Mr Justice Bryan grew up in Lancashire and studied law at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a first class degree Sir Simon was called to the Bar in 1988, and became a member of Essex Court Chambers, where he specialised in particular in shipping, insurance and reinsurance, oil and gas litigation, and civil fraud. As a barrister, he was involved in a number of very large-scale cases, including the Lloyd’s Litigation and the public inquiry into the sinking of the bulk carrier ‘Derbyshire’. Sir Simon was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2006, as a Recorder in 2009, and as a Deputy High Court Judge in 2013. From 2015 to 2017, he was the Chief Justice of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, and the British Indian Ocean Territory. This made him responsible for the largest jurisdiction, in geographical terms, anywhere in the world. Sir Simon has been a High Court Judge since 2017. He is a member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, and was a Presiding Judges for the South Eastern Circuit between 2020 and 2023.

Sir Simon Bryan enjoys outdoor activities, in particular winter sports and gardening.