After going to school at Marlborough College and studying classics and law at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge Sir Christopher Clarke was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1969. He practised commercial law from Brick Court Chambers, of which he was head from 1990 to 2004. Appointed Queen's Counsel in 1984, he became a Recorder in 1988, a Deputy High Court Judge in 1993, and a Judge of the Courts of Appeal of Guernsey and Jersey in 1998. He also sat as a commercial arbitrator. He was Chairman of the Commercial Bar Association from 1993 to 1995. From 1998 to 2004, he was counsel to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, which was chaired by former Commercial Judge Lord Saville. He was appointed as a Judge of the Queen's Bench Division, nominated to sit in the Commercial Court, in 2005, and was a Lord Justice of Appeal from 2013 to 2017. After retiring from the Court of Appeal, Sir Christopher became a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Bermuda and resumed his practice as an international arbitrator.