Mrs Justice Patterson started practice at the Bar in Manchester. During her practice she specialised in planning, environmental and public law. She was involved in all of the leading planning cases in the north. She took silk in 1998. She was appointed as a Recorder of the Crown Court in 2000. She became Head of Kings Chambers in Manchester and Leeds in 2004. She was made a Bencher of Middle Temple in 2005. In that same year she was appointed to chair an Independent Inquiry into the killing of a 5 year old girl by her mentally disturbed mother. She was appointed as a Deputy High Court Judge in 2008. In 2010 she was appointed as Public Law Commissioner at the Law Commission. In 2013 she was appointed as a Justice of the High Court where she is assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division.