Lord Saville attended Rye Grammar School, undertook National Service in the army, then studied law at Brasenose College, Oxford. He obtained first class degrees in the BA and the BCL, and was the Vinerian Scholar. He was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1962, and joined 4 Essex Court (now Essex Court Chambers), from where he practised commercial law. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1975. He became a High Court Judge in 1985, and was nominated to sit in the Commercial Court. He was a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1994 to 1997, when he was appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. He became one of the first Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom when the Court was created in 2009. From 1998 to 2010, he chaired the Blood Sunday Inquiry. After retiring in 2010, he returned to private practice as a commercial arbitrator.

Lord Saville's hobbies include sailing and flying.