Nicholas Francis

Sir Peter Nicholas Francis is a British retired High Court judge.

Career Francis was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1981, and became a King's Counsel in 2002. He specialised in family law, and became head of chambers at 29 Bedford Row in 2002.

He would be appointed as a Deputy High Court judge in 2011. He would later be appointed as a High Court judge in 2016 and assigned to the Family Division by the Lord Chief Justice. He received the customary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II on16th of December 2016.

On 22 April 2024, the Lady Chief Justice issued Francis with formal advice for misconduct related to having delayed the issuing of a judgement by 18 months after the hearing had taken place. Francis accepted the finding of the nominated judge and expressed his regret at the delay. His explanation that at the time he was facing challenging personal circumstances and a busy workload was taken into consideration as mitigating circumstances.

Francis retired 1 May 2024.

Notable cases In 2017, he ruled on the controversial best interests case of Charlie Gard.