After studying law at Brasenose College, Oxford, Sir Jack Beatson began a career as a legal academic at the University of Bristol, before returning to Oxford as a Fellow and Tutor in Law of Merton College in 1973. In 1993, he transferred to Cambridge as Rouse Ball Professor of English Law and a fellow of St John's College. His teaching and research interests included public law, restitution, and contract, and he became editor of 'Anson's Law Of Contract' and a member of the editorial team of 'Chitty'. He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1972, and maintained a part-time commercial and public law practice as a door tenant at 4 Essex Court (which later became Essex Court Chambers) from 1983. He was a Law Commissioner from 1989 to 1994, and was appointed as a Recorder in 1994, Queen's Counsel in 1998, and a Deputy High Court Judge in 2000. In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. He became a Judge of the Queen's Bench Division in 2003, and sat regularly in the Commercial Court from 2008 to 2013, when he was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal. After retiring from the Court of Appeal in 2018, he became a Judge of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal and an international commercial arbitrator.

Sir Jack is an enthusiastic gardener.