Graduating with LLB (Hons) from the University of Sheffield, UK in 1974 and LLM from the University of College, London in 1979. He was called to the English Bar at Lincolns Inn in 1979.

Following graduation, his distinguished legal career began when he joined the Malaysian Judicial and Legal Service before being posted as Federal Counsel in the Advisory Division of the Attorney Generals Chambers and later as Magistrate, Session Court Judge and Senior Assistant Registrar.  

He served in various capacities in the Government of Malaysia, both in the Justice Office and the Legal Department before being appointed as a Judicial Commissioner on 1 March 1992, and Judge of the High Court of Malaya in 1994. In 2002, he was elevated as Judge of the Court of Appeal, in 2005 as Judge of the Federal Court and then on 24 October 2008 as Chief Judge of Malaya. On 14 September 2011, Tun Arifin was elevated as the 13th Chief Justice of Malaysia, where he served until his retirement from office on 31 March 2017.

In June 2012, he also served as Co-Chair of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Congress on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability as part of his efforts to improve the status of environmental law in the region.

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