Lord Taylor of Gosforth was born at 51 Westgate Road, Newcastle (plaque), the son of a doctor who had emigrated from Eastern Europe. He attended the Royal Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford, before being called to the bar in 1954. He practised in crime, defending and prosecuting on the Northern Circuit until his appointment as a High Court judge in 1980.
Taylor might have been a concert pianist, but chose the law out of duty. He was noted for his unstuffy good humour, but was a devastating cross-examiner, notably in the Poulson case. He was prosecutor in the notorious Jeremy Thorpe trial in the 1970s, which involved a dog named Rinka. Prevented by the case from attending a legal society dinner in Newcastle, he sent a telegram: 'Regret cannot be there. Have to see a man about a dog'. Taylor was a humane and independent-minded judge, and in 1984 he was the first judge in English history to make the security services account for themselves.
In 1988, Taylor was appointed Lord Chief Justice to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system after a series of important miscarriages. His open style led him to appear on the BBC's Question Time and he repeatedly attacked the sentencing policies of Michael Howard, the Home Secretary. Lord Taylor chaired the inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster and his 1989 report led to many reforms, including all-seater stadia. He was keen to get rid of the stuffy and intimidating atmosphere of courts and tried to abolish the judges' wigs and gowns.