He is the co-author of The Future of the Professions, an FT Book of the Year, which explores how AI will transform the work of human experts.

In the 1980s, he wrote his doctorate on AI and the law at Balliol College, Oxford. He went on to co-develop the world’s first commercial AI system for lawyers.

From 2014 to 2016, Richard was Chair of the Online Dispute Resolution Advisory Group of the UK’s Civil Justice Council, whose report of 2015 strongly influenced the introduction of online courts around the world. He was a founding member and later (2011-2022) Chair of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Internet Institute where he continues as a Visiting Professor. He is Emeritus Gresham Professor of Law at Gresham College, and a Law Professor at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

An Honorary Bencher of Gray’s Inn, Richard is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the British Computer Society. In 2000, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen. In 2022, His Majesty the King approved Richard’s appointment as an Honorary King’s Counsel.