Alfred Thompson “Tom” Denning, Baron Denning, OM, PC, DL was an English lawyer and judge. He was called to the bar in 1923 as a barrister, and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 with an appointment to the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice, and transferred to the King's Bench Division in 1945. He was made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1948 after less than five years in the High Court. He became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1957 and after five years in the House of Lords returned to the Court of Appeal as Master of the Rolls in 1962, a position he held for twenty years. In retirement he wrote several books and continued to offer opinions on the state of the common law through his writing and his position in the House of Lords.