He was called to the bar at
Middle Temple in 1980, and was elected a bencher there in 2001. From 1982, he practised at Temple Garden Chambers. He was head of those chambers from 2003. He was appointed
Queen's Counsel in 1998. He practised mainly in public and administrative law, acting on the inquiries into the 1987
King's Cross fire, the convictions of the
Guildford Four and Maguire Seven, the 1997
Southall and 1999
Ladbroke Grove rail crashes, and the inquests into the 1997 deaths of
Diana, Princess of Wales, and
Dodi Fayed. He was
knighted on 7 November 2008. He sat in the
Administrative Court and was presiding Judge of the Western Circuit 2011–14. He was promoted to the
Court of Appeal in 2014, becoming a
Lord Justice of Appeal. It was announced in July 2017 that he would replace
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd as
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2 October 2017. Aged 59, he became the youngest Lord Chief Justice since
Lord Parker of Waddington in 1958. On 12 October 2017, it was announced that Burnett was to receive a
life peerage. He was duly created
Baron Burnett of Maldon, of Maldon in the County of Essex, on 30 October 2017. In November 2022, Burnett announced his intention to retire as Lord Chief Justice from 30 September 2023. He was succeeded by
Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill as Lady Chief Justice. In 2023, he was made Chief Justice of the
Astana International Financial Centre Court, an international
commercial court in Kazakhstan. He has served on the
Constitution Committee of the
House of Lords since 2024. ==Honours==