Power of Blogging
Judicial Careers
Regional Employment Judge
L
ady Chief Justice Keegan from Northern Ireland explains that the judiciary in the whole of the UK are acutely aware of the need to improve diversity and have had considerable success in the lower courts but it still needs to feed through to senior positions (page 20). By publishing blogs, profiles and interviews with the judiciary, we hope you will consider if it is appropriate for you and gain some ideas of different routes to acquiring the skills needed. On this page you can gain insight from Joanna Wade, a Regional Employment Judge. In our next edition, we will also be looking at the role of lay members of FirstTier Tribunals, hearing from Eileen Flanagan and Ann Crighton on their experiences. ■
Ann Crighton
Eileen Flanagan
Joanna Wade MBE
J
oanna Wade MBE recounts her career in the Judiciary, which has relied on a varied prior working experience; starting with the excitement of shaping the Crisis Open Christmas, then working in policy, before running her own firm, to now witnessing the many catastrophic employment relationships, as a judge. Starting out It all started with the judicial oath: ‘I will do right to all manner of people after the laws and usages of this realm, without fear or favour, affection or ill will’. How could anyone not well-up when speaking those words? I had not expected to feel both the pleasure and the privilege of being a judge, but I feel them most profoundly. ‘Judging’ was not particularly in my game plan, in fact throughout my career I was ambivalent about whether I wanted to be a lawyer at all. I had always been an arts person and changed to law midway through my university degree because I suddenly realised what a powerful tool for social change it was. Administrative law was riding high, and I was strongly committed to changing the world for the better, a modest ambition for a 20-something year old! Although I enjoyed my training very much, I never felt like a proper lawyer because I always saw it as a tool rather than as an occupation in itself and I tried several times to escape but found myself typecast. It was also a world
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