 On 11 January 1964 he was appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, remaining in post until 1971.As a Law Lord he was given a life peerage as Baron Donovan, "of Winchester in the County of Southampton".In 1965-1968 he chaired the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations (the so-called "Donovan commission") on the system of collective UK labour law.