Jonathan Sumption QC will be formally sworn in as a Supreme Court justice tomorrow (11 January) following the announcement of his appointment in May last year.

Sumption (pictured) will be added to the most senior judicial rank in the UK after a ceremony at Parliament Square court building at 10am on Wednesday morning.

His appointment follows the retirement of Lord Collins last year and marks the third justice to be sworn in since the Supreme Court opened in October 2009.

The President of the Supreme Court, Lord Phillips, will conduct the ceremony, at which Sumption will take the judicial oath and oath of allegiance in front of the other Supreme Court justices dressed in their ceremonial robes, after which he will be receive the title of Lord Sumption.

He will sit on his first case in the Supreme Court on Thursday (12 January) as one of a panel of five justices for the hearing of a shipping dispute, PetroleoBrasileiro v ENE. Kos 1.

The appointment of Sumption – the first direct appointment from the Bar to the UK's highest court since the elevation of Lord Reid and Lord Radcliffe to the House of Lords more than 60 years ago – has attracted much controversy from within the legal market.

Sumption's direct appointment to the top court without serving in any of the lower UK courts, alongside his decision to continue to act for Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich in his case against Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky before taking up his new role, have both proved points of contention for peers.

The Supreme Court has also announced today (10 January) that Lord Reed, whose appointment to the court was announced in December last year, will be sworn in as a justice on 6 February this year, completing the full 12-strong panel of justices.

Click here to watch the ceremony at 10am on Wednesday 11 January.