He was called to the bar at the
Middle Temple in 1850, In 1874 he was elected a
bencher of the Middle Temple, of which he was treasurer in 1894 and a Justice of the
Court of Common Pleas, In 1880 he became a justice of the
Queen's Bench and in 1881 he was raised to be a
Lord Justice of Appeal and was sworn of the
Privy Council. In 1897, Lord Justice Lindley succeeded
Lord Esher as
Master of the Rolls, and in 1900 he was made a
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary with a
life peerage and the title of
Baron Lindley, of
East Carleton in the County of
Norfolk. He resigned the judicial post in 1905. Prior to the 1875 reforms, the appointment of serjeants-at-law had already declined, but common law judges could only be appointed from amongst the serjeants-at-law, so it was customary for any appointee who was not yet a serjeant to be appointed a serjeant immediately prior to being appointed a judge. As the requirement for common law judges to be serjeants was abolished shortly after, Lord Lindley became the last
serjeant-at-law appointed, and the last judge to wear the serjeant's
coif, or rather the black patch representing it, on the judicial wig.
Mount Lindley in Antarctica is named after him. ==Family==