Cover: Past female Treasurers L-R: Master Heather Hallett (2011), Master Deborah Taylor (2022), Master HRH The Princess Royal (Royal Treasurer 2011), Master Elizabeth Butler-Sloss (1998), Master Elizabeth Gloster (2018)
Celebrating a Century of Women at The Inner Temple 2 100 Years of Women at the Bar 6
Object, Influence, Advice? 12 Women in Law 13 Index 109
‘The law will not suffer women to be attorneys, nor infants nor serfs’ stated a medieval treaty written by an unknown person, but despite its inaccuracies and legal fictions, it was used as a weapon to deny women entry to the legal profession until the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. Three key moments in the collective histories of the “Inns of Court” mark the fearfulness of established barristers in admitting women: Gray’s Inn’s rejection of Bertha Cave’s application in 1903, Lincoln’s Inn’s rejection of Christabel Pankhurst in 1904 and Middle Temple’s rejection of Helena Normanton’s request for admission in 1918. Women’s entry signalled change and competition to an established order. May 1922 finally saw a woman called to the Bar, Dr Ivy Williams at The Inner Temple. Women’s formal entry was secured, but substantive discrimination continues to this day.
A more indirect challenge was made in 1860 by Maria Rye (friend of Grey), who opened a law stationer’s office to train female legal clerks. So did Eliza Orme, who managed to practise law without being professionally qualified. Daughter of suffragists, friend of John Stuart Mill (MP, philosopher and advocate of women’s rights, later husband to Harriet Mill – suffrage campaigner and whose daughter, Helen Taylor, paid for Orme to become a pupil). Orme was the first woman to graduate with an LLB in 1888 and opened a law office, where she worked for twenty-five years as a quasi-lawyer, Orme’s life illustrates the anomaly facing women: they could complete law degrees, which technically exempted them from certain parts of the professional exams and yet could not enter the legal profession. Miss Day also sought an indirect method of practising law in 1891, by attempting to become a licensed conveyancer ‘under the Bar’ and was rejected.
The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 was hard fought for by the women’s movement. The first evidence we have of an organised campaign challenging the male exclusivity of the legal profession was in 1873, when Maria Grey, an educationalist and suffragist, organised a petition demanding the right to attend lectures arranged by the Council of Legal Education, which was rejected.
Others took a more direct course of action, such as 18-year-old Margaret Hall, who in 1900 applied and was refused permission to sit the Scottish solicitors’ preliminary exam. At court she declared not to be a person for the purposes of the legislation. Later in 1903 a servant’s daughter, Bertha Cave, also made a direct challenge by applying to join Gray’s Inn and was rejected, despite being supported by two Masters. Her later appeal was heard (and rejected) in the House of Lords, when she appeared as a litigant in person before a formidable group of judges.
It was used as a weapon to deny women entry to the legal profession.
The following month Cave appeared with Christabel Pankhurst in a debate demanding women’s admission to the legal profession and later, a dinner in her honour was held by the “Women and Local Government Society”, in which Lady Strachey presided. This was Lady Jane Maria Strachey, suffragist, disciple of Mills, and friend of Millicent Fawcett (member and leader of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies – NUWSS). Her daughterin-law was Ray Strachey, whose sister was Karin Costello (one of the litigants in Bebb v Law Society [1914] 1 Ch 286). Ray Strachey attended Cambridge in 1908. Her sister-in-law was Philippa Strachey, feminist organiser and NUWSS member. So, Cave was an accepted part of a network of feminist organisations.
The month after Cave’s hearing, Christabel Pankhurst, of Women’s Social and Political Union fame, applied to join Lincoln’s Inn and was rejected (despite support from Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy). Daughter of a barrister, Pankhurst graduated from Manchester University with a Law degree in 1906.
Ten years later four women would bring the infamous Bebb litigation, demanding to sit the solicitor’s preliminary exam. This case would be used as a precedent to deny women entry to the legal profession until 1919. The Bebb litigants announced their intended legal action at a dinner in March 1913. Speeches were given by many, such as, Holford Knight MP (friend and supporter to Normanton) and Chrystal MacMillan (suffrage campaigner). Stanley Buckmaster KC appeared for Gwyneth Marjory Bebb, and they appeared before Joyce J, who was at Cave’s hearing. The litigants were all Oxbridge graduates and one of them would become a solicitor at the same time as Morrison. Everyone was interconnected. Buckmaster later, in February 1919, introduced the Barristers’ and Solicitors’ Bill, which would have allowed women into the legal profession. Whilst it passed through the Lords, it was considered unnecessary by the government because of the passage of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill.
This was Lady Jane Maria Strachey, suffragist, disciple of Mills, and friend of Millicent Fawcett.
Christabel Pankhurst, of Women’s Social and Political Union fame, applied to join Lincoln’s Inn and was rejected.
Helena Normanton made history by becoming the first woman to be admitted to an Inn of Court on Christmas Eve 1919 and there were other ‘firsts’, for example: Olive Clapham (first woman to pass the Bar Finals), Dr Ivy Williams (first woman to be called to the Bar at The Inner Temple), Monica Geike Cobb (first woman to practise at the Bar), not to mention Averil Deverill and Frances Kyle called to the Dublin Bar in 1921. Whilst we celebrate women’s achievements we should pause to reflect on the ‘supportive’ men who fought alongside would be women barristers because there were many. Together both men and women enabled women to enter the legal profession in 1919. For example, Edward Bell offered Miss Bebb articles to support her litigation, Buckmaster KC represented Miss Bebb at her trial, and Mr Withers was Bebb’s instructing solicitor. Likewise, Buckmaster (MP, later Lord Chancellor and peer) had always been committed to opening the legal profession to women, and he introduced two bills to Parliament: the 1917 Solicitors’ (Qualification of Women) bill, and the 1919 Barristers’ and Solicitors’ (Qualification of Women) bill.
Other men also tried to introduce enabling legislation to Parliament, but ‘failed’: Lord Wolmer, Jack Hills MP, Benjamin Spoor MP, and Lord Cecil. Holford Knight MP and KC supplied Helena Normanton with a reference for her Middle Temple application, and both in 1913 and 1917, proposed motions to the Bar Council to admit women, which were rejected.
Samuel Garrett, solicitor and brother to physician Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Millicent Fawcett, was chair of the Committee to open the legal profession to women. Cecil Chapman, a London Magistrate, was chairman of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage, until his employers, the Home Office, forced him to stand down.
Ivy Williams did not practise law, but her Call to the Bar blazed a trail for other women to follow, and this volume will demonstrate how far we have come in just 100 years.
Dr Judith Bourne Professor,St. Mary’s University
Ivy Williams did not practise law, but her Call to the Bar blazed a trail for other women to follow.
At a dinner on 10 May 2022, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first women to be called to the Bar, the Treasurer gave the following speech. The dinner was preceded by Inner Temple student and Princess Royal Scholar, Maud Millar, singing Occuli Omnium.
Thank you, Maud Millar. Maud is not only a trained opera singer, but a 2022 Princess Royal Scholar. On this evening when we are looking into the past, celebrating the achievements of young women who were called to the Bar at Inner Temple in 1922, how better to represent the high achievements and bright future of our young women members of the Inn today.
I am delighted to welcome you all, Benchers and guests, to this dinner. And on behalf of us all, I thank Dr Frances Burton for the fascinating lecture we heard earlier (see pages 15-18, Inner Temple Yearbook). 1922 was indeed an extraordinary year with Ivy Williams and Theodora Llewellyn Davies both called by The Inner Temple. Our gathering of women (and a few very special male guests) tonight reminds me of the second evening after my arrival at Somerville College in 1979, when unannounced, there was a college dinner celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the college alumnae, Dorothy L Sayers. The Principal in her speech informed us that in order to bring her presence among us, two of the women dons would be wearing, respectively, Dorothy’s famous
Chinese jacket and her shoes. And in they came to bemused applause from the undergraduates. As an 18 year old just arrived from Newcastle
I thought this rather fetishist approach to her clothes extraordinary. I am glad that we have done much better in including the spirit of the 1922 pioneers by welcoming members of the families of Ivy Williams, and Theodora Llewellyn Davies here in person. We are honoured to have you with us, in your own clothes.
It is undoubtedly true that in the last 100 years the world has changed beyond recognition. For example, 1922 marked the greatest reach of the then British Empire. But I was struck recently by a news article about the expansion of the British Library archives at Boston Spa, which contained a facsimile cutting from the Boston Globe (Boston Mass, not Boston Spa) April 1919 which included two articles, the first asking what was to be done about Russia, Bolshevism, and aggression in Ukraine, and the second about whether a new outbreak of the Spanish flu in Sweden could spread the pandemic. There are stronger parallels between the 1920s and today than we might have hoped.
After the horror and waste of young life by the First World War and the Spanish flu, the 1920s saw an outpouring of energy and creativity by women in all areas of life and society, including the Arts. As I watched the exquisite floral arch go up last week for the Reopening of the Treasury Building, amid the extraordinary efforts being made to make the building ready for the visit by our Royal Bencher, HRH The Princess Royal, I was reminded of the first line of Mrs Dalloway, the first modernist novel giving outward expression of a woman’s reactions to the difficulties of life, through the internal workings of her mind. It was published in 1925, in an extraordinary group of modernist novels which included both Ulysses and The Wasteland, both published in 1922: “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. For Lucy had her work cut out for her”. Luckily, I did not have to buy the flowers, and we avoided any existential crises internal or external that Mrs Dalloway faced on the day before her party.
So, what would our courageous young women of 1922 have thought about this evening? They knew they were breaking new ground in the legal profession, but could they have imagined such a gathering of women meeting in their honour as we have tonight? A gathering which includes the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, the Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland, Lady Justices of Appeal, High Court judges, Circuit and Tribunal judges, QCs (not KCs as they were then), academics, as Ivy Williams herself became, and successful practitioners in all areas of law. In 1922, they squeezed through the chink in the door and entered into a hostile legal world of male privilege. I am most indebted to Master Sally Smith for lending me Chambers in the Temple by CP Hawkes, published in 1930 which contains in a chapter called Portia and her Suitors (I think that indicates the tone…) a reflection on Ivy Williams and those who had followed her. It captures the air which our young women breathed:
“Are women fit for such mental and physical strain?
The woman-Barrister must not claim indulgence by any feminine appeal, nor assert equality by aping manhood, and for some time her position must necessarily be uncertain and fraught with embarrassments.
It is unlikely that women will for a long time, at any rate, attain distinction in the more technical and specialized branches of practice, such as Equity, Admiralty or commercial causes, references or arbitrations. It is also probable that the majority will prove unequal to the protracted nervous strain of criminal trials; but in the homelier atmosphere of the County Courts, where litigants and witnesses are so frequently women, and in breach-of-promise and divorce cases in the High Court (if she can face unflinchingly the moral squalor), the ladyBarrister may find scope for her feminine intuition; for in such cases one party is always of her sex.”
And he thought he was being complimentary! We should not be complacent, and we all know instances of such patronising behaviour and worse still continue, but we now have the numbers and confidence to make it clear this is unacceptable, and the structures to do something about it within the Bar and Judiciary. And we should use all the means we have. The Inns are certainly playing our part. This year, building on the work done since 2012 by Inner and Middle Temple in the Temple Women’s Forum, all four Inns formed the Inns of Court Alliance for Women, a powerful statement of unity of purpose and intent for the future.
We should not be complacent, and we all know instances of such patronising behaviour and worse still continue.
I am sure our 1922 women would have been gratified by the breadth and depth of achievement we have gathered this evening, but would they not have been disappointed that it took so long to get to this stage? They created the breach, but there was no immediate flood which followed, more a very gradual erosion through the 20th century with a sudden increase over the last 20 years. It is remarkable that this evening we have many ‘Firsts’ present, but perhaps even more remarkable that there are still so many ‘Firsts’ which have yet to be achieved.
On the other hand, our young women of 1922, looking around the room today would undoubtedly be surprised by the diversity in the profession: not only diversity based in ethnic background, but in what would have been thought of as ‘class’. In 1922, it was only three years since the vote was extended to most women over 30, and equal voting rights with men were still six years away.
The Bar itself remained a profession for the privileged few for well over 50 years after the Call we celebrate tonight, and lagged behind society so far that it was still possible in 1960 for prosecuting counsel in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover obscenity trial to ask the jury (which included three women, and which was selected from a panel including a dock labourer, a butcher, a dress machinist, and several salesmen) the infamous question “Is this a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read”. Members of the jury exchanged looks, and we all know the outcome of the trial. But this rejection of the outdated elitism of the Bar, did not mark its end. In 1974, Glanville Williams in Learning the Law in a passage edited out of more recent editions ventured that “an advocate’s task is essentially combative, whereas women are not generally prepared to give battle unless they are annoyed. A woman’s voice, also, does not carry as well as a man’s”.
Some here tonight will remember the stiffness, formality and overwhelming maleness of chambers when they joined, and the exclusionary behaviours, sometimes dressed up as good manners which persisted well into the 1980s in my own experience, and which we must still work to eradicate entirely.
So, we should certainly celebrate our achievements, and the achievements of those who have gone before us. But we must also keep up the momentum and increase the pace of change towards equality and equity. We must push the dial forward at every opportunity we can. I am delighted to see that we have this year’s Treasurer of Middle Temple (The Hon Mrs Justice Maura McGowan DBE), and next year’s Treasurer of Gray’s Inn (The Rt Hon Lady Justice Nicola Davies DBE) here this evening. You will have seen the photograph, taken last week with our Royal Treasurer HRH the Princess Royal, of all four of The Inner Temple’s Women Treasurers: Master Butler Sloss, the first, was just in the 20th century in 1998, Master Heather Hallett in 2011, Master Liz Gloster in 2018, and myself in 2022. The intervals are getting shorter, and I hope very much that women Treasurers in all of the Inns will no longer be occasional rarities, but regular, and their appointment quite unremarkable.
This is an important moment, and we should make the most of it. We are coming out of the pandemic, and we at The Inner Temple have our new building and facilities, all in this centenary year. At our reopening last week there was a palpable feeling of excitement, and a desire to use this opportunity to fulfil our core purpose of education with renewed vigour. Let us not go back to normal but let us emulate the 1920s and create a new, more innovative and inclusive normal which embraces changes in education and technology and promotes all aspects of equality and diversity.
We will mark this anniversary not only by meeting together at this dinner, but by creating a commemorative booklet to go out with the Yearbook. For this we need your co-operation. One great advantage we have over our young women of 1922 is the ease with which we can take photographs. Although the first instant camera (with not so portable dark room) was coincidentally invented in 1922, digital photography of the quality produced by most phones was certainly not. After this dinner you will receive an email which will ask you to provide a photograph of yourself, with an object, animate or inanimate which is important to you. There will also be a template containing three questions only. All to be returned by the 30 June 2022.
I know we all hate audience participation, that you are all busy, and that at least for the photograph you will need the assistance of a friend (selfies will not do!) but I am not just going to ask but insist that you all do this. It is so important to capture and record this moment in our history. I was thinking of possible sanctions, but I know I will not need them. Women so rarely let the side down. It is not what we do. I will certainly not be marking any non-returns with a picture of a tub of lard, as Have I Got News for You did once when a politician failed to turn up for the programme. Brutal, brilliant, but not for us!
Just before we begin our dinner this evening, I return to the great CP Hawkes.
He tells us that in 1930: “Some Circuits admit their women-members to Mess at all times: some on Grand Night only: and some not at all. At the Middle Temple the women eat together; while at the Inner on any day at lunch you may see them scattered among the men – as one of them is said to have remarked ‘at the Inner, thank God, we don’t have to feed in purdah’.”
Lucky us, having the choice to meet and eat this evening with mostly other women, with our very welcome male guests for once, in the minority. I hope you will enjoy the rest of the evening.
Honour Judge Deborah Taylor Master Treasurer
It is so important to capture and record this moment in our history.Her
To mark the centenary of the first women to be Called to the Bar, female Benchers of The Inner Temple were asked to respond to the three questions, below, and to provide a photograph of themselves holding an inanimate or animate object of importance to them.
1. Please describe the OBJECT you are holding and its significance.
2. Who has been the greatest INFLUENCE in your life?
3. What ADVICE would you give to young women starting out on a career in the Law in 2022?
In 1922, The Inner Temple called to the Bar only two women, Dr Ivy Williams and Theodora Llewelyn-Davies. In 2022, 102 women have been called to the Bar by The Inner Temple, with a further 55 women due to be called before the end of this year. There are now 140 female Benchers of The Inner Temple. The contributions contained in this commemorative booklet provide a snapshot of them.
I have one of my scarves round my neck. Since I started practice, I wear a scarf to brighten up my dark outfit! It also brightens my mood and reminds me of my father who started my scarf collection many years ago!
My parents. Neither of them went to university and in the Azores where they both come from, very few women had careers. Both my parents supported and encouraged my sister and myself to go to university.
There is still so much more to do, but slowly things are improving. Be part of the journey!
The background to the photo is a page of William Byrd’s great Mass for 4 voices. I have always been a singer and throughout my career in the law singing, especially singing glorious music like Byrd, has given me a way to relax, to clear my thoughts and gives me great joy.
My mother – a woman way ahead of her generation who taught me all about being a feminist (although she would not describe herself as that) and fiercely standing up for what’s right.
Stick to it, it can be hard and sometimes dispiriting but it’s a wonderful career and is incredibly satisfying.
I am holding the official programme for the London 2012 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony and wearing the identification badges and volunteers’ bib that were given to me during rehearsals, which culminated in a performance alongside thousands of other volunteers to approximately 750 million viewers worldwide.
I have chosen this because it signifies a huge part of my personal life and who I am.
I have danced since the age 4, initially learning ballet and tap and moving onto contemporary, street and salsa whilst at secondary school, university and Bar School respectively.
As a young child who loved to dance, I recall weekends and multiple weekday evening spent at Peckham Leisure Centre in south east London, having the most wonderful time whilst competing in competitions and taking examinations.
At the start of my legal career, I sadly put my love for dancing on hold. At the time, I decided that it was the one thing I could and ought to stop doing in order to free up time to focus on my practice. With hindsight, I wish I hadn’t made this choice then and I regularly pass this lived experience onto others who are just starting out. I advise them to keep up their hobbies and interests because ultimately, they are a huge part of who we
are and what makes us happy and healthy individuals.
Taking part in the London 2012 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony, having only just been made a tenant in my chambers was a once in a lifetime opportunity that the dancer in me could not let pass me by and I will treasure the memories forever and value the friendships I made along the way.
She has love to give in abundance. She is loyal and incredibility hardworking. She taught me about the importance of caring for others, hard work and fairness before I could even understand what they truly meant. She taught me by example what an excellent work ethic is, and she always supports and encourages me to achieve my gaols and aspirations. She has been right by my side through the ups and downs in life. During my studies she often sat up all night
long with me at our kitchen table in Camberwell whilst I repeatedly said, “I can’t do this” and “I am just not like them”. She answers to Nuray, Leigh, and Nene, but to me she is my Mum and the person who has been the biggest influence in my life. I love and adore her so very much and undoubtedly know that she played a huge part in me, the state school educated girl from south east London, making it to the Bar.
1. Remain true to who you are and where you come from. It may not appear noticeable or relevant at the outset but the more authentic you are the happier you will be.
2. Find a mentor and draw on their experience, knowledge and connections to help you whilst you are starting out.
3. Keep focused on your own professional and
personal goals and aspirations and the balance you are seeking to achieve between those and other life commitments. Try not to let the work of your cohort distract you; everyone’s circumstances are different and unique. What works for them will probably not work for you and that is totally fine.
4. Find and make friends and allies along the way. They will support you when times are tough and will be the first to congratulate and celebrate the highs with you.
5. Smile, enjoy it and keep the ladder down for those behind you. Despite its challenges, it really is a great career to be embarking on and we need young women like you to help those a few steps behind.
This is obviously a telephone, which on its own is not to be regarded as an object of great significance, but it represents to me perhaps the most important thing in my life, namely the maintaining of close contact with people who are and have been essential to my wellbeing. Until I left school, where I was a
day girl living in an area close to the homes of most of my friends, I almost never used the telephone, The stage at which it started to mean much to me was when I went to university about 800 miles from my family and a long distance from most of my friends. For 6 years I regularly talked on
the phone to my parents and occasionally to my brother. Thereafter, for over 50 Years the telephone has provided live and personal content with my husband and sons when we have had to be apart sometimes for months on end.
I was born and brought up in South Africa during the apartheid years. Both my parents were in the minority of the white population and believed in the equality of all people. It was my mother who had the greatest influence on my life, in the early years demonstrating by example tolerance of, courtesy towards and interest in all with whom she came into contact. She was a professor of mathematics and a gifted teacher with the capacity to listen and to explain with clarity and patience. From the age of 10 I was determined to be an actress. Although that was not her wish, my mother discussed with me the pros and cons of pursuing that ambition, but when I remained adamant, she sent me for the whole of every Saturday to speech and drama classes. The one condition of that support was that when I matriculated
and left school just before my 16th birthday, I should go to university before making a final decision on my career. I did so and, while reading for a B.A., was required to take courses in Latin and Roman Law, both of which I enjoyed. My mother then, using all her powers, of logical argument, persuaded me to embark upon the post graduate L.L.B. training.
I was the first woman to do so at Rhodes University, and having successfully completed it, became the first woman to be called to the Bar in the Eastern Cape Province.
Before making the major decision to become a barrister you must understand and accept that you will be undertaking a way of life as opposed to making a career or taking a job. Being a member of the Bar must take priority
over all else with virtually no exception. Have in the forefront of your mind that the litigation in which your client is involved is one of the most important events, if not the most significant, in their life. They must have utmost faith in their barrister if they are going to be able to represent them to the highest standard.
Part of your success will depend upon your experience of all sorts of people and your understanding and tolerance of the way of life and beliefs of many of them. Make time to mix with others. It is also important for your general health and wellbeing that you relax and enjoy yourself from time to time. Although, I think that you get out of life what you put into it, you also have need of an element of luck. Grab every opportunity that comes your way.
I am holding our granddaughter. She is an example of my view that family matters more than anything else.
In terms of inspiration, Master Jo Korner inspired me with her determination to continue smoking when the world turned against the habit. On a serious note, I have admired her very varied career on an international stage which continues into her seventies.
Come to the Bar, it will be hard work but highly satisfying.
Barrister
The book belonged to my father and was given to me after he died. It is called ‘Laughter in Court’ by Dudley Barker and was first published in 1935. Describing the London criminal courts, it reads, “Here is the true mirror of London life, a vast field of explorations for the lover of people and their behaviour.” I could not agree more.
My mother.
Work hard, have courage of your convictions, and treat everyone with respect.
This is a coal pot. Its’ origins are from Africa and, knowledge of how to make it was probably brought to the Caribbean by my slave ancestors. It is traditionally hand made from clay, mostly by women, and baked or fired to be finished.
This coal pot reminds me of my grandmother. A formidable, intelligent schoolteacher from a small village, she was also a fantastic cook. She insisted on using a coal pot to slow cook her meals to perfection, even when she had a modern ‘bells and whistles’ kitchen.
She taught me humility, to do right and fear no one, contentment, and love of community. This coal pot reminds me of my family’s life journey.
Do every little thing well, with all of your heart, and soul, and mind, and the rest will fall into place.
Barrister
My father was in the Royal Marine Band and was Bandmaster on the Royal Yacht Britannia. When he retired the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh gave him these cufflinks. He died before I was called. I wore them then and when I took Silk.
My Mother.
Never give up.
Barrister
A picture of my maternal grandparents from Pakistan. They endured untold hardships and poverty to successfully raise eight children. I will never forget the day I told them I had been awarded a place to read law at Oxford. They could not believe that from such humble beginnings, their grandchild would be attending one of the most prestigious universities in the world, with former Pakistani prime ministers amongst its distinguished alumni. Sadly, they never lived to see me called to the Bar, but I keep their picture with me in Chambers so that they are with me every day. It is my way of keeping them a part of my journey and success at the Bar.
My parents. They are the two strongest, most industrious, loving, and self-sacrificing individuals I have ever met. I cannot properly do justice to the sacrifices they made in coming to this country and enduring financial hardship and prejudice, all so their children could have a better life. They gave me strength, hope and unconditional love on this difficult journey to (and at) the Bar, and whenever I am faced with hurdles, I remind myself of what they had to overcome so that I could succeed, which renews my determination. I am proud and privileged to be their daughter and everything I have achieved in my life is their success, even more than it is mine.
Never underestimate yourself or set limits for yourself. It takes an entire spectrum of skills to succeed at the Bar, so trust that your life, work, and academic experiences, whatever they may be, will equip you for life at the Bar. Even if your journey is different to others or seems unconventional, think about the valuable skills and life lessons it has taught you, and how you can apply those at the Bar. Do not set a ceiling for yourself in terms of what you want to achieve –be as ambitious as you want and trust that hard work and perseverance will get you there.
I’m holding my bike, which I use to cycle to work most days. I’ve been cycling to school, university, and work for almost 40 years – it’s carbon neutral and cheaper than going to the gym!
My husband and children –they inspire me to be a better version of myself every day.
Be fearless. Carve out the career that you want to have, not the career that others tell you that you ought to have. And get home in time for dinner.
I am holding the Beyer Dynamic microphone I have used to record every episode of The Advocacy Podcast. It represents the opportunity to sit at the feet of some of the most remarkable advocates from around the world as they share their words of wisdom. I have been very lucky to learn so much and share that with others.
A trite but true answer is my mother, Yinka Richardson (nee Adeyeye). She worked as a teacher whilst raising my brother and I single handedly. An incredibly loving woman, her support has never wavered. She consistently encouraged me to believe in myself, especially during those years when I was searching for pupillage and it felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. And her influence didn’t stop with me; she still has past students
coming up to her 30 years later to say what a difference she made in their lives.
You can create your own path. There are many incredible and successful women who have gone before you and are willing to share advice, experiences, and lessons learned. This is invaluable so take what works for you but don’t be pressured to adopt what doesn’t.
Bleak House by Charles Dickens, my favourite novel. It made a huge impression on me when I first read it as a teenager and continues to do so to this day. Bleak House paints an arresting picture of legal London at the time. However, the most striking aspect for me is the portrayal of the two very different women Lady Dedlock and Esther Summerson. They are very much creatures of the Victorian era whose lives are shaped by morals and conventions of that time, and
the author’s portrayal inevitably reflects this. The perceived stigma of an illegitimate birth unites and determines the fates of mother and daughter. One day when time permits, I would love to write a modern feminist analysis of the novel!
My husband Michael Harris, who has given me great personal happiness and has been unfailingly supportive of my career through all its twists and turns over two continents.
The law is a demanding but fascinating mistress. Take time to decide which area of law you wish to practise in: a range of experience at an early stage is invaluable. Be confident – self-deprecation is a characteristic we woman continue to demonstrate; throw it away! Always set aside sufficient time for your personal life – ultimately there are more things in life than a profession.
This is my needle case. It was made for me by my father, whose hobby was needlepoint embroidery. My mother hated sewing so was happy to let my father do the mending, which makes me smile. I started sewing when my children were little after a friend taught me how to make anything and everything. That is why my father made this needle case for me. Happy memories all round.
My family.
Believe in yourself and your abilities. Have the confidence to know you can achieve whatever you want. Don’t be afraid to do things differently.
This is me with my aunt’s paperweight, a very cheerful parrot. It sits beside me as I work at my desk. My aunt was a pioneer educationalist. She made her career in teaching and rose to be headmistress of an independent girls’ school in Yorkshire. After retirement she became a lay reader in the Church of England, and she continued to teach – helping young people with what were then called remedial English lessons. She was driven by her firm belief in public service, and in standards in education. But
she was also patient, kind and had a good sense of humour.
My parents: for the way they enjoyed their work (they were dedicated educationalists) and the language and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, about which they published books. My father was a very gifted teacher, then a state school headmaster in North Staffordshire, and finally an academic administrator in Oxford. He also was a lay reader. My mother, originally a
university lecturer, eventually became a local councillor. They rarely threw away a book – which taught me that parents aren’t all perfect.
To research thoroughly (taking advantage of all the practical experience you can get) before finally deciding on your choice of career; to listen to advice; then when you’ve decided what you want to do, to give it your best shot. But your life should not be all work.
Retired Supreme Court Justice
The object in the picture is my piano. It has been my prop since I first learned to play as a small child. I have a large collection of sheet music, inherited from my family and added to over the years. I play my way through it, never practising so never really getting good at anything. If someone wants to join in and sing, so much the better, but really, I am just playing for myself, because it is calming and serves to unscramble my thoughts.
So many people have influenced and inspired me that it would be invidious to choose one from amongst them. In addition to the influence of people who have been part of my own life, I have been influenced by poets and other writers, notably T S Eliot, and (as a rebellious teenager) W E Henley’s Invictus.
There will be unremitting work-related demands on your time. Remember, as you try to juggle them, that you are entitled to time for yourself too, and you will need it, to give you the strength to deal with your professional life.
I am holding (probably) the first true crime book written in England, The Trial of Alfred Arthur Rouse, edited by Helena Normanton and published in 1931. Rouse (1894-1931) was known as the ‘Blazing Car Murderer’. In an attempt to fake his own death due to relationship and financial strain, he murdered a still unknown hitchhiking man in Hardingstone. After a sensational trial he was hanged at Bedford Gaol.
This book holds significance to me because it was edited (written) by Normanton, a woman I have been ‘obsessed’ with for almost 25 years, and also because it has been signed by her – so I know that at some point she actually held this copy!
Normanton (1882-1957) is famous for her struggle, and subsequent success, to enter the Bar, but this book represents her resilience and tenacity; in order to remain at the Bar, a place where she had little access to work due to discrimination, she branched out into other paid areas of work, such as true crime writing. She began a genre of books that are still incredibly popular today: true crime. And it worked! She held her place in Chambers until her retirement in 1951 even though she had a very limited practice.
My maternal grandmother. My grandfather was a selfmade man, who left my grandmother during my mother’s tenth birthday party
in August 1950 (he said he was going to buy ice cream!) He abandoned my grandmother in a rural rented property which they had temporarily moved to, supposedly to start another business. This was particularly painful after a life of plenty, but like Normanton she was not defeated. However, she sacrificed a great deal of her own life to bring up her daughters.
You will make mistakes, and life will not necessarily go to plan, but be adaptable, see opportunity in every single thing. You can learn something from everyone and everything, just be open.
This is my late grandmother’s carved wooden bird. It sat on her dressing table and now sits on mine. She was the kindest person I have ever known. As a child I was astonished that she chose the speckled brown banana from the fruit bowl. She explained that if she ate that one everyone else could have a nice yellow one. In our job I think kindness is absolutely essential, and underrated.
My husband Robin gave up his career to be the primary carer for our children, which meant that I could work without having to remember whether it was a football or ballet day, and which child didn’t like strawberry yoghurt that month. There are many different ways to arrange a home life, but I could not have had my career without his unstinting support. He is also very good at pretending to be a member of the jury while I run spurious points past him.
Be kind. You can be devastatingly effective and still be kind. Choose a partner who will support you and your career. Aim high and don’t let people tell you that ambition is unattractive- a comment generally reserved for women. And when you make it, be kinder still.
The A to Z London Street Map. I had ambitions to one day become a barrister and was due to read Law at university when my brother, my best friend, was killed in a car accident early on New Year’s Day 1973. At the time, my sister was stationed in Cairo with the Foreign Office and I felt I couldn’t go away to university leaving my parents alone with their grief.
My only option was to apply to read Law in London as it was commuting distance from home. I learned that I could attend the Inns of Court School of Law and commute, as long as I joined an Inn of Court. I had no idea which Inn to join; I didn’t know any barristers and knew no one with any connection to an Inn of Court.
So I bought an A to Z of London Streets and searched for the whereabouts of each of the Inns. I had always lived close to the river Thames (I still do)
and loved it. I saw that The Inner Temple had the distinct advantage of a large swathe of lawn stretching down close to the river, and that was it: I would apply for membership of The Inner Temple.
Mr Lane, my A level Economics Master, who made me believe that I could have ambition and succeed.
Find an area that really interests you and go for it.
She was a Glen of Immaal terrier and a present from Master Evans-Lombe after I lost my Labrador early from cancer. As President of the Family Division, when families or children saw me in my private room, she was invaluable in breaking the ice. When photos were taken of the successful adoptive family and me, Maggie was always included. She also died young from cancer. She was very special.
My father, a High Court Judge and Treasurer of Inner Temple. He was always supportive of my becoming a barrister when there were few women at the Bar. He gave me good advice how to appear in court and how to present cases.
The path to practice at the Bar is very crowded. Too many people apply for pupillage and a tenancy. Women are as good as and often better than men. But getting a tenancy requires the candidate to be
seen as fitting in with members of chambers and the best candidate does not always get chosen. Not to be selected is not a failure. Have a plan B where it is likely you will do very well and have job satisfaction. If you get into chambers and practice remember the Bar gives a service to the public.
Also remember choices may come between the obligations of the Bar and of children and families and the Bar shouldn’t always win!!
Barrister
I am holding my dog Juno. She is my world!
My father.
ADVICE
Resilience and flexibility is key.
I am holding the first smart black pen that I ever bought for myself – out of my income in my first year of practice as a junior barrister. I am pictured in my first chambers as a High Court Judge. You can see the beautiful wood panelling.
My mother – a highly intelligent person born in Germany at the start of World War II. She was never allowed to go into higher education, and so I have always been determined to do her proud professionally.
Be prepared for a long and sometimes difficult journey. But do not doubt your talent. If you really want a career in the law, and are cut out for it, you will make it.
I am holding a curlew feather which I treasure, having found it on a field where I walk our dogs each day. In the Spring the endangered curlews nest on nearby fields and it is magical when they suddenly take flight from the ground and the distinctive, heavenly sound of their call soars on the breeze. Widespread changes to countryside have seen the numbers of curlew drastically decline. All this is happening as society is becoming ever more detached from the natural world. In the main, we are less connected to nature than at any other time in history. It is a real privilege and of significance to me, to live near to where these beautiful birds can still be seen. The curlews return to nest and lay their eggs
in the spring and their song gives me a sense of real joy.
My husband and children are a given. However, the greatest influence on my professional life has to be my Pupil SupervisorMr Stuart Henry Macdonald Denney KC. It is right to place on record my very particular indebtedness to Stuart for the invaluable part he has played in my professional journey thus far.
Throughout my time as a pupil, and since, Stuart has personified the best traditions of the Bar. His readiness to provide guidance and support to me when I started out and further along my career path, has been consistent and without consideration
of personal convenience or cost. Stuart possesses a fierce intellect and forensic ability: the training, guidance and advice he provided to me was second to none. As a Pupil, I was welcomed, encouraged and supported and slowly found my way, acquiring by degrees, the abilities necessary to practise at the Bar. I will be forever grateful for Stuart’s kindness to me and his support of my career.
On challenging days, never forget the honour and privilege of being a member of the profession and how hard you worked to get here. As you start out and develop your practice have confidence, but never be afraid to ask for help or advice if you need it.
I am holding a photograph of Mary Wollstonecraft. I chose this because it was her words, in ‘The Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ read as an 18 year old law student all those years ago that have probably had the most lasting influence on me as a woman and as a lawyer.
There are many quotes that spoke to me then, but this is one of the most memorable: “I love man as my fellow; but his scepter, real, or usurped, extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my homage; and even then the submission is to reason, and not to man.”
I recall my astonishment that this work, written in 1792, was so ‘modern’ in its breadth and ambition but also in how relevant it was then and still is now. I have this picture displayed in my office as a reminder of where it all started for me and for many other women, courtesy of Mary.
Our cat Banksy who makes our family laugh every day.
My grandfather Stanley Clarke who left school at age 14 but was the most intelligent, well-read man I have ever known. He firmly believed in the value of a good education and encouraged us all to work hard and fulfil our dreams and ambitions.
Pay it forward. The last 100 years of struggle by women in the law has made it easier for each succeeding generation. Leave your mark on the profession by doing your bit for the women who come after you.
My passport has allowed me to travel which enables me to indulge my passion for nature and wildlife photography, but also to experience cultures and lifestyles very different to my own. As a result of my travels I am more appreciative of what I have here at home and have learned a great deal more about happiness and contentment.
Although it is something of a cliché, my parents have been the greatest influence in my life. They taught me by example the importance of integrity and hard work and gave me a sense of adventure.
Take every chance you can to learn from those who do the job well. Whilst projecting confidence is essential it is also important to remember that you are dealing with people. A little humility and kindness can go a long way.
On my lapel is a silver ivy leaf brooch with the initials of my school Manchester High School for Girls. The ivy leaf is the school emblem. Its motto is ‘Empowering Girls since 1874’. I was the recipient of a bursary to enable me to attend MHSG, for which I have been very grateful ever since. MHSG was a ground breaking girls’
school to which Emmeline Pankhurst sent her 3 daughters. I wear the badge often as a reminder of the efforts women went to in order to try to achieve an equal society.
The greatest influence in my life has to be my parents, whose families did not come
from professional backgrounds, but they recognised the importance of education for me.
Achieve a balance in your life and enjoy work and home life. Believe in yourself – that way others will believe in you.
Deputy Director, DHSC, Government Legal Department and Deputy District Judge, North Eastern Circuit
My walking stick. In fact, it is the one I bought for my wedding, no less. A beautifully designed clear lucite stick, a statement as much as a mobility aid. I became physically disabled just after I qualified as a lawyer, so the journeys for me are very interrelated. I was worried I would not have the life, nor the career, I wanted. This has proven not to be true and indeed whilst disability, and society’s treatment thereof, comes with difficulties for sure, I have also learnt lots about the world around me and become more engaged with a brilliant and active community due to disability, something I would not want to have missed out on.
This is hard as there are so many people! Obviously family; my dad, mum, step-mum, and both grandmothers were public sector workers, so I think public service runs through me like Blackpool through rock! Also my daughters – when my eldest came back from nursery saying she had been ‘busy in the home corner being a judge’ I knew I was doing something right. My husband, who bought me my very first stick, encouraging me to grapple with the truth that disability is not the issue, but society’s need for us all to conform to a defined norm is. And my friends, all of whom have done brilliant and varied things, the women especially achieving incredible things, supporting me to do things my own way.
In the words of an excellent children’s book I read to my girls: it is okay to be different. I didn’t actually know any lawyers when I decided to be one; I didn’t speak the way I thought many did and I didn’t feel I looked or even acted like one. I then went and trained, and qualified, at the employed bar, having been a Government lawyer all my professional life. And I love it. I have a place in the law, indeed I have even written it! So yes, my advice is do what you think is right for you, even if you think you are different from the majority doing it: we need you working in the law most of all.
Retired High Court Judge and associate member of chambers
My chosen ‘animate object’ is my wonderful husband David, without whose unwavering and unconditional support, over the whole of my professional life, I could never have achieved all that I did.
Personally, my husband David and my three sons. Professionally, my former pupil supervisor and colleague for many years Sir Stephen Sedley, who first made me really think about the law and how to use it most effectively.
Never give up and never give in. Challenge discrimination wherever you find it. Be brave, be determined, and take every opportunity presented to you along the way. And most of all enjoy the work you do.
This is a plaster maquette made and given to me by Eduardo Paolozzi, the Scottish artist, in 1988 when I was an early career academic. It was part of his preparation for the massive bronze statue that now sits outside the British Library in London. It is based on William Blake’s watercolour of Isaac Newton. It represents the interconnectedness of the sciences and the humanities that have been so important in my life, professional and personal. And it connects me to a woman who was a
great influence back then and ever since, to the ideas that undepin my view of the world, and even to the city I now call home, Edinburgh.
This is really hard as I have learnt from so many people across my life. But I always go back to my PhD supervisor, Professor Norma Rinsler, Emerita Professor of French at King’s College London – and now I think well into her nineties. She taught me how to think, how to bridge disciplines, how to write, how to lead others.
Most importantly, I learnt from her the importance of putting the personal and familial interest first in any professional dilemma, and, when you have the power to do so, ensuring others can do that too.
Don’t be constrained by how things have always apparently been. You can change, systems and institutions can be changed. Understand what principles are most important to you, and hold onto them whilst you push at the boundaries.
I am holding a photo of my parents and my daughter when she was a very young baby. The joy on their faces is a reminder that whilst professional life may shape you, it’s family and friends that sustain you.
Miss Gearty, a history teacher at school who suggested I might consider becoming a barrister because I was good at arguing – not a compliment I fear at the time, but singularly the most influential comment ever made to me.
Have faith in yourself – most other people you come across will be having similar doubts as yourself, they may just be better at hiding it – but it is a sign of strength, not weakness, to ask for help if you need it.
This picture shows me holding both sides of my belly, symbolising each of my two children – one born either side of my taking silk as can be seen in the photograph on the wall behind me. My daughter aged 2 holds my hand whilst my
son is in my stomach, having been 38 years old and 38 weeks pregnant when I became a QC. Ten years on I have just become a KC and have been reliving those moments with my 12 and 10 year old. I hope I can imbue in them the same sense of self
belief that my parents gave to me – a sense of being able to achieve whatever I wanted whatever my gender. I would not be where I am today without both generations of my family either side of me supporting, inspiring, and challenging me.
A set of silver knives and forks, all that remains of the possessions of my family in Poland, whose property was stolen by the Nazis.
My mother, who told me to have a career and not to expect to rely on a husband.
Consider the whole range of legal careers – civil service, teaching, drafting, as well as the Bar.
A bit cheesy, I know, but this is Albert who has been my faithful and uncomplaining companion through thick and thin over the last seven years, even though I know that (being a Labrador) he would cheerfully abandon me to a gang of murderous thugs for the sake of a halfeaten sandwich in a gutter.
My parents without a shadow of a doubt: my father, whose clarity of thought and incisive analysis are the model to which I have always aspired professionally but which I fear I will never achieve (although I hope at least to have inherited something of his mischievous sense of humour); my mother, who was genuinely loved by everyone who knew her for her warmth, kindness and generosity. The example they set gave me a
strong and enduring framework of moral principles and taught me the value of hard work and consideration for others.
Think carefully before you embark on a career in the law – it can be very unforgiving – but once you are absolutely certain that this is what you want to do, persevere and do not give up. You will not regret it.
Lord Justice Clerk, Scotland
Two carved penguins. My father as a young man spent many years at sea, and always pretended that he had carved these himself during long days in the South Atlantic. Complete rubbish as they are obviously machine made, but as I child I believed it and used to imagine him whittling by light of an oil lamp! He died when I was 18, but these always make me smile and think of him.
My parents, who gave me the confidence which springs from a background of real security.
Have confidence in yourself, and don’t let misconceptions about life for women in the law rule your choices.
This was my name plate from my former chambers’ board (before they moved to a rather more modern, glass version). For me, it was the confirmation not only of my tenancy but of the fact that I could have a career at the Bar. I had aspired to being a barrister since my mid-teens but had no connections (I was in my early 20s before I actually met a barrister) and little to fall back on if I didn’t succeed. To have my name on the board meant everything to me at the start of my career and this strip of wood is a very tangible reminder of that time.
In my life? Most obviously, my partner, the philosopher Paul Noordhof. From a purely professional perspective, however, I’ve been influenced by a number of colleagues: my pupil supervisors Dame Elizabeth Slade DBE and (the late) HH Jeremy McMullen QC; others I worked with at the Bar, including Lord John Hendy QC and HH John Hand QC; and those who have encouraged and supported me in my judicial career, such as Sir Brian Langstaff, Lady Justice Simler and Her Honour Judge Deborah Taylor. I count
myself hugely lucky that I have had the privilege to meet so many brilliant lawyers and judges during my career (and not just those I have named); I have tried to learn something from all of them.
Take the opportunities that are presented to you; treat the bad experiences (we all have them) as learning opportunities; don’t limit yourself. Enjoy it.
Circuit Judge
I am holding a photograph because my memories are the most important thing I have and memories are often preserved in and by photographs. The photograph is of my son as a child, the memories of whom are the most precious.
A woman named Dawn Mitchell who was the managing director of a company I worked for in the 1970s. Through her own success, she showed me how it was possible for women to reach the top. We are still friends and her strength and tenacity are still inspirational.
Be tenacious and never give up. You are more than good enough.
I am holding a copy of my first scholarly publication in a peer law journal from 1994. It’s significant to me because it represents the beginning of my academic career – a great passion and privilege.
My mother. She was a great feminist role model and always encouraged me to believe in myself and trust that I could be anything I wanted to be.
The law is a helping profession. Look after your wellbeing so you are the best lawyer you can be and look after the needs and interests of others.
Retired Circuit Judge
I am holding the Programme for the Commonwealth Games about to be held in Birmingham adjacent to where I live. This represents all the community work I shall be doing through my local church for the duration of the Games.
My parents for their unstinting support of my aims to become a barrister.
Do not give up. Even when the future seems insuperable maintain your commitment.
I am sitting in my favourite tent. To me, my tent signifies freedom from the interface of modern life and an ability to enjoy nature. It provokes fond memories from childhood and a desire to make new ones with my children.
Professor John Gardner. ADVICE
Always be yourself and don’t pretend to be someone you are not. But always try to be the best version of yourself.
I am holding a cartoon sent to me by a grateful client after I won a case in the House of Lords (as it then was), led by Michael Beloff QC (R. v. Burt and Adams 1999 1 AC 247), under the Gaming Act 1968 on a recherche point on gaming machine law in a practice called ‘trading up’. In Crane and Grab gaming machines where one can win things such as teddy bears. The question was could you exchange two teddy bears for a bigger one or eg a shopping voucher. Our clients had been prosecuted under the Gaming Act.
My parents, who brought me up to believe that I would go to university and have a serious,
long term career, preferably in medicine (my Scottish mother was a paediatrician, and my Irish father was an orthopaedic surgeon), and so, until I was 16, I was going to be a plastic surgeon. However, at 16, and facing so much science and long hours in hospital as a junior doctor, I decided to take the ‘soft option’ and read law. My father suggested I should be a barrister as I enjoyed acting and public speaking. Without knowing anything about what it meant to be a barrister, I became one. Luckily, my first pupil master was Cazalet J who was a wonderful teacher and he taught me how to be one. He is a charismatic man for whom all his pupils have great affection. John Brackenbury
CBE, a serial chairman and main board member of a variety of major companies, with whom I served on a board for 10 years or so, taught me how to be an effective and useful board and committee member.
A client of mine, who worked for a large national company, once told me “you are your product”, and that is true. Find an area of law that you enjoy and, hopefully, that excites you. If you can, find one which you are prepared to go the many extra miles for. Be a pleasure to work with, and if you are a barrister, obviously do your best for your client, but also try to ease your solicitor’s workload in the case. Go your own way.
My greatest inspiration is the one I have been without for the longest. My father, an art teacher, died just before the end of my pupillage, on the eve of my professional career. He is pictured here in the large and small frames I am holding, respectively, carving at the local art school before I was born, and even earlier, relaxing in the army during the war at about the time he and my mother met. Among his prints and pots, I now own the wooden figure he is seen carving – it is here on the sofa, and it stands in my study where this photograph was recently taken.
The manner in which he approached his life has been my constant, and a guide both
professionally and personally –especially as to parenting. I was never pressured, academically or otherwise; rather, gently guided to what I found interesting and fulfilling. I was brought up in a house full of books, creativity and especially, laughter – he had a life-enhancing wit, which I miss to this day. I was also inspired by his and my mother’s unthinking and unspoken sense of public duty: giving evening classes, running the University Extension Association, and other outlets of local voluntary work. Perhaps it was a characteristic of that generation whose parents had also fought in a World War, and of their own post-war optimism, that they believed a better world could and would be built.
My father was a born leader of men: he had abundant quiet authority, but coupled with a deep understanding of people. It is trite that analytical ability and verbal fluency are required for a successful barrister’s career, but I would advise any young person starting out never to underestimate the importance of understanding how people work. This is so whether the person in question is your client, your opponent, a witness, or the judge. An ability to understand the effect of your words upon others, to anticipate the feelings of others, and to listen, will give you a real advantage in the court room and out of it.
Upper Tribunal Judge (IAC)
A Jesse Valentine driver handed down to me by my grandma and my mum. My grandpa encouraged me to study law and play golf. I followed his advice and left Barnsley to come to London where I joined The Inner Temple.
Sir David Penry Davey and Her Excellency Judge Joanna Korner CMG QC.
David was a superb advocate, judge, after dinner speaker and women’s champion. I enjoyed playing golf with him and benefitted from his wisdom and encouragement.
Joanna chaired the advocacy training committee without fear or favour. Her trust and continued support enabled me to become involved in advocacy training all over the world. Training pupils, new practitioners and teacher trainers has given me a lot of pleasure. It has provided me with valuable experience to continue my career as a judge.
You have nothing to prove: get involved with the Inn and invest in the future. The lifelong and diverse friendships you form will enable you to sustain your links with your profession even if you choose to take a career break for whatever reason. Enjoy being part of it and embrace the challenges. You do not have to play golf but I highly recommend it!
I am standing beside a portrait of my father. This was painted by my great uncle in 1939. My father is reading a book. My great uncle, Edward Corvin Pearson was killed in a bombing raid on Cafe de Paris in 1941. He was in his thirties and newly betrothed. My father was the first of my family to go to Cambridge University. He was in his first year at Cambridge when this portrait was painted. His education was interrupted by the war. He spent the next few years in the Indian Army before returning to Cambridge to complete his degree.
Great portraits capture the humanity, the essence of that character and the spirit of the time. The Inner Temple has commissioned some extraordinary portraits including one by the late Howard Morgan, Five Supreme Court Judges from the Inner Temple and another by Isabella Watling, the Five Lady Justices of Appeal.
My father was the greatest influence in my life. He encouraged me to explore other cultures, to reach out and to reach up. My interest in cultural identity sprang from childhood conversations with my father and colourful
aunts who enjoyed stellar careers in Paris, Venice and St Petersburg, sharing stories about their own turbulent lives and how they took inspiration from Russian and French grandparents. I read Russian and French at Cambridge and worked as an adviser to governments in the Middle East, sub-Sahara Africa, Far East and Europe for over 30 years.
I am not a lawyer, so my advice is less specific.
My advice to any young woman with great ambitions for her career would be to reach for the stars because we can.
Former Treasurer of The Inner Temple, Lady Justice of Appeal, Arbitrator and Barrister
I don’t think anyone “influenced” me in my career at the Bar. But my decision to go to the Bar was certainly informed by the biography of the wicked and witty F E Smith (later Lord Birkenhead, Chancellor), who would not be held up as any sort of role model in 21st century Britain. His arrogant (and punning) motto was “Faber Meae Fortunae” – “Smith of my own fortune”. That sums up to me what being a barrister is about – self-reliance, resolution and responsibility for one’s own success or failure.
It is perhaps presumptuous to assume that any advice one gives will be of any use whatsoever to a younger generation of lawyers facing different challenges in a very different world from that in which I started my career in practice at the Bar. But, if I have to say what advice I would give, it is this – in any presentation to the court, whether written or oral, be clear, concise, courteous and courageous. But if there comes a time when the intellectual weakness of your argument has been revealed,
retreat gracefully and attempt to find a workaround! And if you do take advice from others, always feel free to disregard it; and be clear that it is your professional decision at the end of the day that matters – and for which you are responsible.
Wig – I believe in the anonymity a wig gives the wearer.
My parents. ADVICE Never give up.
Judge, County Court of Victoria
I am holding a framed football jumper, from the inaugural season of the AFLW (Australian Women’s Football League) competition. It was presented to me by a player who I had represented fifteen years earlier when she challenged the League’s refusal to allow her to play in the only age appropriate competition which then existed, and which was otherwise composed entirely of boys.
Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. I was a direct beneficiary of many of his initiatives, including free university, equal pay for women, the right to vote at age 18, no fault divorce, universal health care, and the introduction of Australian honours in place of imperial ones. That legacy, as well as his broader vision for an independent nation that acknowledged and began to redress the
dispossession of indigenous Australians from their land, championed human rights laws, embraced multiculturalism, valued the arts, and engaged with our near neighbours continues to inspire me.
Like both my young footballer, and Gough Whitlam, follow your dreams, and don’t give up.
Commissioner, Criminal Cases Review Commission
Books have been very important to me in my life. I could chart a route that weaves through the years, plotted by different writers and poets. It’s wonderful to meet, in ink, the thoughts and explanations of other minds. It’s even more lovely to find an affinity springing from some text, unexpected. I can’t imagine ever being found without a book to hand!
I would say my mother who was an inspiration to me always.
Don’t be afraid to take the paths less trodden – opportunities can arise in unusual ways. Use your gifts in different areas of your life, it will help you be a better lawyer, I think.
I am holding a picture of my adult children as they attend the lying in state of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. They have always understood my role as a working mother and supported me in a way many of my generation have not. Here they are paying their respects to the greatest role model of duty, service, and motherhood our country has ever seen.
My father and my husband. My father gave me a great sense of serving and giving back something to a system which has given so much to me and my family. He gave me such confidence in myself and my values. And Charlie, my husband, who has always made me believe that I can do any job and has shared my values of diversity and independence.
Believe in yourself and never give up. History and the values of our society are so much on the side of diversity and freedom and genuine empowerment for all. The law is one of the greatest and most important instruments to achieve that.
I am holding a gavel. When I was appointed as a full-time judge my children were most annoyed that I would not get to use one with my new job! The Coroners’ Court where I had sat part-time kindly presented me with this as a leaving gift. The gavel is therefore significant to me because it reminds me of my children, and my experiences over many years in the coronial law world, both as counsel and Assistant Coroner.
My mother. She was a single parent at a time when being part of a ‘broken home’ still carried a heavy stigma. She instilled in me early on the values of hard work, equality and dignity.
Make a broad five-year plan but don’t be remotely surprised if you have to, or want to, change it; and make sure you have something else in your life other than law to give it balance.
In this joyful photograph I am holding onto my former rugby team (Birkenhead Park Panthers) during a training session. I have included it because rugby has touched my life in so many ways, both personally and professionally. Professionally, it led to my involvement in rugby discipline and I now sit as a judicial officer for the RFU and World Rugby, one of very few women to do so. It is a world away from my day to day practice as a family barrister, but a world I enjoy being part of.
Personally, nothing gave me a greater sense of achievement than setting up this team in 2009, along with the openside flanker you can see in the photograph. We started the team from scratch and were promoted every season until entering the national league. More importantly, it taught me enormous life lessons about female friendship and how it
endures. In the last year or so the women in that photograph have had babies, got married and suffered heartbreak, but even those of us no longer playing have shared those life events with each other and will be in each other’s lives forever.
Life for women at the Bar has changed enormously in the last 30 years. My younger colleagues are always shocked to learn that women were not permitted to wear trousers until the rules were changed in my first year of Bar school. Whilst there is still work to be done to ensure women remain in the profession and progress at silk and judicial level, there are so many incredible female role models such as Rose Heilbron QC, one of the first female silks and Lady Hale, the first female President of the Supreme Court, who have smashed through the glass ceiling and created a space for those of us following behind.
More personally, I doubt I would have stayed the course and certainly would not have had the confidence to apply for silk were it not for support and encouragement of senior female members of chambers, Circuit leaders and the judiciary. They know who they are. I love them and will be forever grateful to them. Also, to my lovely husband, who keeps my feet on the ground whilst encouraging me to look up to the stars.
Build yourself a network of supportive women and continue adding to it. Join professional organisations and attend as many events as you can. If the idea of walking into a room full of strangers and making small talk fills you with dread, take a friend as your wing woman. The Bar is full of sparkling, gorgeous and generous women who can offer great advice, friendship and solidarity. Seek them out.
Recorder
I am holding a Netsuke; a small Japanese carving of a bat with holes for a cord used in the 18th century as part of a man’s dress to attach things to his sash. It was part of my father’s collection and always fascinated me as a child, and I associate it with conversations about life and Law.
As you have already guessed, my father was a solicitor in East Anglia, a Classics scholar who in WWII went to the Far East and admired the Japanese culture and language for the rest of his life. He happily discussed Law and Language with his friends at Cambridge and encouraged and inspired many young lawyers.
Look after yourself. You need to be fit to withstand the life you have chosen. Long hours, stressful challenges, travel to courts, meetings, views
and constantly meeting new clients and managing their expectations will sap your energy, and that is in addition to mastering your brief, socialising with colleagues and taking part in the life of the Inn.
Be nice to people. The Usher at Court is a valuable link to the Judge. Make him or her a friend and you will be helped and (sometimes!) protected. At the Bar one remembers kindness and also one does not forget those who take advantage of inexperience and those who do not prove to be trustworthy.
Honorary Bencher of The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, President of the International Legal Assistance
I am holding an engraved certificate admitting me as an Honourable Member of the Ukrainian Association of Prosecutors in July 2008. At that time, I was General Counsel of the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) having been the Chief Prosecutor of Kent. The Ukrainian Association of Prosecutors was an active member of the IAP, and I visited that beautiful country a number of times. The certificate is signed by Oleksander Shynalski the President of the Association and then a Deputy Prosecutor General in Ukraine. I count him as a good friend and colleague and am still in touch with him. Little did we know at the time what tragedies were to devastate Ukraine.
Both my parents were very important to me. My father was a barrister; however it was my mother who was in many ways my role model. She died 13 years ago at the age of 96, still sharp to the end. She always had an enquiring mind with a great thirst for knowledge. She was born in Wales, as was I, and imbued in me great pride in being Welsh. Despite her strong roots she wanted to widen her horizons and having qualified as a teacher, worked in the USA and thereafter in West Africa where she met and married my father in the 1950s. She was an honours graduate in Zoology from the University of Cardiff, a rarity in those days. She inspired me to always seek out opportunities to grow and make the most of myself.
It is a competitive landscape. Hone and develop your skills and competencies wherever you can, even if you do not obtain the position you most desire at first. Learn to work with others; good interpersonal skills are a great asset. Seek opportunities to make you shine. Energy and enthusiasm can sometimes count for more than just intellectual ability. Be confident in your strengths but wise in recognising your weaknesses. Always remember, life is for the taking – it doesn’t come to you.
I am holding a photograph of my parents on their wedding day and one of the volumes of my stamp collection which is 69 years old this year.
My parents were undoubtedly the greatest influence on my life: they took the family to live in America for 3 years (I was 11–14) and encouraged me to pass the school exams despite the grounding we thereby missed. They were behind me 100% in my choosing the Bar and subsequent career choices.
My father. He was the original stamp collector.
I would tell young women if they want to succeed at the Bar “do not give up.” It is a hard and competitive road, but they should persevere.
After 20 years in practice, I went paperless & said farewell to my faithful old red pens, post-it notes, lever arch files and wheelie suitcases. I know I will one day wave goodbye to my current electronic devices too. The only constant is the dark, sober, formal business suit, which I would never have chosen to wear in life were I not a barrister, but which, the more old-fashioned it is, the better it saves me from the tedium of explaining that I am not the interpreter, the solicitor, the claimant’s wife or the claimant, because I am the barrister!
My three children have been the greatest influence on my professional and personal life: I was called to the Bar seven months’ pregnant and learnt to be a barrister and to be a mother simultaneously. My duties as a breadwinner made it impossible for me to drop out, as so many women of my generation sadly did.
Analyse the data which has now been published on income disparity at the Bar by specialism, sex and race; think carefully what is most important to you in life; research property prices and the cost of childcare; financial autonomy gives women freedom.
My court wig, which confirmed the first day I wore it in court that it really was possible to become a barrister from a family of non-lawyers.
My brilliantly supportive husband and parents, as well as a great network of friends and professional colleagues.
Ignore the doubters and haters, and your own lack of selfconfidence; just be yourself and you will succeed! Don’t worry that your personal background means you can’t thrive professionally in a particular area of law and remember always to help others along the way.
Judge,
High Court of Malaya
I am holding our family cat, Riki. She is the oldest of our four cats. She is a wise old soul and a great friend to my children and me.
My husband, Mohammad Faiz Azmi.
There are so many more opportunities in the Law for women in 2022 than in 1922.
You are able to choose a career in the Law as a barrister or a solicitor, with companies or charities, with government bodies or NGOs, with colleges or universities as teachers of the Law, to name a few.
With hard work and perseverance, you will find satisfaction and success in whichever career in the Law you choose.
I am holding a photograph of myself and four judges of the Old Bailey. I worked with these judges for a short period prior to being Called to the Bar and starting pupillage. When I was leaving to start my pupillage, we had this photograph taken. Every time I look at it, I am reminded of that time. I will never forget the incredible support and encouragement they gave me.
I have had several important influences in my life. My parents, my principal and lecturers at my undergraduate college and the senior members of my Chambers when I first joined.
I would advise young women to be prepared to work hard and to choose their area of practice carefully.
Deputy Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, diplomat and former judge; Ambassador to Fiji’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations; Overseas Bencher
I am holding a “tanoa”, a Fijian symbol of dialogue, engagement and understanding. In its original form it is used to mix a traditional Fijian drink called “yaqona” which is used for ceremonies of welcome and reconciliation. I believe that it is a symbol of peace and understanding within and between communities and it has taken a special significance to me in my legal and diplomatic careers.
The greatest influence in my life has been the law, with all of its possibilities. At the most difficult times, the law can be fragile, and vulnerable to political turmoil and instrumentalisation. At the best of times, the law is resilient, and adaptable to the needs of society. I believe the law to be, ultimately, the best vehicle for social change and growth.
Like the tanoa, women should use their powers of communication and engagement to drive and
promote change. Most women have experienced some level of exclusion and discrimination as women in the law. As we climb higher in the hierarchy of the legal careers we choose, we should never forget the experiences which we had to endure. We should be able to say that we can drive real institutional change in our work places so that never again on our watch, should young women lawyers have to endure such exclusion and discrimination. We are the key to a more equal society.
Barrister, Chartered Arbitrator, Adjudicator & Mediator
The object in the photo is the fountain pen I use. It belonged to my father and bears his initials. My father was a solicitor, as I was before my appointment. He was a good man. He had a strong moral compass and a genuine concern for the less advantaged in society: an admirable man. I am proud to use his pen.
Needs no description –it is what everyone remembers about me.
Ann Curnow QC.
Look outside your “comfort zone” when applying for positions; new challenges are what makes a career in the law a rewarding one.
My silk’s court coat. It stands for making it through to Silk which is still rare for women and it represents a battle I had to have for it to be fitted with buttons instead of the hook and eye fastenings I was told that women had to have. I wanted to be just like the men and have buttons, but it took a helpful intervention from Lady Hale to force them to give me buttons on my court “uniform”. I’m told that the jacket is now referred to as “the Lawson”!
All the brilliant, and brilliantly supportive, female members of the Bar (and judiciary) who have inspired me to try to be like them and who have given me advice and/or made me laugh.
Not all barriers are down but things are so much better and easier for every generation. You will get there and it will be a better place when you do.
Basildon Combined Court
My wedding ring is my special item which I am wearing in the photograph. The ring itself was given to us by my mother in law, having previously been given to her by her mother in law. It was made into one combining the wedding rings of my father in law’s mum and grandmother.
My mother in law was a very strong woman who went to night school when her children were young to qualify as a personnel officer at a time when women did not really have careers. She was very proud of me and what I did but sadly died before I was appointed to the Circuit Bench so never knew of the appointment.
I would say to anyone starting out, if you work hard then you will achieve your goals. Do not let anyone try and put you off as they did to me, saying it’s hard work to which I replied, “Anything worth having or achieving is hard work”.
Circuit Judge
This is my mother’s wig tin. She wore the full-bottomed wig it contains when she became a Circuit Judge in 1998 and I wore it this year when I too was sworn in as a Circuit Judge. Many barristers and judges are themselves children of lawyers but for most, the parent in question is their father, not their mother. My mother was called to the Bar in 1961 and this wig tin makes me think of the difficulties and obstacles overcome by the women of the generations before mine. The tin’s significance for me is that it serves as a prompt: I must play my small part in making sure that as a profession we find a more sophisticated measure of potential for excellence than the traditional markers of which school or university people went to or how they speak.
My mother. I became a barrister and a judge because of her: she really loved being a Circuit Judge and made it seem a noble calling.
Put yourself forward for anything and everything which interests you and don’t feel you have to wait to be asked. Fear of failure or being seen as presumptuous holds many women back, but in truth you learn as much from the things which don’t go according to plan as those which do.
Chairman, Plant Varieties and Seeds Tribunal (England & Wales); Dean of Degrees, Green Templeton College, Oxford; Bye-Fellow, Magdalene College, Cambridge
This garden and woodland on the shores of Loch Gowna, in rural County Longford, Ireland, embodies much of that which I treasure. The trees – around 5,000 of them including many specimens – were planted by my late father, a forest scientist, over the last 50 years. In earlier generations the land was managed by my maternal family ancestors for what is now called food security and was then subsistence farming. Plumbing and electricity arrived in 1975 (and a landline in 1995). Before that, we cooked over
the fire and washed in the lake. That’s not poverty: it’s riches. It was a Swallows and Amazons childhood, playing in haycocks, planting trees, tending bees, fishing (tiny perch) for our supper and watching badgers, pine marten and kingfishers. Education was key: after a career in international development, my late father completed his own PhD by oil lamp – we trimmed the wicks of the kerosene lamps daily. Scholarships took me to a United World College, to Oxford and thence to Inner Temple. Later, a Commonwealth Scholarship
enabled me to undertake a PhD in International Environmental Law at the Australian National University, after which it was a privilege to return to Oxford as a post-doc, and thence to Cambridge, at which I chaired the University Board of Scrutiny. After pupillage and tenancy in large commercial chambers, I practised in-house as a lawyer at the World Bank in Washington DC, the Asian Development Bank in Manila and the United Nations in Tokyo, advising on large infrastructure/environment projects. I also served as a Legal Officer in the Australian
Army Reserve and as a Legal Observer with the UN PeaceKeeping Mission in Liberia, a region rich with tropical forests and biodiversity and with the corruption that often goes with that. More recently, I was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of a large Australian university. I now combine academic posts and public appointments: as a member of the UK Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board, the UK Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, the Architects Registration Board Prescription Committee and UK Commonwealth Scholarship Commissioner. I also advise on the development of women’s law schools in Kuwait, Saudi and Bahrain and am Academic Governor of the Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA). With the support of the Inns, the ICCA has worked hard to ensure that the new Bar Course meets the needs of the profession in the 21st century
and it’s exciting to move into the Inn’s new Education Suite over the last few weeks. I wouldn’t be here, were it not for the generosity of the Inn and many others and it’s a privilege to give back. Just in the last month, I’ve received my first judicial appointment – Chairman of the Plant Varieties and Seed Tribunal – so for now, I’m busy learning how to be a Tribunal Judge.
My parents and paternal grandfather. My paternal grandfather, a retired postmaster, taught me to read when I was tiny. He served in one of the Scottish Regiments in the Battle of the Somme but as a signaller, he was behind the front line so unlike many of his contemporaries, he survived and was subsequently much involved in the 1920s pacifist movement. (One of my favourite films is Testament of Youth, based on Vera Brittain’s memoir
of the same name, which speaks to the decimation of WW1 and the commitment of those left behind to forge a better future.) My late parents met and married in northern Nigeria in the early 1960s. My father, a forest officer, was sent there as a young graduate in 1955 and spent much of his career in the region, developing capacity in the forest service and later in public administration with the Department for International Development (now the FCDO). My late mother, a nurse, midwife, and health visitor, worked in public and maternal health, managing hospitals in isolated northern Nigeria. On retirement, they volunteered in Papua New Guinea. Those were lives of service, of commitment to t he common good.
Integrity – never, ever compromise. And be generous.
Bencher
Annually in June Philadelphus reminds me of my origins.
My favourite aunt brought an armful of this fragrant blossom to my mother in the hospital when I was born in mid-war Warsaw. In 2008, my son Janek, wrote “Extended Play [Triptych for the child survivors of war and conflict]” when his daughter was born in safe Surrey. A positive installation composition stressing survival, it won him British Composer of the Year in his field.
In this almost post-covid summer of 2022, Philadelphus has an especially joyful significance for me.
Persevere. Be generous in sharing your knowledge and skills.
I am holding my wig. It is of real significance. As a baby barrister it gave me desperately needed authority. Later, when I had that authority, it added to it. In parallel, in anguished family and children cases it gave me anonymity.
My husband. Followed by our children.
The worst, most pernicious lie of our age is that, as a woman, “You can have it all”. It is untrue
and cruel. It confuses two things.
It has been the joy of my adult life to see me and my fellow sisters in all fields take our rightful, equal place in our professions.
Yes, we can have anything. We can be Prime Ministers and astronauts and Nobel prize winners along with being wonderful daughters, partners, mothers. It is not the same as having everything.
There are choices waiting for you further down the road. You will have to choose. It may be
a chronic illness or a severe injury in the family. It may be an unmissable opportunity for your partner. It may be months away from your small children as you accept a prestigious brief that will take you onto the Bench. I could go on… The thing is that you will have to choose.
My advice? Take as many weeks or months as you need to come to a calm, considered decision. Then stick to it. Don’t later regret it. Don’t blame the person in favour of whom you have made the sacrifice. Own your decision and live with it.
Circuit Judge and Master of the Bench
A flower because gardening is an important theme in my paternal family. From one of my first memories as a small child holding a large bunch of sweet peas, standing on their council allotment with my paternal grandparents in a precious photograph, through my father’s garden at home growing vegetables and fruit, to my current tranquil garden. This is a source of pleasure and refuge from a busy working life and a link with my father who died from COVID at the beginning of the pandemic.
An amazing music teacher at my secondary school taught me not to be defined by my working class roots. I could achieve anything I set my mind to if I was determined.
This is the advice I give to students now not to let others define you, set your own agenda.
The object is my mother’s typewriter. Learning to type was a route to leaving home, working and gaining financial independence for my paternal grandmother and for my mother. Neither of them had any formal schooling, they learnt the basics from their parents at home. Both wanted to travel, live a more adventurous life before settling down, and when they settled, they wanted to retain the ability to earn. Both were amazing women: my grandmother went to work in Hong Kong in 1916 aged 17, my mother to Washington in 1950 aged 23. The typewriter reminds me of their courage
and resolve in starting out, their pride in their independence and their fierce work ethic.
My mother and my aunt, the sisters. Their patchy home schooling left them both with a curiosity and an energy to pursue what interested them. Despite her lack of formal education (her maths was always very suspect) my mother became personal secretary to the Secretary of State for War during Suez and travelled widely. My aunt was first a goatherd and then a market gardener, with her artist husband, in Devon. The
sisters adored each other, laughed a lot, loved life and participated in it to the utmost, bringing us with them.
Lean in, talk to everyone, apply for anything that seems interesting, refuse to listen to your inner critic (harsher than any other). Support other women, learn from them. Don’t expect your career to be a straight-line progression, take time out when life needs you to but try to keep at it, you will love yourself later when the children are grown up and you still have an interesting and responsible occupation.
During pupillage, I was diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis and spent much of it on crutches. It put an end to running and impact sports, so mountaineering became an important, long term goal as I managed my condition. Seven years later, this was taken “on location” in Antarctica. The object I’m holding is my ice axe.
My parents have been my greatest influence – to strive for excellence in all things. My late father gave me a Chinese inscription which reads: “The man who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the woman who is doing it.” I remind myself of this when dealing with obstacles (particularly in the form of other people…)
In the beginning, say “yes” to every professional opportunity, no matter how trifling. Some pivotal moments may only be apparent with hindsight. Once you become successful, embrace the power of “no”.
In the photo I am surrounded by the tools of the trade of a Family Silk. With the return of in-person hearings I have returned to working away from home in courts across the country so it is always good to have some portable home comforts with me, in this case my espresso coffee pot and my cheerful ‘goat’ mug, a present from a friend. The necklace
I am wearing is a long term favourite and the only jewellery one I allow myself to wear in court, it is also a present from a friend, now one of the female members of the Court of Appeal, and a role model throughout my 36 years at the Bar.
Throughout my life I have been influenced by strong role models, Miss Collins and Miss Symonds my primary and senior school teachers.
Estella Hindley QC, Lady Justice Macur DBE, both of whom I met when starting at the Bar in the Midland Circuit from No5 and from St Ives Chambers both of whom very much took me under their wings. However, family are probably those who shaped me the mostMy mum, who left school and Ireland at 15, who gave me the belief that you could achieve whatever you chose no matter what others might say and demonstrated how to be as equally approachable to and understanding of people from all backgrounds; my dad who without realising probably shaped my tenacity and unending energy for challenge and argument; my elder sister who managed to tolerate my desire always to have the last word and through her lengthy service to the NHS as a nurse and ward sister
demonstrated the work ethic that ran through our family.
Be prepared for challenges, be prepared to listen and reflect on advice but develop your own style. Treating everyone with respect is not a sign of weakness nor is an aggressive approach to others a sign of strength. Be prepared for hard work. Remember there is a world outside the law and never lose touch with it. Keep a lively sense of humour and find someone whether colleague, friend, family or partner with whom you can share that humour, and to whom you can turn or pick up the phone to at the end of the day to ’offload’ and as a result maintain a degree of sanity. Be a swan and paddle furiously underneath. Don’t lose your common sense and never ever stop asking ’why?’.
I am holding my AirPods. I walk at least 5 kilometers every day and use them to discreetly access sound – everything from music and podcasts to guided meditations. I just love them!
Maya Angelou. She inspired me to understand both the potency of words and the power in silence.
You have got this far and there is a good chance you have what it takes to go all the way. The key is more self belief and less focus on external validation.
Barrister, President of the Panel of Senior Decision-Makers at the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, International Commercial Arbitrator and Mediator
It is a photo of my inspirational grandmother who was one of the first women in Ireland to attend and graduate from university (in the 1930s).
My parents – for instilling me with the belief that with hard work and determination I could achieve anything.
Be yourself and don’t be afraid of being different. You will not only be better at your job because of your authenticity, but also a happier and more confident person.
It is a “lady barrister Owl” and was given to me by my godmother on my 16th birthday after I had told her that I wanted to be a barrister.
Miss Thomas – my ‘A’ level Classics teacher – who taught me self-belief.
Remember at all times that the only person who can stop you from achieving your goal to become a barrister is YOU! If you can’t identify a role model then become one yourself.
I am holding my pet houserabbit, Snowball, who begs for treats and generally brightens my day when he runs to meet me as I get home!
My husband Richard, also a barrister. We qualified together and he has always been my biggest supporter and inspiration.
You are the KCs and judges of tomorrow. You are the future of our profession and I so look forward to seeing what you achieve.
I am standing next to shelves of books. As a child, I was an avid reader and, although I did not have many books at home, I was a regular visitor to my local library and took every opportunity to read a broad range of material. My work requires much reading of commercial and technical documentation, but I still derive great pleasure in reading at my leisure.
Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre was female, poor and lacked beauty but, despite those perceived ‘disadvantages’, refused to conform, challenging orthodoxy and authority, and pursuing her own happiness.
Work hard, treat every obstacle as an opportunity and don’t let fear silence you.
Barrister
I am holding a photo of my family in a frame gifted to me by a friend wearing traditional Afghan dress.
The people in the photo have been the biggest influences in my life and I wouldn’t be where I am without them. The friend who has gifted me the frame has been my rock and
a friend whom I can always call upon. But ultimately, the single biggest influence in my life has been my mother. She is the embodiment of what it means to be a strong independent woman. I owe her everything. Down to the dress that I’m wearing, handmade by my mother with love care and a constant reminder of my roots and that I am loved.
To those young women aspiring to start a career at the Bar my advice would be to make sure you surround yourself with supportive people, find your tribe. It’s hard in a competitive career, there will be ups and downs, long nights and selfdoubt, your tribe will carry you through it all. We are not silos.
Rather sadly a copy of Lewin on Trusts but it has been my bible during my decades at the Bar. Being able to practise in this area has been such a privilege. I’m afraid it demonstrates the rather nerdy nature of the Chancery Bar which has been my very happy home for nearly 40 years.
My mother who in spite of having no educational opportunities of her own (having been left school at 14) thought it was entirely normal for her daughter to want to go to the bar and never doubted for one moment that I would do it. Having someone with that sort of unwavering confidence in you is not to be underestimated.
Never succumb to impostor syndrome – it is our greatest enemy, grab every opportunity with both hands and find a good mentor.
Irises, which I have just dug up from the field in the little iris nursery that I run, in between working as a lawyer. The significance of this, to me, is that to be my very best as an advocate I also need the balance that is provided by other things in my life. I unwind by growing things and getting my hands dirty and then return refreshed to the next knotty legal problem. No-one should think you are any less serious about being a good lawyer because you make some space for other things in life, whatever those may be for you, if that’s what you need to keep your edge. In a working day in chambers, just make time for a lap of The Inner Temple Garden and suddenly the stress falls away from your shoulders. How lucky are we,
those of us who work in London, to have that available to us?
Whilst there are lots and lots of people I could deservedly name as legal mentors and role models, this would then start to read like an Oscar-winner’s thank-you speech. I am instead going to say: my husband and my three children. Without Tom’s support, I would probably never have stayed the course at the Bar and certainly would not have taken silk. It has had to be teamwork all the way. My children, now all grown up, have all from an early age marshalled their own arguments with a combination of rigorous logic and cunning and have been the most acute critics of any submission I might test
out on them. My theory has always been if you can’t explain whatever it is to a bright 16 year old you don’t understand it.
Only choose the law because it excites you, not because it matches someone else’s expectations of what your career should be. The lawyers of the future will be the folk who do what IT cannot. Once a bot can trawl and analyse the decided cases and the disclosure better than we can, creativity, emotional intelligence and ability to innovate will all be more important differentiators of those lawyers who can really get inside a client’s problem or a judge’s mind and turn the problem around. That, and pick the right life partner!
This necklace was given to my sister Nicola on her 21st birthday. She died when she was 28, and I have worn it every day since then. It reminds me that life is precious and to be lived.
My parents.
It is so important that there are lawyers of talent and commitment in every area of the law, and that the vulnerable have access to what such lawyers can offer too.
The path to success in a profession is easy for no one. But a life in the law is endlessly fascinating and rewarding; you should have confidence in your own ability and go for it!
Several. My parents, my history teacher, my pupil master, my late husband.
Consider carefully which area of practice would interest you, find out as much as possible about the chambers or law firms which interest you, talk to practitioners, sit in court to hear a variety of cases, apply to sets of chambers agreeable to flexible working.
This is my lucky bee brooch. I have worn it on the first day of every case I have ever done since the very first case I did in Uxbridge Magistrates Court in 1978.
My mother.
The same that I would give to a young man; work hard and hope for the best.
Jacques Delors Professor of European Law and Fellow, University of Oxford
My mother gave me this bangle, which I wear every day and I bought this ring for myself during a trip to Argentina. Both remind me of the power of faith, love and hope.
My life is my mother, Mrs Abigail Abiodun Solanke.
Stay curious and find the courage to step outside of your comfort zone.
I’m holding Fowler’s Phrenology of the Brain. As barristers working with our brains, we need to know how the brain functions. Knowing how to optimise and safeguard its fragility is a vital key to surviving and thriving at the Bar.
Elizabeth Butler-Sloss has been my greatest influence because for me she was the first to welcome me to the Inn, mentor me, allow me to shadow her, to own my accent and be authentic.
Advice I’d give to a young woman starting out on a career in 2022; Invest in learning resilience skills equally to legal knowledge and you will travel much more easily through your career.
Circuit Judge
I always have a beautiful notebook to hand: it contains my thoughts and reflections, including to do lists; ideas; and notes. It is my prized possession and I keep a stack of used ones. The notes are a reminder of how lucky I am in life.
My grandmother – she lost most of her family in the Holocaust but never lost her belief in the goodness of humanity. She was fascinated by people, their similarities and differences. Her beloved father (who perished) had been a ‘judge’ within their community, resolving disputes with the wisdom and fairness of Solomon. She always believed in me (even when I lacked self-belief). Although I do not have any family who were in the Law, I feel that I am continuing to uphold the values and principles of my forebears.
Be true to yourself. If you maintain your integrity and are true to your own values, you will not ever need to feel like an imposter. A career in law is not for the faint hearted. Treat it like a vocation, love the process and don’t just do it to achieve great heights. It is a responsibility but also the greatest honour to be a lawyer.
The object I am holding is “Death Disguised”: Volume One of the first of six Reports produced by the Shipman Inquiry. Shipman, a general practitioner in Greater Manchester, had been convicted of murdering 15 of his patients. The Inquiry, to which I was
Leading Counsel, was tasked with investigating how many other patients he had killed, how he could have been able to kill undetected for so long and what steps, if any, should be taken to protect patients in the future.
My work in the Inquiry was the most challenging, interesting
and satisfying of my legal career. It was also extremely worthwhile since it resulted in major reforms in many important areas. As a result of a recommendation made in the Inquiry’s Fifth Report that the organisation which I currently chair came into existence.
Three people have played a major role in my legal career.
When I was six years old, I met Christopher Rose (then a pupil in Manchester Chambers and later a Lord Justice of Appeal and Vice-President of the Court of Appeal Criminal Division). He told me about his work as a barrister and his enthusiasm had the effect of convincing me that, when I grew up, I should go to the Bar – a conviction from which I never wavered.
On joining Chambers as a pupil, I met Janet Smith (later a Lady Justice of Appeal). She had joined Chambers only a few years before me but was
already highly respected and plainly on the road to success. At that time, there were only a few women practising on the Northern Circuit (and no female silks). Over the years, we worked together on many occasions, most notably in the Shipman Inquiry which she chaired.
Without the assistance of my husband, Sir Peter Openshaw (also a Bencher of the Inn), I could not have pursued my legal career in the way that I have done. Over the years, Peter’s legal knowledge, good judgment and sound common sense have been invaluable to me. He has always accorded my
work the same value as his own and has given me support and encouragement to succeed at every stage. Happily, he has had similar success and, in 2005, we made a small piece of history when we became the first – and, so far, only – husband and wife to be appointed to the High Court Bench on the same day.
I would give the same advice to anyone contemplating a legal career, namely: “Have confidence in yourself, be prepared to work hard and be sure always to maintain your integrity.”
I am holding a photograph of my grandmother taken in one of her Mary Harris Ltd factories in the North East. She came to this country as a baby, a refugee. She was one of 8 children and had to leave school at 14 as she had to work after both her parents died. She started making clothes, and at the peak of the business she had three factories employing 1,600 women. She was a pioneer in introducing healthcare into her factories. During WWII she was the only
woman on National committees for the use of textiles, manufacturing parachute webbing instead of dresses.
In this photograph, taken in the early 60s, she is surrounded by her top seamstresses Peggy and Amy, and two of her office staff Miss Montague and Miss Forgie. A rare picture of women in business: Mrs Harris in her prime.
Undoubtedly, my parents. I could not have been luckier. They gave me a blueprint for a life well-lived. In every aspect of their lives, they gave back more than they took, were liberal and humane, always interested and amused by life. They are always in my mind, and if they would not have approved of a difficult decision
I make, I know I am wrong.
Be bloody bold and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man.
— Macbeth Act IV Scene 1
I’m holding my UCL ID card. To do our best work, I think we all need to find a place where we feel we belong, where we are valued, and we are given the support and confidence to realise our aspirations. My UCL ID card reflects the fact that, at UCL, I found this.
It’s not a who but a what and growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in America. I realise now, looking back, that living through those momentous times was hugely influential in the direction my life took. There was a constant flow of major news events that all involved
law and courts in some way in this period: from the Watergate hearings, to the appointment of the first woman US Supreme Court Justice, to Roe v Wade, school desegregation in my community and affirmative action in university. I witnessed everyday how the law, courts and judges possessed the power to transform society for the better, and I have been fascinated by this ever since. Of course, a very different story began in the US in the 1980s, but that was when I decided to move to the UK!
You will probably worry about all sorts of things in your legal
career, but when times get tough, try to remember that it has never been a better time to be a woman in the law in this country. You have far more opportunities and people wanting and willing you to succeed than previous women starting out on a career in the law ever had. But it’s also good not to take these opportunities and rights women have gained for granted. The US Supreme Court in 2022 has reminded us that choices hard won by women are not immutable. So stay vigilant and ensure the rights and opportunities you have will be enjoyed by the generation of women in the law that come after you.
Circuit Judge
I am wearing a necklace which belonged to my grandmother.
I never knew her, as she died when I was a baby. The necklace itself is not particularly valuable but it is my connection to her.
I wore it on my wedding day, and it comes out for any special occasion. Apparently, she wore it pretty much every day, whatever she was doing. I too wear a bit of sparkle whatever I’m doing – whether I’m in the supermarket or on the Bench. To me it’s an expression of my personality. I’d like to think my grandmother would approve!
I have been lucky enough to meet and be influenced by a great number of inspiring people, men and women in the law. However, for me, the most important influences are at home. My parents demonstrated in the way they lived that what is important in life is to work hard, treat others kindly, love and support those close to you and learn from disappointments and setbacks. As a parent now myself I try to instil those values in my children.
And I would add teamwork to that list – something I have also learned at home. We, as a family
(whether it’s domestic, female, or legal) are much greater than the sum of our parts.
Be bold and be flexible. Be open to opportunities and new ideas even if they are not what you might think you want. You never know where an unexpected opportunity may take you. Accept help when it is offered and don’t be afraid to push yourself. If you’re not out of your comfort zone at least 40% of the time, you’re not stretching yourself… and don’t assume the men know what they’re doing any more than you do!
Louise Godfrey QC gave me my red bag six months before she died. It always reminds me of her.
Mr Justice Peter Taylor QC was kind enough not to laugh at my intention to become a barrister. He was very supportive of the provincial Bar and volunteered to propose my call to The Inner Temple.
Book out a large proportion of school holidays well in advance. That way you are poor but sane.
I am holding ballet shoes. Studying ballet for over 25 years taught me self-discipline and the importance of thorough preparation. It also gave me a good posture and sense of rhythm. I use all of them in my practice and my advocacy.
My father. He has guided me throughout my life and inspired me to want to become a clinical negligence barrister.
To succeed in the Law, you need resilience and determination. You may face setbacks and lose cases, but if you work hard, have a passion for what you are doing, and keep pressing on there’s no job like it.
76 Sara Lawson 77 Samantha Leigh 78 Alison Levitt 80 Catherine MacKenzie 82 Mary Malecka 83 Gay Martin 84 Gillian Matthews 85 Juliet May 86 Hui Ling McCarthy 87 Lorna Meyer 88 Barbara Mills 89 Leigh-Ann Mulcahy 90 Sarah Munro 91 Sonia Nolten 92 Finola O’Farrell 93 Rehana Popal 94 Penelope Reed 95 Patricia Robertson 96 Victoria Sharp 97 Elizabeth Slade 98 Sally Smith 99 Iyiola Solanke 100 Rachel Spearing 101 Dafna Spiro 102 Caroline Swift 104 Deborah Taylor 105 Cheryl Thomas 106 Anupama Thompson 107 Caroline Wigin 108 Thea Wilson
John Good Limited
46 Anneliese Day 47 Ruth Deech 48 Julia Dias 49 Leeona Dorrian 50 Jennifer Eady 51 Jane-Anne Evans-Gordon 52 Rachael Field 53 Elisabeth Fisher 54 Elizabeth Fitzgerald 55 Susanna FitzGerald 56 Alison Foster 57 Jill Frances 58 Fiona Gilmore 59 Elizabeth Gloster 60 Heather Hallett 61 Felicity Hampel 62 Johanna Higgins 63 Marianna Hildyard 64 Henrietta Hill 65 Samantha Hillas 66 Rosamund Horwood-Smart 67 Elizabeth Howe 68 Judith Hughes 69 Harini Iyengar 70 Fiona Jackson 71 Faizah Jamaludin 72 Saira Kabir Sheikh 73 Nazhat Shameem Khan 74 Frances Kirkham 75 Joanna Korner 109
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