge (Family Division) and was the Family Division Liaison Judge for the Midland Circuit for five years. Sir Andrew was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal and made a Privy Counsellor in 2011. He was a Member of the Family Procedure Rule Committee from 2016 to 2026.
Together with the late David Hershman, Sir Andrew is the co-author of a legal textbook entitled “Children: Law and Practice”. He has contributed to other publications and lectured throughout the UK and abroad. Sir Andrew has been a trustee of YoungMinds (the national young person’s mental health charity) and is Patron of HOPE Family Centre (Bromyard).
Sir Andrew’s final day as President of the Family Division was yesterday (Monday 13 April 2026).
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