Lord Phillips attended Bryanston School, and studied law at King's College, Cambridge, after National Service in the Royal Navy. He was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1962, and practised commercial and Admiralty law, initially as a member of 2 Essex Court (now Quadrant Chambers) and then from 1 Brick Court (now Brick Court Chambers). He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1978 and became a Recorder in 1982. He became a Queen's Bench Judge, nominated to sit in the Commercial Court, in 1987, and was a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1995 to 1999, when he was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. He was Master of the Rolls from 2000 to 2005 and Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales from 2005 to 2008. He returned to the judicial House of Lords as Senior Law Lord in 2008, and was appointed as the first President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009. After retiring in 2012, he was President of the Qatar International Court until 2018, and returned to private practice as a commercial arbitrator.

Lord Phillips enjoys swimming and mountain-walking.