The Middle Templar 2019

2019 Women Readers of Middle Temple Celebrating 100 Years of Women at Middle Temple

The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales Practice Note (Relevance of Law Reporting) [2019] ICLR 1 Catchwords — Indexing of case law — Structured taxonomy of subject matter — Identification of legal issues raised in particular cases — Legal and factual context — “Words and phrases” con- strued — Relevant legislation — European and International instruments The common law, whose origins were said to date from the reign of King Henry II, was based on the notion of a single set of laws consistently applied across the whole of England and Wales. A key element in its consistency was the principle of stare decisis, according to which decisions of the senior courts created binding precedents to be followed by courts of equal or lower status in later cases. In order to follow a precedent, the courts first needed to be aware of its existence, which in turn meant that it had to be recorded and published in some way. Reporting of cases began in the form of the Year Books, which in the 16th century gave way to the publication of cases by individual reporters, known collectively as the Nominate Reports. However, by the middle of the 19th century, the variety of reports and the variability of their quality were such as to provoke increasing criticism from senior practitioners and the judiciary. The solution proposed was the establishment of a body, backed by the Inns of Court and the Law Society, which would be responsible for the publication of accurate coverage of the decisions of senior courts in England and Wales. The criteria for the selection of reportable cases were set down in a paper by a senior practitioner. On that basis, the Council of Law Reporting was established in 1865 and incorporated two years later as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. Since then it had published The Law Reports, the Weekly Law Reports, the Industrial Cases Reports, the Business Law Reports and the Public and Third Sector Reports, as well as a Consolidated Index to its own and other leading series of law reports. With the advent of computers and the establishment of the internet, all the law reports and the index data were converted into a format suitable for online publication and made available on the ICLR’s own legal research platform (iclr.co.uk) as well as being licensed to certain third party legal databases. On the question whether ICLR was still relevant and useful — Held, (1) that the administration of justice in a common law jurisdiction in accordance with the principle of stare decisis depended upon the availability of accurate reports of binding precedents; that there was a need for a consistent and comprehensive approach to the reporting of legal decisions, supplied at cost and speed of publication consistent with the maintenance of the highest editorial standards of accuracy and reliability; and that, accordingly, ICLR continued to perform an essential role in supporting legal education and the administration of justice. Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales v Attorney-General [1972] Ch 73, CA considered. (2) That the digitisation of the reports facilitated not only the rapid and efficient location of relevant cases by way of electronic research, but also permitted the enrichment of the underlying data and the provision of links and associations with other cases and content in ways that would not be possible in the two-dimensional print universe; that continued research into the possibilities of such enrichment and interlinking was therefore an essential component of the future development of legal information; and that, accordingly, both ICLR’s legal database at iclr.co.uk and ICLR&D as its research and development arm served a useful and valuable function and deserved the support of all legal professionals and educators.

ISSUE 59 2019 2019 CONTACTS TREASURER General Enquiries The Rt Hon. Lord Justice David Bean The Treasury Office DEPUTY TREASURER Ashley Building The Rt Hon. Sir Brian Leveson Middle Temple Lane LENT READER London Professor Carol Harlow QC FBA EC4Y 9BT AUTUMN READER T: 020 7427 4800 Her Honour Judge Usha Karu F: 020 7427 4801 EDITOR Colin Davidson Archive GUEST EDITOR T: 020 7427 5791 Marilynne Morgan CB E: [email protected] EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Adam Speker Education ASSISTANT EDITORS T: 020 7427 4800 Lia Jhala E: [email protected] Lauren McHardy PHOTOGRAPHS Estates Chris Christodoulou T: 020 7427 4840 DESIGN E: [email protected] HTDL 78 York St, Marylebone, Events / Catering London  W1H 1DP T: 020 7427 4820 E: [email protected] SOCIAL MEDIA Finance Twitter: T: 020 7427 4800 @middletemple @middletemple1 E: [email protected] Facebook: Library The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple T: 020 7427 4830 Middle Temple Venue Hire E: [email protected] LinkedIn: Membership The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple T: 020 7427 6385 E: [email protected] Instagram: @middle_temple Security (24 Hours) T: 020 7797 7768 Pinterest: E: [email protected] Middle Temple Temple Church T: 020 7353 8559 E: [email protected] 2019 Middle Templar

Contents 5 Under Treasurer’s Foreword 36 Reflections on Barging into a Man’s World Guy Perricone Master Adrienne Page 6 From the Treasurer 38 Equality: Where are we now? The Rt Hon. Lord Justice David Bean Master Jo Delahunty 8 Introducing our Guest Editor 40 A Modern Chambers Approach to Motherhood Master Marilynne Morgan Master Kama Melly 9 Celebrating a Century of Women in the Law 41 Historical Society Calendar 2019-20 Master Rosalind Wright 42 Helena Normanton’s Ink Stand 10 1919-2019: Timeline of Middle Temple Women Master John Leslie 44 Legal Fashions over the Centuries 12 An Exploration of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 Barnaby Bryan & Lenka Geidt Dr Judith Bourne 46 Book Review: A Judge’s Journey by Lord Dyson 15 Helena Normanton QC: A Reflection Master David Lloyd-Jones Master Anthony Arlidge 48 Book Review: Casket Girls 16 A Century of Women by Professor Susan Castillo-Street Barnaby Bryan Master Richard Wilmot-Smith 17 Middle Temple Women Silks 49 The International Sub-Committee: What we do Master Michael Bowsher 18 The First Woman Judge: Sybil Campbell OBE Master Rosalind Wright 50 The Old Silk Road in the Reverse Direction Master Christopher Clarke 19 The First Woman Middle Templar to become a High Court Judge 52 Amity Visit Moot in Hong Kong 2018 Master Roderic Wood Jennifer Moles & Emma Hughes 20 The First Woman Middle Templar to become 53 The Middle Temple Society in Hong Kong a Lady Justice of Appeal Catrina Lam Master Kathryn Thirlwall 54 Mauritius Middle Temple Association 21 The First Woman Chief Justice of the Master Nicola Padfield Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Master Janice Pereira 55 The Gibraltar Middle Temple Society Darren Martinez 22 The First Woman Treasurer Master Dawn Oliver 55 The Singapore Middle Temple Society Catherine Cheung & Robert Foote 24 Queen Elizabeth: The First Woman Bencher Lesley Whitelaw 56 Middle Temple Northern Circuit Society Master David Stockdale 25 The First Woman Honorary Bencher Master Marilynne Morgan 56 Middle Temple North Eastern Circuit Society Master Richard Wright 26 A 21st Century Phenomenon: Lady Readers of Middle Temple 56 Middle Temple Circuit Societies Master Marilynne Morgan James Rogerson 28 Differences in Men’s and Women’s Coats of Arms 57 Camellia Competition Master Patric Dickinson Kate Jenrick 29 The Life of Elsie Bowerman 58 MTSA: Black History Month Lia Jhala Emma Hughes & Maham Qureshi 30 Middle Temple Women Chairs of the Bar 60 Survive & Thrive Masters: Maura McGowan, Chantal-Aimée Karen Reid Doerries & Amanda Pinto 62 Taking Pride 32 Taking Over as Director of the SFO Simon Rowbotham Master Lisa Osofsky 64 Middle Temple Garden Party 34 The First Woman to Practise as a QC at the Bars 66 Royal Amity Dinner of England & Wales and Scotland Angela Grahame QC Master Elaine Banton 68 Temple Women’s Forum 35 The First Middle Templar Woman 69 A Christmas Carol Chair of COMBAR Master Sonia Tolaney Ben Horslen 2 2019 Middle Templar

70 Education Update 112 Lent Reading: Middle Templars in Sally Yorke the Common Law World Master Carol Harlow 71 Advocacy Training on Circuit Masters Ben Nolan & Simon Myerson 115 Wellbeing at the Bar Aimee Stokes 72 York Advocacy Weekend Peter Cruickshank 115 Counselling 116 Hall Committee: An Essential Voice for the Inn 73 Cumberland Lodge William Hawkes Juliette Levy 118 MTSA 74 Access to the Bar Shanzé Shah Benjamin Joseph 119 MTYBA 76 Life as a Student Today Compared with 100 Years Ago Michael Harwood Merlene George 120 Overview of the Estate 78 Anglo-Israel Scholarships Ian Garwood Ivana Daskalova & Nicholas Higgs 122 The Catering & Events Team 126 New Staff & Leavers 80 Scholarships Awarded 2019 128 Lesley Whitelaw Retires 81 Marshalling Master Michael Ashe Alesha Mclean 128 Temple Shakespeare Cup 82 Call to the Bar: July 2019 Colin Witcher 129 New Masters of the Bench 2018-19 84 The First Afghan Sikh Barrister 134 B  ecoming a Bencher: A Guide Meeno Chawla Lauren McHardy 85 From Clerk to Pupil Shannon Woodley 135 Obituaries 135 In Memoriam 86 ICCA Master Derek Wood 146 Temple Church Special Services & Concerts 147 Congratulations! Temple Church Weddings 87 Pupil Supervisors: Changes to 148 Middle Temple Calendar 2019-20 the Accreditation Process Christa Richmond 88 Behind the Scenes of The Pupillage Podcast Georgina Wolfe & Beatrice Collier 90 Brexit Master Igor Judge 92 Policing and Prisons Peter Clarke 94 QC or to not QC Master Graham Zellick 96 Sally Challen and Coercive Control Sophie Kay 98 What Information Should the Law Protect as Secret? Adam Speker 100 First 100 days as DPP Master Max Hill 102 125th Anniversary of the Bar Council Master Mark Hatcher 103 Library Donations 104 Valedictory: The Rt Hon. Sir Brian Leveson Master Ian Burnett 106 Autumn Reading: To Bury Shakespeare or to Praise Him? Master Peter Murphy 2019 Middle Templar 3

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UNDER TREASURER Under they have both had. And, as ever, there are colourful and Treasurer’s diverse reviews and articles on topics ranging from Brexit Foreword to the Garden Party. Guy Perricone Looking ever so slightly ahead, there are two initiatives which, for different reasons, will play a large part in the life A very warm welcome to this year’s of the Inn in the next few years. Firstly, as you may recall edition of The Middle Templar. reading in recent editions of The Middle Templar, the four Inns of Court are working together to establish a new, As ever, the last 12 months have been extraordinarily busy two-part Bar training course for those wishing to study for and varied, and the contents of this year’s Middle Templar a career at the Bar. The four Inns collectively decided to reflects that. However, you will also see that there is a very proceed with this important project at the end of 2018. clear theme to this year’s edition, which I anticipated last Permission has been granted to act as a course provider, year – namely, the celebration of the centenary of the first and to design the course which will be delivered online woman to be admitted to an Inn of Court. That woman (Part 1) and face-to-face (Part 2). All four Inns are, of was, of course, Helena Normanton QC, and we are course, already heavily involved in the education and extremely proud that she was a member of this Inn. training of barristers – indeed, this is very much the heart of our work, and one only has to read some of the articles There are, therefore, a wide range of articles this year in this year’s magazine to see that. However, the reflecting this important anniversary, and celebrating the establishment of this new course will reinforce the integral achievement of women at the Bar. There are a number of role played by the Inn in the legal education and in the articles focusing on ‘firsts’ – the first Middle Temple legal profession. woman to become a judge, the first Middle Temple Lady Justice of Appeal, the first Middle Temple woman to be Secondly, anyone who visits the Inn will have seen that Treasurer. Master Lisa Osofsky reflects on her first 100 days work is underway now for the redevelopment of Garden as Head of the Serious Fraud Office – an office which Court. This will be one of the largest projects undertaken appears to have been dominated by Middle Temple by our Estates team for many years, and is part of our women in recent years! This edition has been overseen by overall plan to redevelop and modernise the Inn’s our Guest Editor, Master Marilynne Morgan, and I would property portfolio. While any construction on this scale like to express our sincere and special thanks to Master brings challenges, it is a vitally important project to secure Morgan for all her assistance and support this year. the long-term health and future of the Inn. While these articles rightly celebrate the progress that has I would like to thank all those members of the Inn for the been made in the last 100 years, we must acknowledge support they give us each year on a voluntary basis by that the journey is not over yet, and there is still work to be their work in delivering our education and training done. At entry level, there is now (and indeed there has activities, and also by their participation in the governance been for some time) a very healthy balance between men of the Inn through their membership of all our numerous and women, but, as one ascends the professional committees and sub-committees. This dedication is vital, pyramid, that balance shifts. All four Inns are working hard and is not taken for granted, I can assure you. I would also to try to ensure the retention of women at the Bar, and like to thank my colleagues – the members of our staff also to facilitate their return to work after maternity leave. who ensure the efficient operation of Middle Temple on a The effects of these initiatives will, of course, take time to day-to-day basis. It is a privilege to work with them. flow through, but there is a real commitment to them. I very much hope you will enjoy reading this year’s edition Otherwise, I hope you will enjoy reading the usual varied of The Middle Templar. range of articles reflecting the wide and varied life of our Inn. You will read about last year’s very successful (and hugely enjoyable) Amity Visit to Hong Kong, as well as articles on our growing number of associations and societies overseas. Closer to home, our activities on the Circuits is reflected in a range of articles by Circuit members from across the country. You will find contributions from the Middle Temple Young Barristers and Students Associations, highlighting the busy years 2019 Middle Templar 5

MASTER TREASURER  From the Treasurer The Rt Hon. Lord Justice David Bean I joined Middle Temple in January 1973, in my second life and I am so excited to be starting the BPTC in term at university. Later that year my father died. The Inn September. It is such a lovely feeling to have the awarded me an Astbury Scholarship of £750 per year – support of experienced barristers such as yourself, good money in those days – to help me through the Bar and of the Inn. I absolutely intend not to take this exams and a year of what was then unpaid pupillage. wonderful opportunity for granted and will work to Since that time, l have tried my best to give something the best of my ability to be successful both on my back. Many readers of this article will also have reason to course and also in my career. be grateful for help from the Inn (whether financial or otherwise) and will want to give something back. There I hope to show my gratitude throughout my career by are many ways in which that can be done. Our most assisting the Inn in any way I can. I try to attend as important work is our support for students and young many events as possible and I notice that you have members of the Inn. You can help with advocacy training; quite an exciting evening yourself tomorrow, when you judging moots; interviewing for scholarships; mentoring; are being called to the Bench. What an amazing lectures at students’ Qualifying Sessions; or taking accolade. You and your family and colleagues must be students who have won Middle Temple Access to the Bar very proud. awards for work experience in chambers, or as marshals if you are a judge. I have done all of these in my time. But I So, I hope, it will continue from generation to generation, could never hope to emulate the achievement of the as long as the Bar survives. team of six Middle Templars who ran the London Marathon to raise money for our Scholarship Fund and The last few months have been a busy time for Middle the Sir Paul Jenkins Fund. If you are not fit enough to run Temple. At the end of 2018 the four Inns together applied a marathon, and too busy to do any of the other things I to the Bar Standards Board to authorise a new Bar have listed, I hope you will contribute to the Paul Jenkins Professional Training Course to be provided by the new Fund instead. Inns of Court College of Advocacy. In July of this year, after much hard work by the Council of the Inns of Court, The greatest tradition of the Bar and the Inns is that one authorisation was granted. This is a major step forward generation of practitioners nurtures the next one. This towards our goal of providing Bar students with the was eloquently expressed in a letter from the winner of a option of a two-part BPTC course with fees substantially scholarship to Master Elaine Banton, a member of the below the current, shocking level of nearly £20,000. The interview panel who became a Bencher this year:- present high cost of qualifying, coming as it does when most students have accumulated so much debt at Following hearing that I was successful in gaining university, is a substantial impediment to the diversity of the backing of the Inn this year I could not be happier. the intake of new recruits to the Bar. I was attending a sporting event with my family when I received the email to let me know I had been When I was Called to the Bar in 1976 Middle Temple had successful, and I couldn’t stop crying. I think the two common rooms on the ground floor of the library crowd around me must have wondered what on earth building, one of which opened on to the garden. But was going on. I also wanted to thank you personally these have long gone, and for some years we have lacked for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be a proper social space for Hall members and students. We involved in the process, and for you and the other do have Taskers, but that is rather small and has no direct panel members’ support. I cannot tell you what a access either to the garden or to Middle Temple Lane. In massive difference this scholarship will make to my June 2019 our Parliament approved a scheme to convert to social space, opening on to the garden, the basement 6 2019 Middle Templar

and sub-basement floors of the Ashley Building, at Term by lectures from Professors Philippe Sands and Nick present used only for the storage of library books that are Hardwick, as well as Cressida Dick on the occasion of her not in frequent use. I emphasise that the main library Call to the Bench. floors, where members currently work and conduct research, will remain as they are; so will the syndicate This year we celebrate the centenary of the Sex rooms on the third floor and the Archive on the fourth Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 and the admission of floor, converted and named in honour of the late Master the first women students as members of the Inn. You can Blom-Cooper who was Chairman of the Library read elsewhere in these pages about the exhibition in the Committee at that time. autumn to mark this notable milestone. The Middle Temple Bench is now far more diverse than it was when I We have always had lectures in Hall, but this year I have joined the Inn, or even than it was when I was Called to instituted a series of Treasurer’s Lectures, which have the Bench myself in 2001. On that evening there were been well attended and of very high quality. The something like 45 Benchers in the procession into Hall, all speakers, all Masters of the Bench, have been the Lord but three of them white men. In the period from January Chief Justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, on ‘A changing to July 2019 I have Called 15 women and 11 men to the judiciary in a modern age’; Lord Carnwath JSC on Bench. Our new Honorary Benchers this year have ‘Climate Change and the Law’, Lord Anderson of Ipswich included the first woman Bishop of London, Dr Sarah KBE QC on ‘Extremism and the Law’, Professor Linda Mullally; the first female Commissioner of the Greenhouse of Yale University on ‘The US Supreme Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, who will become a Court’s Challenge to Civil Society’; Lord Lisvane, former Bencher in November; and also Sadiq Khan, the first Clerk of the House of Commons, on ‘Why is there so ethnic minority Mayor of London. In 2022, the year much bad legislation?’; and Sir Nick Hytner, Director of marking the centenary of the first women Called to the the Bridge Theatre and before that of the National Bar, our Treasurer will be Master Maura McGowan. Theatre, on ‘Opera: exotic, irrational and unstageable?’ (I asked Master Nick Hytner to give one of the Treasurer’s People often say to me that it must be hard work to be Lectures because it is essential in my view that lawyers Treasurer while continuing to serve as a member of the should have a hinterland; and our Hall, in which Court of Appeal. That is kind of them, but the real hard Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was first performed, is a very work at Middle Temple is done by our cheerful and suitable place in which to discuss whether or not devoted staff under the leadership of the Under something is unstageable). Master Rosalie Abella, Senior Treasurer, Guy Perricone. It is a great privilege to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, will serving as Master Treasurer this year. I hope that by doing give a lecture during the Amity Visit to Canada in so I am giving something back to Domus, the community September, to be followed in London in Michaelmas which for so long been my professional home. 2019 Middle Templar 7

GUEST EDITORIAL MASTER MARILYNNE MORGAN Introducing our Guest Editor I was admitted to Middle Temple on 12 September 1969. The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple 2019 I had been brought up to believe that a woman could do anything she chose to do. I had no idea that just 50 years Issue 59 Michaelmas 2019 Women Readers of Middle Temple earlier, on Christmas Eve 1919, Helena Normanton had become the first woman to be admitted to the Inn, Celebrating 100 Years of Women at Middle Temple indeed to any Inn. It is sobering to look at the statistics. In the 12 months Little did I know in 1969 that Middle Temple would play after that historic first, 32 more women were admitted to such a large part in my own life. I never dreamt I would be the Inn, an annual number not to be equalled until 1955 a Bencher. I never dreamt I would be Reader. 50 years on and not exceeded until 1959. In 1920, 329 men were from my own admission, and in this commemorative year, admitted, over twice the usual number for the time and I feel especially privileged to have been invited to be the probably explained as a post war spike. first Guest Editor of The Middle Templar. It has been a In 1922, the first nine women were Called and that was to pleasure to be involved. remain the highest number of women Called in any one I am grateful to all who have contributed such a variety year until 1951. 161 men were Called in 1922, which was of excellent articles marking the milestones of women to be the highest number until 1948 (when there was members of the Inn. But this edition is not all about another post war spike). women, and there are plenty of other articles and news In 1969, 62 women were admitted to the Inn, myself to interest the reader, and my thanks go to all our among them, and 31 were Called; 280 men were contributors. admitted and 116 were Called. In 2018 the figures were Above all huge thanks are due to Colin Davidson who is 483 and 309 for women, and 331and 224 for men. Since the real editor of The Middle Templar, and to his able 1999 the number of yearly admissions of men and women team of supporters – Lia Jhala and Lauren McHardy. As I has been more or less the same, but in 2008, and in every now know, a great deal of planning, hard work and time year since, more women were Called than men. goes into producing a magazine of this high standard Achieving parity in admission and Call has been slower and quality. Do enjoy it. than one might think, and parity is not the same as equality as more than one article in this edition points out. Nevertheless there is much to celebrate in the progress of women in this Inn and in their profession as I hope you will find in the following pages. Colin Davidson and Master Marilynne Morgan at the 2019 Garden Party 8 2019 Middle Templar

CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF WOMEN IN LAW MASTER ROSALIND WRIGHT Celebrating a Century of Women in Law Open from September 2019 to January 2020 To mark the centenary of the first women to be admitted exhibition, from the earliest pioneers, Called to the Bar in to the Inns of Court, Middle Temple is mounting its first 1922, to some amazingly talented young women recently ever exhibition celebrating its women members, past, Called to the Bar. present and future, ’Middle Temple – Celebrating a Century of Women in Law’. The exhibition will be open to The exhibition, both in Hall and on a digital display and the public from September, when Hall reopens after the on banners outside Hall, is accompanied by a guide, summer break, and will continue well into the New Year. with biographies of all those featured and a list of all our Entrance is free. women Benchers to date, including our Honorary and Royal Benchers. As the first Bar student to be admitted to any Inn, Helena Normanton takes pride of place in our exhibition. More We hope as many members of the Inn as possible will than 60 other women members of the Inn, drawn across come and see the exhibition, buy the guide and bring all areas of practice and academia, feature in the their friends and relations! 2019 Middle Templar 9

TIMELINE OF MIDDLE TEMPLE WOMEN Timeline of Middle Temple Women This year marks the centenary of women entering the legal profession. In those 100 years, women have excelled in every field of law, at every level, as can be demonstrated in our timeline to celebrate the achievements of the Inn’s women members over the last century. 1974 Barbara Calvert becomes the first woman Head of Chambers 1979 1969 1949 Margaret Booth becomes Sheila Cameron HM Queen Elizabeth the first woman Middle appointed first woman is Treasurer of Templar to be appointed Diocesan Chancellor in Middle Temple a High Court Judge the Church of England 1975 Over 100 women admitted to Middle Temple in one year 1988 Princess Diana became the second women Royal Bencher of Middle Temple 1982 More than 100 women Called to the Bar by Middle Temple in one year 1984 1990 Catherine Newman – Barbara Mills becomes the first first woman Chair of woman Director of the Serious Fraud Office Hall Committee 2019 2018 2017 2016 Angela Grahame is the The Hon. Mia Mottley QC MP Dame Kathryn Thirlwall Baroness Scotland elected first woman QC from elected the first woman Prime DBE the first woman the 6th Secretary-General the Scottish Bar to Minister of Barbados Middle Templar appointed of the Commonwealth practise at the Bar as a Lady Justice of Appeal of Nations, the first woman of England and Wales to hold this position 2019 10 2019 Middle Templar

1949 1944 1919 Rose Heilbron and HM Queen Elizabeth becomes Helena Normanton the first woman Royal Bencher become the first two women appointed King’s Counsel at the English Bar 1922 1919 Monica Cobb, Called Helena Normanton: the in 1922, the first woman first woman to be admitted to hold a brief in court to an Inn of Court 1945 1933 1922 Sybil Campbell becomes Bar Council announces Helena Normanton and 8 other the first woman to be women barristers can practise women were Called to the Bar appointed to the professional under their maiden name by Middle Temple judiciary full-time 1991 1992 Patricia Scotland Marilynne Morgan the first becomes the first woman legal adviser to a government department black woman to be appointed Queen’s Counsel 1999 Fidelma O’Kelly Macken first woman judge at the European Court of Justice 1992 Barbara Mills becomes the first woman Director of Public Prosecutions 2007 2001 The Rt Hon. Baroness For the first time more Scotland of Asthal QC PC women than men were becomes the first woman appointed Attorney General Called to the Bar by of England and Wales and Middle Temple in one year 2013 2012 Advocate General for Northern Ireland Nicky Padfield – Dame Janice Pereira DBE – first woman the first woman Chief 2006 Justice of the Eastern Master of Fitzwilliam Eleanor Sharpston QC – the first College, Cambridge Caribbean Supreme Court woman to be appointed as Advocate General at the European Court of Justice 2019 Middle Templar 11

1919 LEGISLATION  DR JUDITH BOURNE An Exploration of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 Dr Judith Bourne is Programme Director for Law at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. She holds a Ph.D from King’s College, London and is a former barrister. In 2015 Judith devised, and has subsequently led, the First Women Lawyers in Great Britain & the Empire Symposia, a network of national and international academics researching the lives of first women lawyers. Judith is author of ‘Helena Normanton and the Opening of the Bar to Women’ and ‘Gender and Law.’ Her primary research interests include Feminist Legal History, Land Law and Equity and Trusts Law. An Exploration of the Sex Disqualification Helena Normanton – LSE Library (Removal) Act 1919 Context [A] person shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage from the exercise of any public function, or from being On 6 February 1918 some women obtained the right to appointed to or holding any civil or judicial post, or from vote in England and Wales. This was a substantial entering or assuming or carrying on any civil profession or achievement for the women’s movement and towards vocation. their goal of equality. The fight for admission to the legal profession was a global struggle, which by 1919, many The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 (SDRA) had won. In Canada for example, Clara Brett Martin was removed barriers to the professions, but did not give or the first woman to be admitted to the Ontario Bar in rights or provide any mechanism for enforcing those 1897. Likewise, in Australia, Grata Flos Grieg was rights. It allowed women, for the first time, to become admitted to the Bar in Victoria in 1905. In New Zealand barristers (as well as solicitors, magistrates, jurors, Ethel Benjamin became the first woman to practise in accountants and the right to enter the higher ranks of the 1897 after legislation was enacted. Cornelia Sorabji had civil service). It was this statute that allowed Helena been appearing in court in Poona, India, since 1894 (at Normanton to make legal history by becoming the first the judge’s discretion). Much of Europe had also opened woman to use this legislation, by being admitted to the profession to women: Sweden in 1897, Finland in Middle Temple on 24 December 1919. Normanton 1895, Romania in 1891, Norway in 1904, France in 1900, believed that she was responsible for the drafting of the and Russia in 1917. In America (where women’s right to Act and that it was passed in response to her appeal practise law also varied by state) Arabella Babb Mansfield against Middle Temple’s refusal to admit her. She had been accepted to an American Bar in Iowa in 1869. lamented in a letter to Ian Jacob, Director General of the England and Wales were lagging behind. BBC, in 1952: Helena Normanton’s Struggle to enter the I observe with immense surprise and sense of injury to legal profession my reputation in the Radio Times for October 24th 1952, on page 20, a statement to the effect that the Women were barred from joining the legal profession late Mrs. Ray Strachey ‘worked hard to bring about the until the passing of the SDRA. Normanton was not the reform’… The Govt in power, Mr. Lloyd George being first person to attempt ‘break through’ this bar. The first premier, decided to obviate such serious interruption evidence we have of an organised campaign to end the of the business of the Courts by facilitating legislation male exclusivity of the legal profession was in 1873, when to open the legal profession to women, and the writer Maria Grey, an educationalist and suffragist, organised a [Normanton] was requested to attend the Office of the petition to Lincoln’s Inn, a political gesture, signed by 92 Crown in Chancery and asked if she would withdraw women, demanding the right to attend lectures arranged her petition upon formal promise of legislation to by the Council of Legal Education, which was rejected. open the legal profession to women. The negotiations were embodied in a statement of that high official, in his own handwriting, which document the writer still treasures in her possession… What is the truth of this statement? Was Normanton responsible? This article will explore how the 1919 Act was passed. 12 2019 Middle Templar

Likewise, in 1900 18-year-old Margaret Hall applied to sit ©TopFoto for the preliminary exam needed to qualify as a solicitor in Scotland and was refused. At court it was declared she When her mother did not understand the mortgage was not a person for the purposes of the relevant Act. advice proffered by the solicitor, Normanton explained it, Servant’s daughter, Bertha Cave, applied to join Gray’s with the solicitor remarking ‘quite the little lawyer’ and so Inn in 1903 and was rejected, despite being supported by she resolved from that moment that she would be, as she two Masters. Her appeal against this decision was heard did not like to see women ‘getting the worst end of any (and rejected) in the House of Lords on 2 December 1903. deal for lack of a little elementary knowledge’. The truth Lord Halsbury, the Lord Chancellor, declared that she had was that few people at that time would have had that not provided the tribunal with precedent that legal knowledge. Normanton achieved this ambition demonstrated women could practise Law. after she was Called to the Bar in November 1922 Just over ten years later four women would bring an (six months after Ivy Williams). action against the Law Society, Bebb v Law Society [1914] 1 Ch 286, demanding the right to sit the Law Society’s Normanton was refused admission to Middle Temple on preliminary exam. Buckmaster KC acting for Bebb argued 21 February 1918. The minutes of the Middle Temple that s.1 Interpretation Act 1889 stated that the masculine Parliament record the grounds for her rejection. These provision included the feminine and so the Solicitors’ Act grounds were varied and, if challenged, could not have 1843 ought to apply to women as well as men, enabling stood up to critical legal analysis: that they were bound them to qualify. Joyce J dismissed their case: women by the Gray’s Inn appeal decision to refuse admission to were incapable of carrying out a public function in Bertha Cave, Bebb v Law Society [1914] and that under common law (based on Blackstone’s premise that the the Solicitors Act, 1843, and the Common Law, women common law stated that the law will not suffer women, were under a disability by reason of their sex. nor infants or serfs to the legal profession). This disability he concluded would continue until Parliament corrected Normanton was not to be defeated, and with the support it. Similarly, their appeal was rejected. of Claud Schuster, Permanent Secretary in the Lord So, it was in this atmosphere that Normanton applied to Chancellor’s Office, she lodged an appeal in July 1918. Middle Temple in February 1918. Born in 1882 in East This appeal was heard and rejected on 30 January 1919 London, the daughter of a piano tuner father and a for identical reasons as held by Parliament. Normanton sometimes milliner, publican and boarding house mother, was not told about this appeal immediately and instead, she trained and worked as a teacher. Teaching was one on 11 February 1919, was invited to meet with Claud of the few professions open to women. With no role Schuster. There are no formal records of this meeting, but model to follow, she aspired to be a barrister after an Normanton asserted later that it was at this meeting she experience when she was twelve on a trip with her was asked not to litigate as the Government would mother to a solicitor’s office where she experienced introduce the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill (SDRB), what she believed was sex inequality. which, she said, was drafted in her presence. She also maintained that she had evidence of the negotiations in ©William Kerridge Haselden (1872 – 1953) – Mirrorpix writing and had kept a copy, though none survives in her archives. However, it has always been difficult to understand why Normanton (and indeed other would-be women barristers) did not test in court the Inns of Courts’ refusal to allow women students. 2019 Middle Templar 13

B y 12 November 1919 it was clear that it Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill would become law, so Normanton rang the Under Treasurer at Middle Temple, asking On 16 July 1919 Normanton signed the lease on a house to be admitted She received a letter later that in Mecklenburgh Square, she obviously knew that day from the Under Treasurer informing legislative change would take place, she was putting her that, her admission ‘must stand over down roots in London. A few days later Lord Birkenhead, until the Act actually become law. the Lord Chancellor, on behalf of the government, introduced the SDRB. This Bill demonstrated that the Barristers’ and Solicitors’ Bill February 1919 Government had no plans at this stage to extend the franchise or remove the marriage bar (although this was We have seen that women had been attempting to enter included in the legislation which passed). The the legal profession for years. This was an organised Emancipation Bill had been the Bill of choice for women’s feminist movement, but the central players, because of organisations. There was much regret for its failure their sex privilege, were sympathetic men. One such man because it was so comprehensive. However, for some, like was Lord Buckmaster. Buckmaster introduced to the Millicent Fawcett, the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill House of Lords his Barristers’ and Solicitors’ Bill which was welcome, as it was better than nothing. proposed admitting women to the legal profession. This Bill managed to pass through the Lords with virtually no The SDRB completed its progress through the House of opposition, but was considered unnecessary because of Lords on 4 August 1919. From there it went to the House the subsequent passage of the SDRB. Buckmaster had of Commons where it had its second reading on appeared as a KC for Bebb. He believed that a woman 14 August. There was no debate. It finally went to who was intellectually capable of qualifying for the committee stage on 27 October 1919. By 12 November profession should be admitted to try to succeed in it and 1919 it was clear that it would become law, so Normanton dismissed the idea that women could be excluded from rang the Under Treasurer at Middle Temple, asking to be the profession due to assumptions about their admitted. She received a letter later that day from the physiology. He denied the suggestion that all women Under Treasurer informing her that, her admission ‘must were subject to ‘emotional cataclysms’, women he stand over until the Act actually become law’. Middle asserted, differed from one another as men differed. He Temple were clearly not going to accept women until argued that his Bill was permissive: it merely provided they absolutely had too. But, on 19 December they wrote that women should not be excluded from the profession explaining they had received a reference from Lord Cecil because they were women, it did not compel women to and that her papers were in order. The office, they said, become solicitors, nor compel anyone to employ them. would be closed from 24 December to 31 December. His Bill was widely supported by women’s organisations such as the National Council of Women. Admission Women’s Emancipation Bill Finally, on 23 December 1919 the SDRA received Royal Assent. Normanton received a letter from the Introduced for the Labour Party by Benjamin Spoor MP Under Treasurer, Major Henry Beresford Peirse DSO, on 21 March 1919, the Women’s Emancipation Bill was at Middle Temple: extremely broad. It was part of the 1918 Labour Party’s manifesto, they promised that they were the ‘women’s’ we are waiting in this office until five minutes past four party. It proposed the enfranchisement of all women today in case you should call. I was told the Royal aged 21-30, that women be allowed to sit and to vote in Assent was to be given at 3pm today. In the event of the House of Lords, that all professional and judicial posts you not calling I am giving you my private telephone be opened to women and, finally, that women MPs be number and address. allowed to hold ministerial positions. Strongly supported by Labour mining community MPs, it successfully passed He continued that he was sorry to trouble her, but wished all stages in the House of Commons, and was defeated to cause as little delay as possible over this matter, as he on 22 July when the Government introduced their own appreciated that she would wish to have her application Bill, the SDRB into the House of Lords. for admission to the Inn completed at the first possible moment. The Inn must have opened for her on Christmas Eve as her receipt was dated 24 December. This enabled her to become the first woman to join an Inn of Court and make history. Conclusion Later in life Normanton clearly believed that she had not been accorded the proper credit for the passing of SDRA. Clearly she played a role, but there were other players too. There is no evidence that the SDRA was drafted in her presence or in response to her appeal against Middle Temple. She was influential through her membership of organisations, public speaking and her application to Middle Temple. But she was part of a movement, not the sole player. Certainly her ‘first’ in becoming a member of an Inn of Court made her a figurehead for the campaign for women lawyers. 14 2019 Middle Templar

HELENA NORMANTON QC  MASTER ANTHONY ARLIDGE Helena Normanton QC A Reflection by Master Anthony Arlidge Master Arlidge was Called to the Bar That was the way the world worked. A husband made an in 1962, took Silk in 1981 and became allowance from his money to the wife for the expenses of a Bencher in 1989. His practice was in the home. If he drank or gambled his earnings away, she general crime and fraud. He has had no recourse. The Married Women’s Association been co-author of three leading campaigned for equal pay, but they particularly books: ‘Arlidge and Parry on Fraud’, championed the rights of married women. One practical ‘Arlidge, Eady and Smith on step they achieved was the right for a deserted wife to Contempt of Court’; and ‘Magna find the whereabouts of her husband through his national Carta Uncovered’ with Master Judge. insurance number. He was also the author of ‘The Lawyers Who Made America’. He was The advent of the Attlee government in 1945 raised Treasurer in 2003. hopes of changes in the law, but it was not until the end of their period that the 1951 Royal Commission on Helena did not find life at the Bar easy. In her time Marriage and Divorce was appointed. Sadly this caused a barristers were not allowed to ‘tout’ for work and rift in the Married Women’s Association. Their policy was complaints were made that she was guilty of self publicity. to seek community of property between spouses on the She denied them, but they seem to have been the cause continental model. Helena presented a paper to the of the Western Circuit refusing her membership in 1923. Commission, without circulating it to association She did not achieve great financial success, but what members, advocating that spouses should agree the mattered most to her was opening the Bar to younger amount of an allowance the husband should make to a women. wife and in the absence of agreement the courts should adjudicate on the matter. She also advocated that women From the early 1900s, Helena was an ardent feminist and who did not keep house properly should be liable to supporter of the campaign to secure votes for women, punishment in the courts. Other members of the though not the use of violence. In 1915 she published a association protested and Helena resigned, founding the pamphlet arguing for equal pay and continued to Council of Women - shades of Monty Python’s Popular campaign for women’s rights for the rest of her life. In Front of Judea. Pressure from the association no doubt 1938, Edith Summerskill and Juanita Francis established contributed to the passage of the Divorce Act 1969 and the Married Women’s Association. Vera Brittain and the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970. Helena Normanton became presidents. My mother was a very active member and I remember meeting most of When I set out to find pupillage in 1962, my only contact these iconic women. at the Bar was through the wife of Roger Ormrod QC; Ann was a member of the Married Women’s Association Why only married women? What about the singletons? and Roger offered me pupillage.The 1970 Act Single women could own property they acquired but revolutionised the treatment of broken marriages in the married women had very limited property rights. The courts, allowing judges a larger discretion in the division Married Women’s Property Act 1870 allowed women to of assets and income between divorcing spouses. In keep inherited property and monies they earned 1973, the Court of Appeal considered an appeal from the themselves, but they were still mothers and home now Mr Justice Ormrod in the case of Wachtel v Wachtel, makers, whilst husbands were earners. A woman had no where the judge had applied the 1970 Act. The husband’s right to a share in the matrimonial home if it was in her earnings were £6,000 and the value of the matrimonial husband’s name and no right to his earnings. If he home £20,000. The judge held the wife was entitled to deserted her she had no means of tracing him. Middle half the value and £1,500 a year maintenance. On appeal class women were expected to leave their jobs when they counsel for the husband complained that the judge was married. Despite her feminist credentials, my mother did trying to institute community of property on the back of just that. My parents were engaged for nine years while the 1970 Act. The Court of Appeal agreed and reduced they saved enough for a mortgage. All this must seem the wife’s share of of the matrimonial home to £6,000. inexplicable today, but there was still a traditional mindset about the behaviour expected of the sexes. Helena unsuccessfully applied a number of times to be appointed Recorder. In 1949 she was created King’s The first chink of light appeared in 1964, when the Counsel, but two years later retired from practice. She Married Women’s Property Act provided: died in 1955, having made a substantial contribution to changing attitudes on what women can do. My If any question arises as to the right of a husband or granddaughters think there is still some way to go. wife to money derived from any allowance for the expenses of the matrimonial home or similar purposes, or to any property acquired out of that money, the money or property, in the absence of any agreement between them to the contrary, shall be regarded as belonging to the husband and wife in equal shares. 2019 Middle Templar 15

A CENTURY OF WOMEN BARNABY BRYAN A Century of Women In this anniversary year, we look back through the Archive 25, 50, 75 and 100 years to shine a spotlight on women and their activities in the Inn. Barnaby Bryan joined the Inn in 2015  There is a disability on as the Assistant Archivist, a role the part of a woman to be encompassing a broad range of admitted as a student of an archival duties. He has been Inn of Court with a view to appointed to succeed Lesley being Called to the Bar, Whitelaw on her retirement as the which disability has not been Inn’s Archivist from September 2019. removed by any Statute. He has worked in a range of business, cultural and collegiate 30 January 1919 archives, and was educated at King’s College, Cambridge and University 1969 College London. 1969 marked 50 years since the admission of the first lady 1919 to the Inn. There had been progress, but slow – the Queen Mother was still the only female Bencher, and she spoke 1919, of course, saw the admission of Helena Normanton that year at a Family Dinner to mark the quarter century in December. Material in the archive, however, indicates since her Call to the Bench. However, one future (and that certain Benchers had earlier struggled with the idea, present) Bencher was admitted in that year: Master arguing in a statement of their case against her appeal Marilynne Morgan joined the Inn on 12 September 1969, against their decision against her admission, dated 30 was made a Bencher in 2002, and went on to serve as Lent January 1919, that ‘there is a disability on the part of a Reader in 2012 (the fifth woman to serve as Reader), as well woman to be admitted as a student of an Inn of Court as sitting on numerous Middle Temple committees. with a view to being Called to the Bar, which disability has not been removed by any Statute’. They quoted the Lord Chancellor’s 1903 ruling that ‘long continued practice is a very powerful observation in reference to anything that is suggested as a new right’. A letter also survives in the archive, from the London County Council Women Teachers’ Union, communicating their concern that Normanton’s appeal hearing be open to the general public, being ‘of so much interest to all professional women’. 1944 1994 25 years later, in 1944, the Inn broke new ground, with In 1994, 75 years after Normanton’s admission, the Inn the election of its first female (Royal) Bencher – Her adopted its first Equal Opportunities code, drafted by Majesty Queen Elizabeth, better remembered today as the Master Stella Hollis (who herself became a Bencher in Queen Mother, who was Called on 12 December of that that year). In the code, the Inn committed that ‘if year. Her speech on this occasion made (admittedly unfairness or discrimination on grounds of race or sex is qualified) reference to this ‘first’: ‘Though I am, I found to exist it must be speedily and effectively understand, the first woman to become a Bencher of this eradicated’. The Middle Temple Newsletter of the time, Inn, I like to feel that I am continuing a tradition rather than reflecting on the newly adopted code, called for ‘ever creating a precedent, for it is, after all, but a few paces more precise and objective judgement of scholarship from here that another Queen Elizabeth visited this Society candidates’. in the Hall which was built with her permission’. There were, of course, other female admissions to the Inn in that These are, of course, simply snapshots of the rich century year, including one Barbara Marion Guthrie, who as well as of female Middle Templars, many of whose stories will be being an aspiring barrister, was an officer in the Women’s explored elsewhere in this edition. We look forward to Royal Naval Service, more commonly known as the Wrens. securing and preserving the next century of achievements and advancements in the Inn’s Archive. 16 2019 Middle Templar

MIDDLE TEMPLE WOMEN SILKS Middle Temple Women Silks 1949 2006 2014 Helena Normanton Lesley Anderson Rachel Ansell Stephanie Barwise Felicity Gerry 1975 Johanne Delahunty Jane Mulcahy Rosemary Jackson Karen Steyn Barbara Calvert Frances Judd Amanda Pinto 2015 1976 Heather Rogers Sarah Singleton Rachel Crasnow Margaret Booth Rosalind Wright (H) Annabel Darlow Rosina Hare Deirdre Fottrell 2008 Amanda Hardy 1983 Zoe O’Sullivan Rosalind Coe Alison Pople Sheila Cameron Chantal-Aimee Doerries Marcia Shekerdemian Diana Cotton Sarah Forshaw Clare Stanley Susan Grocott Christine Henson 1986 Sarah Hannaford Caroline Harry Thomas 2016 Barbara Mills Elisabeth Laing Sarah Vaughan Jones Clodagh Bradley 1988 Bridget Dolan 2009 Kim Franklin Belinda Bucknall Sarah Lee Susan Campbell Kama Melly 1989 Lexa Hilliard Caroline Shea Ann Hussey Clare Sibson Anna Worrall Rachel Langdale 2017 1991 2010 Catherine Addy Judith Parker Zia Bhaloo Samatha Broadfoot Patricia Scotland Veronique Buehrlen Nina Goolamali Jane Cross Kate Grange 1992 Katherine Holland Anna McKenna Judy Khan Debra Powell Dianna Kempe Jemina Stratford Natasha Wong Lindsey Kushner Philippa Whipple Lindy Patterson 2018 1993 Sarah Worthington (H) Brenda Campbell Susan Edwards 2011 Lyndsey De Mestre Joanna Dodson Philippa Hopkins Susan Hamilton Fiona Barton Kate Lumsdon Suzan Matthews Tina Cook Lynne McCafferty Gillian Etherton Sonali Naik 1994 Judith Farbey Nicky Padfield (H) Kaly Kaul Tiffany Scott Linda Sullivan Jenni Richards Sam King Sonia Tolaney 1995 Catherine Wood 2019 Alison Ball 2012 Anna Boase Florence Baron Victoria Butler-Cole Catherine Newman Marie Demetriou Catherine Cowton Anna Pauffley Emma Himsworth Katherine Deal Heather Swindells Sara Masters Nina Grahame Fenella Morris Isabel Hitching 1996 Dawn Oliver (H) Fiona Horlick Suzanne Ornsby Nicola Howard Janet Turner Dominique Rawley Ronit Kreisberger Carol Harlow (H) Rebecca Stubbs Lindsay Lane Jane McCafferty 1998 2013 Alison Morgan Aparna Nathan Belinda Ang Saw Ean Kathryn Davenport Michelle Nelson Elizabeth Blackburn Lucy Frazer Frances Patterson Stephanie Harrison Fionnuala McCredie 1999 Kristina Montgomery Jessica Simor Adrienne Page Brie Stevens-Hoare Eleanor Sharpston Geraldine Van Bueren (H) Kathryn Thirlwall Noelle McGrenera 2019 Middle Templar 2000 Anne Cotcher Elizabeth Jones 2001 Maura McGowan Vasanti Selvaratnam Lucy Stone 2002 Joanna Glynn Susan Rodway 2003 Sally Howes Jane Humphryes Carey Johnston (H) = Honoris causa 17

SYBIL CAMPBELL OBE  MASTER ROSALIND WRIGHT The First Woman Judge Master Wright was Called to the Bar in 1964. Director of the Serious Fraud Office 1997-2003, and previously General Counsel and an Executive Director for ten years at the Securities and Futures Authority. Prior to taking up that appointment, she was an Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, where she worked for 18 years, after five years in practice at the Bar. She was Lent Reader in 2010. On 23 April 1945 Sybil Campbell took her seat as the first those tried summarily, there was a very much heavier woman full-time professional judge in England and Wales, recourse to imprisonment in Campbell’s court than as a Metropolitan stipendiary magistrate at Tower Bridge the national average. ‘Cassandra’, in the Sunday Pictorial, Police Court. The only training she had received was to observed that ‘Sybil Campbell looks like Auntie, your observe a day’s hearing on two occasions. Her appearance Auntie, my Auntie… but at Tower Bridge, Auntie always was that of a ‘benign headmistress’. Master Stella Hollis, says “No”, softly pushes open the dungeon door, smiles who appeared before her as counsel, recalls her as ‘small, sweetly and another wrongdoer begins his penance’. with short grey hair and a fearsome reputation’. The Cassandra’s piece raised a storm of angry protests ‘fearsome reputation’ showed itself quickly. By October against Campbell. She was ‘a fiendish vixen’, displaying 1945, she was widely criticised for her seemingly heavy ‘vindictiveness towards unfortunates’ and the Home sentences for first offenders. Secretary should ‘chuck her out into the Thames’. Local Union branches called her ‘harsh, brutal and She sentenced William Head, awaiting his discharge after unreasonable’ and called for her dismissal. 27 years in the armed forces, to prison for stealing 3s 2d worth of brewers’ saccharine from his employers; Henry In retrospect, Campbell had a compassionate side; she Lucas, who had served 35 years with his employer, jailed was particularly concerned for the well-being of women for stealing four small Christmas puddings; so was Charles students, spearheading the fundraising campaign to Bird, for stealing butter; James Drummond, Ethel Watts establish the international hall of residence for women and Ada Graham each received three months students at Crosby Hall in Chelsea. On the bench, she imprisonment for petty theft. dealt severely with those whose actions she regarded as damaging to the greater good. She was motivated by a Sybil Campbell, who was among the first cohort of women strong work ethic and moral sense. Courting a favourable Called to the Bar by Middle Temple on 17 November 1922, public image for members of the bench (and indeed the had been appointed Assistant Divisional Food Officer legal profession as a whole) would have been regarded (Enforcement) for London at the outbreak of World War II. as totally alien to her. She was described in the popular press as ‘Britain’s number one food detective’ and Professor Patrick Polden Criticism of her sentencing died down and she continued called her a ‘ruthless hunter of black marketeers’. to sit at Tower Bridge until she retired in 1961. No other full-time female judge was appointed until Elizabeth Within six months of her appointment as a magistrate Lane, to the county court bench in 1962. protests started to come in in droves. One protester sent a postcard addressed to ‘Chief Clerk, Home Office, Belsen Chambers, Whitehall’ and wrote: Public opinion should make you remove Old Woman Campbell from Tower St [sic] bench. Instead of your department hanging 5 innocent Germans at Pentonville last week for nothing, why not hang or gas an inhuman woman who has caused much more pain? She was booed on her way to the court and called names such as ‘the beast of Belsen’. Appeals against her sentences for the most part succeeded, with small fines being substituted for the prison sentences imposed by her. A report from the police division covering Tower Bridge Court, requested by the Home Secretary a few months after her appointment, showed that of all 18 2019 Middle Templar

THE INN’S FIRST WOMAN HIGH COURT JUDGE MASTER RODERIC WOOD The First Woman Middle Templar to become a High Court Judge Master Wood was Called to the Bar in 1974 and took Silk in 1993. He read Jurisprudence at Lincoln College, Oxford. He was a Circuit Judge 2002-04 and a High Court Judge (Family Division) 2004-16. He was made a Bencher in 2001. Master Margaret Booth was born in 1933 and educated She has travelled extensively and at Northwood College, a private girl’s school in North intrepidly, often alone, but attracting London. She was then granted a full scholarship at others en route. University College London where she began her remarkable career in Law breaking barriers. She reads widely. In her post retirement life she has refreshed her French by translating the whole of Madame Margaret was admitted as a student member of the Inn in Bovary, and made a vivid attempt to learn Hebrew. 1953 and then Called to the Bar in 1956. In 1976 she took Perhaps the most indicative of her skills in recent times Silk at the age of 43, making her the 10th women to be has been her chairmanship of the Reform Club, only the appointed in England and Wales. She was Chair of the second women to be given that post in the St. James’ Family Bar Association 1976-78. In 1979 Margaret made Male hegemony. Margaret has also published Rayden on history by becoming the first Middle Temple woman to sit Divorce 10th-13th eds (co ed), 15th & 16th eds (chief ed); on the High Court Bench, making her Dame Margaret Clarke Hall & Morrison on Children, 1977 (co ed). Booth DBE. She retired after 15 years. What did a woman expect in the early years? It was not her first wish to become a commercial Solicitor in a big city firm, as she knew that was for the men. The closest she had reached was to work in the office of the City Remembrancer, sorting out the placement for the men (and dependent women) at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet. Margaret was not easily given a pupillage, she had four prior to a tenancy being offered within family work. Some earlier objections being that ‘women were not suited for this kind of work’, or ‘You will get married and leave the company’, and other dismal non sequiturs! How were women to advance – To whom could they speak about such issues? A survey of the then landscape suggests barren soil. There were rare pockets of hope: her father was supportive, as was her headmistress. And, in due course, her head of Chambers, Joe Jackson QC, whom she later married. But is it too glib to suggest that whatever their skills, women were then supposed to be Caesar’s Wife (irrespective of what Caesar was up to). They were not expected to be given the ‘prizes’ which men thought of as their own. 2019 Middle Templar 19

THE INN’S FIRST WOMAN LADY JUSTICE OF APPEAL MASTER KATHRYN THIRLWALL The First Woman Middle Templar to become a Lady Justice of Appeal Master Thirlwall was Called to the Bar Decades old technology is to be replaced by modern in 1982, took Silk in 1999 and became systems, which are expected to provide the level of a Recorder in 2000. She was service that people expect in the modern world. In return appointed as a High Court Judge and for the funding HMCTS must reduce annual running assigned to the Queen’s Bench costs. The process is not easy. As judges, our focus must Division in 2010. From 2011-15 she be on improving access to justice and working to ensure served as the Presiding Judge of the that post-Reform the system is better for everyone. To Midland Circuit and Chair of that end, many judges are involved in scrutinising and Magistrates Training at the Judicial developing new processes and ways of working as well as College. In 2016 she was appointed to testing the technology. It is hard work for all involved but the Sentencing Council and was made it is our responsibility to ensure the effective a Lady Justice of the Court of Appeal in February 2017. She was administration of justice to uphold the Rule of Law. appointed the Deputy Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales in 2017 and will become the Senior Presiding Judge in In December, I’ll take over as Senior Presiding Judge. I December 2019. She was made a Bencher in 2008. will continue to sit but at a reduced level because the portfolio of the SPJ is very broad. The SPJ is responsible Walking into Middle Temple in 1981 as a student on the for the supervision of the Presiding judges (High Court then Bar Finals Course I was overawed, intimidated and judges appointed by the Lord Chancellor to lead the thrilled. Nearly 39 years on I’m not scared, just thrilled. It courts judiciary at all levels below High Court) and for is a privilege and a pleasure to be a Bencher here. monitoring operation of all courts below High Court. The post has overall responsibility for the pastoral care of all My appointment to the Court of Appeal was announced the courts’ judges, working with the Presiding Judges. in August 2016 and I was sworn in in February 2017. I may Deployment, recruitment, development. In addition the be the first woman from this Inn but there will be many SPJ liaises with HMCTS and with government on all more. By the time this magazine is published, 14 women matters pertaining to the running of the courts. The list is will have been appointed to the Court of Appeal since longer than the word count permits. I look forward to Baroness Elizabeth Butler Sloss in the 1980s, most of taking over with some trepidation. them in the last ten years. No fewer than eight from Inner Temple, three from Gray’s, two from Lincoln’s and me. Yet How would I describe my life in the Court of Appeal? it was this Inn which admitted the first woman, Helena Never a dull moment. Normanton, to an Inn in 1919. The reasons for the disparities date back at least to the 1980s and probably further back than that. Given the serious commitment to and investments of time and money by the Inn in increasing diversity in recent years, our expectation must now be that the barriers (visible and invisible) to women are coming down and will be overcome before I retire. That won’t be the end of the story. Far more progress is needed in respect of minority ethnic groups and people from ordinary backgrounds – in other words, most people. I very much enjoy sitting with two other judges in both the civil and criminal divisions of the Court of Appeal, reflecting on the arguments and discussing the relative strengths and weaknesses of the respective cases before writing a judgment. It is quite a shift from the life of a first instance judge, managing cases and hearing trials alone. Watching the way other judges approach the business of judging is instructive, the variety of work is always stimulating and there is no shortage of it. The atmosphere is collegiate and friendly. In October 2017 I was appointed Deputy Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales and was given responsibility for the involvement of the judiciary in the courts’ modernisation programme. For those of you who are unaware of it, in late 2015 funding was announced for a major overhaul of HMCTS. 20 2019 Middle Templar

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN SUPREME COURT MASTER JANICE PEREIRA The First Woman Established in 1967, the Eastern Caribbean Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is a regional superior Eastern Caribbean court of record with unlimited jurisdiction Supreme Court throughout six independent States, namely, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and the three British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, Montserrat and the Virgin Islands. Master Pereira was appointed the first woman Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in 2012. Previously she was a High Court Judge (2003) and a Justice of Appeal (2009). In May 2013 she was appointed DBE. She was one of the first female Virgin Islanders to be Called to the Bar of the Virgin Islands and the first Virgin Islander to be appointed to the Bench of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. She was made an Honorary Bencher in 2018. In over 50 years of its existence, 12 persons have served Still, I harboured hopes of returning to private practice as Chief Justice of the Court. I was conferred the honour after a reasonable stint on the bench. This would not be in 2012, becoming the first woman to serve as Chief the case as in late 2008 I was called upon to act as a Justice. Each day I remind myself of the trust and Justice of Appeal. I found the work at the appellate level confidence reposed in me to serve the people of the to be mentally stimulating and enjoyable and as the Eastern Caribbean as Chief Justice. I am also acutely Court of Appeal is itinerant, it was also fascinating being aware of the significance of being the first female to on a different Caribbean island every other week. In hold this post. For years, an increasing number of January 2009 I was confirmed as a Justice of Appeal. women had been appointed as judges in the Eastern Caribbean, but the office of Chief Justice remained As fate would have it, once again a new opportunity elusive. Undoubtedly, my appointment as Chief Justice presented itself for me to serve in an even higher shattered the glass ceiling in the legal field for women capacity. In 2012, upon the early retirement of the Chief across the Caribbean region who now know that the Justice at that time, I was appointed Chief Justice. The pinnacle of the justice system is within their reach. appointment took me completely by surprise and has been a life-altering experience. I now not only continue I must confess that being Chief Justice, or even a to sit with the Court of Appeal as its President, but I also judicial officer, was not my goal. I had been content to have the duty of ensuring the proper administration of quietly get on with the task at hand and was never this unique judiciary spread across nine islands – each concerned with holding any office. However, I have with its own government and domestic laws. Additionally, always held in highest regard a duty to serve and the I chair the various judicial and legal services commissions draw to public service seemed to beckon. of the States and Territories. The multi-dimensional role has been demanding and at times daunting. It has also After serving as Registrar of the Supreme Court and brought with it a cultural shift at the highest levels of Registrar General of the Registry of Companies in Caribbean society where I often find myself as the only my home country of the Territory of the Virgin Islands female in the room at official meetings and in the 1980s, I comfortably settled into what I thought engagements. would be a long and exciting career as a litigator. However, I remain passionate about gender equality With the weight of the office on my shoulders I have and what in earlier years appeared to require greater persevered; not only by my own will, but also by knowing diversity on the bench and the treatment of family that my success is the success of little girls across the matters with more gender sensitivity. An opportunity Caribbean. It is with this in mind and my commitment to to, hopefully, influence and change this approach the people of the Caribbean, that I approach this job presented itself when I was invited to join the bench every day with vigour, integrity and honour to ensure an as a High Court Judge in 2003. accessible, efficient and fair judicial system. 2019 Middle Templar 21

THE FIRST WOMAN TREASURER  MASTER DAWN OLIVER The First Woman Treasurer Professor Dawn Oliver QC FBA Master Oliver was Called to the Bar in That first plenary meeting was followed by one or two 1965. She read modern languages smaller workshops. Over the years this became the and law at Newnham College, pattern. Subjects such as applying for Silk or for Cambridge. She joined chambers at appointment as a judge, and well-being, were covered. 1 King’s Bench Walk, where she practised until 1969. She joined the After a couple of years, the Forum had become so Faculty of Laws at University College successful that Inner Temple asked to join forces and it London in 1976, was appointed became the Temple Women’s Forum. Professor of Constitutional Law in 1993, and was Dean and Head of Academics and the Inn Department from 1993-98 and in 2007. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2005 and Some highlights of the year were academic in nature. appointed QC (honoris causa) in 2012. She was made a Bencher The first Academics Dinner, held in January 2011, was my in 1996 and was Treasurer in 2011. initiative. Many of the academic guests were, sadly, new to the Inns. Things had changed since the days when the On 1 January 2011 I became Treasurer of the Middle normal career path of an academic lawyer would be Call Temple! This was a great honour. It was also surprising: I to the Bar, pupillage, perhaps practice for a couple of was a career academic. This was a first. I had been years, and then a move into academia. It is no longer making plans for the year, and it was going to include possible to enter academia without an LLM and a PhD. academia-related events. Hence many academics have little contact with practitioners or the Inns. This is a pity. The Dinner was I was also the first female Treasurer. That was the novelty welcomed by both practitioners and academics present. that struck people more than my odd career. It was indeed a landmark for the Inn. That fact of itself need not The speakers at the annual series of Treasurer’s lectures have made 2011 different from other years. However, as it were mostly academics with whom I network. As number turned out the ‘femaleness’ of the year was striking. of Academic Benchers were also elected. The post of Treasurer requires the Treasurer to have a The Library Building wardrobe of suitable dress for formal occasions. Given that I do not take the Black Tie dress code literally, I In the summer of 2011, the work to convert the ground enjoyed investing in new clothes. I was rather surprised, floor of the Library building for use by the Treasury was even amused, when some of my senior fellow Benchers completed, and the staff moved in. On 13 November the assumed that Master Stephen Oliver, my husband, would Library building was named The Ashley Building, in have to increase my dress allowance! recognition of the bequest of his collection of 5,000 books to the Inn by Robert Ashley in 1641. The ribbon Highlights of the year was cut by his descendant, Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury. A woman’s place is… in the Inn The Inn and the common law world… In January we appointed a new Under Treasurer, Catherine Quinn. She took up office in May 2011. She was the first I was keen to build up links with the common law world at female Under Treasurer to be appointed by any of the home and abroad in my year. The Inn has a number of Inns, and the first to have an MBA. (Lincoln’s Inn Benchers from Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Scottish appointed a female Under-Treasurer a few months later.) Bar was under-represented among our Benchers. Patrick We had set a trend. Hodge QC, Richard Keen QC (who was Dean of the Faculty of Advocates at the time) and Roy Martin QC A major initiative in the year, the Middle Temple Women’s were elected in 2011. Soon afterwards, Master Patrick Forum, was Catherine’s brainchild. I was delighted to Hodge became a Supreme Court Justice, and Master support it. The first plenary meeting of the Forum, held in Richard Keen became the Lord Advocate and sat in the Middle Temple Hall, was attended by some 350 female House of Lords. Master Roy Martin practices at the Bars barristers and students from all the Inns. This was an of Scotland and of England and Wales. astonishing number. The Rt Hon. Lady Justice Heather Hallett, the Treasurer of Inner Temple, gave the keynote It was widely realised that practitioners in South Africa address. A panel of successful female practitioners spoke might find the rule of law and the independence of the about how they had done it. After the talks there was a courts and of professionals to be under threat at the time: networking reception. The role for such a Forum was clear. links with UK practitioners might offer them support. The Treasurer’s Amity visit in 2010 had been to South Africa. Jeremy Gauntlett SC QC of the South African Bar was elected as an Honorary Bencher in 2011. 22 2019 Middle Templar

He now practises in England and Wales and South Africa. in the Hall with students, and enjoyed the Band and In due course Nicola Brewer, who had been UK High dancing the Conga. Their delegation was very taken by Commissioner in Cape Town, was also elected a Bencher. the Inn – its buildings, its collegiality, its history and links with the USA, and the world of the common law they saw. Serendipitously I had been in contact with one of UCL’s alumni, Surinder Nijjar, President of the Supreme Court of During the Visit, Master Louis Susman, US Ambassador to India. He was a member of the Inn and had practised for the UK, opened the Advocacy Suite that had been a time at the Bar before moving to India. He became a formed in the American Library on the third floor of the Bencher in 2011. library. Middle Temple was the first of the Inns to provide accommodation for advocacy training. Other Inns have …especially the USA followed suit, as plans for the Inns to take part in teaching the Bar Professional Training Course have developed. The USA and its lawyers have drifted away from the rest of the common law world. I wanted to build up links. I The suite was named the Rutledge Suite, after one of the approached our Honorary Bencher, Master Don Lemons, Middle Temple signatories of the US Declaration of President of the Supreme Court of Virginia and President Independence. We were pleased to be able to mark the of the American Inns of Court (AIoC), about a visit by the long-standing relations between the Inn and lawyers in Middle Temple. The AIoC asked for any visit to be the USA in this way. reciprocal. I readily agreed. Reflections So the first Middle Temple Amity Visit to the USA took place in Georgetown in March 2011. We were included in I enjoyed my year as Treasurer enormously. My fellow the annual conference of the American Inns of Court. Benchers were wonderfully supportive. Despite my One of their themes was ‘civility’. The AIoC were nervousness in the beginning, I felt confident and concerned about the lack of civility between advocates welcome. The loyalty and professionalism of the staff and between advocates and judges. We were interested is remarkable. to consider why lack of civility was not also a problem in the English courts. We were very generously entertained As it happened that year, Mrs Justice Heather Hallett was by the AIoC and by individual members. the Inner Temple’s Treasurer. Their Royal Treasurer, Princess Anne, was closely involved in the affairs of Inner The first Amity Visit by American lawyers – the American that year. Women had a higher profile than usual in the Inns of Court – to the Inn took place in late September Inns lying south of Fleet Street in 2011. 2011, at the start of the legal year. Some of their leaders were invited to the legal year service and breakfast. The Inn’s appointment of its first female Treasurer We included them in the life of the Inn, including demonstrated that women can do the job! I do not feel meals in Hall. They attended the start of year Music Night that I performed the role of Treasurer in a particularly ‘feminine’ way. Like all Treasurers, I did it my way. Master Dawn Oliver’s Portrait unveiling on 8 October 2018 23 2019 Middle Templar

HM QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER LESLEY WHITELAW Queen Elizabeth The First Woman Bencher Lesley Whitelaw graduated from The ceremony took place during an air attack on London St Andrews University in 1981. and the speeches of the Treasurer, the renowned Irish KC Subsequently she was Archivist to Serjeant Sullivan, and the Queen reflected the war-time the Royal College of Surgeons of realities of 1944. The Serjeant evoked 400 years of Middle Edinburgh, Archivist to the Lothian Temple tradition with his customary eloquence. Health Board and held curatorial posts in the National Archives of In her reply the Queen alluded to the Society’s links with Scotland. She was the Inn’s Archivist the first Queen Elizabeth during whose reign Middle from 1990 until 31 August 2019 when Temple Hall was built. she retired. I feel this story of the past is very heartening to the In the centenary year of the admission of the first woman present, when we see all about us so much overcast to Middle Temple, the Inn reflects on the progress and by those hazards through which, please God, we can profile of its women members and what is still to be today see a light beginning to shine. It is well to be achieved. With a current complement of 167 reminded that, whilst our walls may crumble, this is of distinguished women Benchers, it is difficult to imagine a small account so long as the virtues and graces for time when there was not a single woman Bencher in the which this Inn has ever stood continue unshaken and Inn, nor a single woman Silk or holder of high judicial unshakeable. It is upon their foundation that you will office in the entire country. Yet that was the case as rebuild; your courts and chambers will rise with greater recently as 1944. strength and new beauty to show all who come to the Middle Temple that, though the years pass and wars The woman who broke new ground in Middle Temple rage, two things more precious than bricks and stone that year, almost exactly 25 years after the admission of remain unaltered, the honourable tradition and Helena Normanton, was not a lawyer, but the Queen. honourable administration of the law and an Throughout the dark days of the blitz and the threat of unswerving impartiality between rich and poor. I thank Nazi invasion, the morale of the country had been raised you for a most delightful and exhilarating evening. I by the courage and humour of Queen Elizabeth, consort really feel that I can say this is Domus for me. of King George VI. The Inn’s then Royal Bencher, the Duke of Windsor, had been Benched in 1919 as Prince of The anticipated grand celebration did in fact take place in Wales, had abdicated as Edward VIII in 1936 and was peacetime at a joint Bench Dinner of Inner Temple and serving as Governor-General in the distant Bahamas, Middle Temple presided over by the King, as Treasurer of unlikely to have any future involvement with the Inn. With Inner Temple, and the Queen, as Treasurer of Middle the country still at war and the Hall, Library and many sets Temple, on 20 July 1949, days after the Queen had of chambers shattered by enemy bombardment, there opened the restored Hall, captured so well by Terence could scarcely have been a more inspirational and Cuneo’s painting, which lives in the Queen’s Room. popular person in the country, male or female, to take a leading role in the Inn than the Queen. An approach was Middle Temple’s enduring affection for the Queen began made to Buckingham Palace in early 1944 to enquire on the night of her Call to the Bench in 1944 and was whether Her Majesty might consent to accept the strengthened by her constant encouragement and invitation of the Inn to become its Royal Bencher – and its frequent visits during the long and arduous post-war first female Bencher. The Queen graciously agreed and reconstruction. In 1946 she opened the Inn’s Temporary thus began Middle Temple’s long association with one of Library. When the Hall was being restored and the screen the most charismatic women of her age, spanning 57 reassembled and the old heraldic glass returned to the years and many scores of visits, the final one in December windows, the Queen visited the Inn privately, making it 2001, just months before her death. clear she wished for no ceremony at all but had come specifically to meet the workmen and committee Arrangements for a simple, war-time ceremony, with Hall members involved in the rebuilding. Photographs show blasted and unusable, were agreed: a full celebration was her on such a visit to Hall, stepladder in the background to be deferred until peacetime. Even those plans had to and work in progress. In 1957 she opened Queen be postponed because of lethal V1 and V2 attacks on Elizabeth Building and in 1958 she opened the new London and the death of the Queen’s father, Lord Library. For the rest of her life she visited the Inn almost Strathmore, at Glamis. Thus, at a Parliament held on 8 every year in December for the Family Dinner when new December 1944 she was admitted and Called to the Bar Benchers, latterly a number of them female, were in absentia and arrangements were made for her presented to her. But it was in her hand-written letter to welcome to the Bench four days later. On 12 December Serjeant Sullivan after her Bench Call in December 1944 1944 Queen Elizabeth became the first woman Bencher that she anticipated her role as the first woman Bencher of the Inn. and, in 1949 the first woman Treasurer, concluding: ‘May the Middle Temple long flourish, is the sincere wish of Elizabeth R who is proud to subscribe herself first daughter of Domus’. 24 2019 Middle Templar

THE FIRST WOMAN HONORARY BENCHER MASTER MARILYNNE MORGAN The First Woman Honorary Bencher 25 This delightful archive photo is of the late Master George Baker, Treasurer 1976, and Anne Armstrong on Bench Night on 6 May 1976. Anne Armstrong was US Ambassador to the Court of St James from March 1976 to March 1977 and on 6 May became Middle Temple’s first Honorary Lady Bencher (indeed, apart from HM The Queen Mother, the only woman Bencher until 1978). In sending Anne a copy of this photo Master George Baker (father of Master Scott Baker, Treasurer in 2004) told her that it was ‘a memento of what was, for us, a most enjoyable and greatly appreciated occasion’. It is plain from other letters in the Inn’s archive that she enjoyed her albeit few visits to the Inn and, in particular, described her Bench Night as ‘one of the most impressive and delightful evenings I have ever enjoyed’. Anne had a distinguished political career in the US under several administrations and was in her heyday one of the most influential women in Republican politics. She achieved a number of ‘firsts’ for women – the first to deliver a keynote speech at a Republican Convention, the first to hold the cabinet level post of Counsellor to the President, and the first, and so far the only woman, US Ambassador to the UK. Her last post was as Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Board, 1981-90. Her appointment as ambassador here was cut short by Jimmy Carter’s election as US President in 1976, but she made a lasting impression, and not just because of her obvious glamour. She died in 2008, aged 80. MIDDLE TEMPLETHE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF THE WINE at Middle Temple A crisp Bordeaux Blanc, a rich, classic Bordeaux Claret, or an indulgent Finest Reserve Port, our wines are carefully sourced from the best grapes and made exclusively for Middle Temple. Available to purchase from our website: middletemple.org.uk/merchandise For queries and information please call 020 7427 4800 2019 Middle Templar

A 21ST CENTURY PHENOMENON  MASTER MARILYNNE MORGAN A 21st Century Phenomenon Lady Readers of Middle Temple ‘Sex, does it matter?’ was the provocative Reading of the fifth lady Bencher. She was Autumn Reader 2009. Master Barbara Calvert (1926–2015), the first Lady Reader Linda read philosophy at Kent; she taught at first, but of Middle Temple, Lent 2001; the full title was: ‘A brief later followed in the footsteps of her grandfather Serjeant history of women at the Bar – Sex, does it matter?’ but Sullivan KC, the last Serjeant-at-Law. She studied law by the prosaic part is of course forgotten. correspondence course while working full time at Heathrow, and was Called in 1973. Her practice was in Barbara was not the first lady Bencher – that was HM The common law on the Western Circuit. She took Silk in Queen Mother, made Royal Bencher in 1944, followed by 1994, became the first female Acting Deemster in the Isle US Ambassador Anne Armstrong, made Honorary of Man and was a legal chairman of Mental Health Review Bencher in 1976 (see page 25). The first ordinary lady Tribunals. In 2009 she was appointed a Circuit Judge, and Bencher was Master Margaret Booth in 1979 (see page retired in 2018. Her Reading was ‘Misconceptions in 19); Barbara was the second, in 1982. She read economics Criminal Law’. at LSE and worked for John Lewis 1945–48. After Call in 1959 aged 33 she became a statistician at City and After Linda was Benched the appointment of lady Guilds, and did not begin at the Bar till 1961. Her practice Benchers speeded up, well, in a manner of speaking. was mostly family and employment law. She took Silk in In 2001 Master Rosalind Wright was the thirteenth to be 1975, set up her own chambers in 1977, another first for Benched and was the fourth Lady Reader in Lent 2010. women, and became the first female QC to be appointed After reading law at UCL, she was Called in 1964 and a full-time chair of Industrial Tribunals in 1986. practised until 1969 when she joined the DPP’s office; she was latterly Head of the Fraud Investigative Group. Master Sheila Cameron was Autumn Reader 2002. Sheila In 1987 she joined the Securities and Futures Authority, was the third Lady Bencher, six years after Barbara. Sheila rising to General Counsel and Director of Regulatory read law at St Hugh’s and was Called in 1959. She Policy. She was Director of the Serious Fraud Office practised in family law but after taking Silk in 1983 she 1997-2003 and was appointed CB in 2001. Ros chaired specialised in planning. Her private interest was the Fraud Advisory Panel 2003-14, and was chair of the ecclesiastical law and from 1969 she was the first woman Supervisory Committee of the European Anti-Fraud to take up a number of Church of England appointments. Office 2005-11. She currently chairs disciplinary panels In 2001 she was appointed, again as the first woman, to for accountancy regulatory bodies. Her Reading was the appellate office of Dean of the Arches, Canterbury, ‘The changing face of fraud’. and Auditor, Chancery Court of York (and as such the senior ecclesiastical judge of the Church of England); her In 2002 I became the fifteenth lady Bencher, and was Lent work in that field was the subject of her Reading, ‘The Reader 2012. I read History at Bedford College, London Court of Arches, Doctors’ Commons and Ecclesiastical and worked for four years in the Foreign and Courts’. She was made CBE in 2004 in recognition of her Commonwealth Office (FCO) doing historical research. contribution to ecclesiastical law. Master Linda Sullivan While there I undertook a correspondence conversion was Benched in 1993, five years after Sheila, and was only course, did my final year full-time, and was Called in 1972. 26 2019 Middle Templar

The FCO would not then accept married women lawyers, Director at the Office of Fair Trading 1996–2004. so I joined Department of Health and Social Security. I Her Reading given in a Hall lit with red flames was moved to the Department of the Environment and ‘London’s Burning’. became Legal Adviser in 1992, the first woman to head a government legal department and was appointed CB in Master Carol Harlow, Benched in 2009, was Lent Reader 1996. From 1997–2004 I was Legal Adviser to Department in 2019. She read law at King’s College London and after of Social Security /Department of Work and Pensions, Call in 1957 (and thus the most senior of all the Lady Department of Health and the Office of Population Readers) worked in Uganda and Lesotho as a lawyer and Censuses and Statistics, with over 500 staff around the law teacher. Later she taught at the Inns of Court School country. I did a huge range of legal, and indeed policy, of Law. In 1978 she became a lecturer at LSE, where she work in the Government Legal Service, mostly working up has remained; she is now Emeritus Professor of Law and and drafting legislation, and was an early European honorary fellow. Her primary areas of interest are specialist, contributing to Vaughan’s Law of the European administrative and comparative law and she is widely Union, and writing learned articles. I was on the Bar published. She has taught at universities around the Council 1987-92 and chaired its first committee for world, and has worked at the European University employed lawyers. I used my experiences to illustrate my Institute as Jean Monnet professor. She was a lay Reading ‘Using your skills in different ways’. member of Supplementary Benefits Appeal Tribunals, and has been associated with Legal Action Group, Justice  There should have been an eleventh and European Law Journal. Carol was appointed QC Lady Reader. In 2016 Master (honoris causa) in 1996. Her Reading was ‘Beyond Domus: Jacqueline Davies was appointed the Middle Temple and the common law’. Autumn Reader 2018; her late husband Paul Clark Master Usha Karu, Benched in 2012 is Autumn Reader had been Lent Reader 2005. 2019. Usha read Modern Studies at North London Polytechnic. After a conversion course she was Called in The next Lady Reader was Master Judith Parker, who in 1984. Her practice was in criminal law. She became a 2000 was the twelfth woman to be Benched. She was Circuit Judge in 2005, the first woman from the Indian Autumn Reader 2013. Judith read law at Somerville, subcontinent. She is Resident Judge of Inner London where she is now an honorary fellow, and was Called in Crown Court, where she tries serious crime, including 1973. In 2008 she became a High Court Judge assigned murder; she also sits at the Old Bailey. In 2010 Usha to the Family Division. Her reading, which reflected her became a judicial member of the First-tier Mental Health fascination with science fiction, was ‘A view from the (Restricted Patients Panel) Tribunal, and in 2011 was moon: science fiction and the rule of law’. appointed Diversity and Community Relations Judge for her court. She was Circuit Judge Commissioner at the Master Isobel Plumstead, Benched in 2006, was Autumn Judicial Appointments Commission 2014-18. In October Reader 2013. Isobel read law at St Hugh’s, and was Called 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by London in 1970. She too specialised in family law. She was South Bank University. Her Reading, ‘The Current Registrar and District Judge of the Principal Registry of Challenges in the Criminal Justice system’ will be given the Family Division 1990-2001 and a member of the on 22 October 2019. Independent Schools Tribunal 1992-2000. She became a Circuit Judge in 2001 and was the Designated Family There should have been an eleventh Lady Reader. In 2016 Judge for first Cambridge, then Peterborough and Master Jacqueline Davies was appointed Autumn Reader Cambridge, 2003-09. She was appointed a Judge by 2018; her late husband Paul Clark had been Lent Reader Request for the First-tier Tribunal (Health, Education and 2005. Jackie had to withdraw owing to ill health and very Social Care Chamber) in 2013. She retired as a Circuit sadly she died in April 2019. Judge in 2014. She has lectured at what is now the Judicial College since 1990. Her Reading was ‘In forma What are my conclusions on Lady Readers, a term of art I pauperis – considering access to justice for those without have devised for this article? First, I should say we have all means’. enjoyed being Reader and in particular the opportunities the role gives to engage so much with students. We have Master Pat Edwards, Benched in 2003, was Lent Reader all had perhaps unexpectedly varied careers; we have all 2017. She read law at King’s College London and was led extremely busy lives and, although I haven’t Called in 1967 after doing a correspondence course while emphasised this above, all of us have done, and still do, a working full time. She too enjoyed a wide-ranging career great deal for the Inn. I have been present at the in Government, including working in the Criminal Appeal Readings of all Lady Readers (and plan to be at Usha’s) Office, the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers, and the except Barbara’s, which I have read: the variety of subject Home Office where she drafted legislation and advised matter well reflects our backgrounds. But we no doubt on a wide range of issues from immigration to dangerous share all this with any Reader. It has to be said that while dogs and negotiating international treaties. She was establishing their careers most Lady Readers have met Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman1994-96 and Legal with some form of discrimination, if not downright hostility, which we overcame. Perhaps the only difference between male and female Readers is that males do not seek to be excused from wearing a gown over their evening dress at their Feast. The surprising thing to me is how comparatively recently, and how slowly, the Inn started to appoint lady benchers, with the inevitable result that Lady Readers are indeed a 21st Century phenomenon. 2019 Middle Templar 27

COATS OF ARMS MASTER PATRIC DICKINSON Differences in Men’s and Women’s Coats of Arms Master Dickinson was Called to the The odd one out amongst the six female panels is that of Bar in 1979 and was made a Bencher Sheila Cameron (Autumn Reader 2002). Though married, in 2015. He read history at Oxford, she displays her arms on a lozenge – and also bears a and has worked at the College of crest. But this is not a heraldic solecism. Things are Arms since 1968. He currently holds ordered differently in Scotland which has its own heraldic the office of Clarenceux King of Arms. authority in the person of Lord Lyon King of Arms and its He is also Secretary of the Order of own set of rules, rather less sexist than the English the Garter. Active in the genealogical equivalent. In Scottish heraldry a married woman is fully world for many years, he has been entitled to display her arms on a lozenge and in Scotland President of the Society of women can nowadays bear crests. Another clue to the Genealogists since 2005. He has been Cameron arms being Scottish is that the motto appears Hon Treasurer of the Bar Theatrical Society since 1978 and was a above the crest rather than below the shield (which is the founder member of Middle Temple Historical Society in 1981. norm south of the border). He was Hon Secretary of the British Record Society 1979-2010 and Chairman of the Anthony Powell Society 2003-07. The six panels contain other small variants. Barbara Calvert’s arms are topped off with a baroness’s coronet, It is perhaps striking that despite the admission of women denoting the fact that her late husband (Lord Lowry) was a to membership of Middle Temple in 1919 no woman peer. And Marilynne Morgan’s panel displays her insignia became Reader of the Inn until the 21st Century. But this as a Companion of the Order of the Bath – a circlet with deficiency has been amply remedied over the last the Order’s motto surrounding the shield and the badge nineteen years – to date 11 women have been elected of a Companion hanging below. Reader and in 2011 the first lady Treasurer (apart from the Queen Mother in 1949) took office. Most of the Lest it be thought that women are short changed by individuals concerned are represented armorially in the current heraldic practice, they do at least enjoy a financial panels that line the corridor leading to the Prince’s Room. advantage. The current cost of a new grant of shield and crest is £6,400. Though deprived of a crest, women have Heraldry treats women differently from men. Perhaps the the solace of paying a reduced fee of £4,625. largest single difference is that women do not bear crests. The word ‘crest’ is much misunderstood – and all too often used, quite wrongly, to denote any heraldic motif. A crest is not the same as a shield. It is the device that goes above the shield in a complete coat of arms, shown on top of a helmet which in turn rests on the upper edge of the shield. Worn by knights in mediaeval tournaments, crests were very much a martial device and considered distinctly unladylike. Spinsters, divorced women and widows bear their arms on a diamond-shaped shield normally called a lozenge (though an oval shape is also permissible). Married women bear arms on an escutcheon (a conventionally shaped shield) and have the choice of displaying their own arms or their husband’s. A 1997 ruling by the English Kings of Arms (the senior heralds) authorising this usage required married women and widows to add marks of differences – a small escutcheon if bearing their own arms and a small lozenge if bearing their husband’s. In 2014 the addition of small escutcheons was made optional. Several of these modes of display are visible on the panels. Those of Barbara Calvert (Lent Reader 2001), Linda Sullivan (Autumn Reader 2009) and Patricia Edwards (Lent Reader 2017) show their arms on a lozenge whereas in those of Dawn Oliver (Treasurer 2011) and Marilynne Morgan (Lent Reader 2012) they appear on shields. Small escutcheons figure on the panels of Masters Calvert and Morgan. Master Sullivan’s arms required no such addition. Master Oliver chose not to add an escutcheon (anticipating the 2014 ruling) and so did Master Edwards. 28 2019 Middle Templar

LIFE OF ELSIE BOWERMAN LIA JHALA Elsie Bowerman Elsie Bowerman was a distinguished early woman member of the Bar, and the first woman member to appear at the Old Bailey. She had a diverse and remarkable life: she was one of the survivors of the Titanic disaster in 1912; she was a prominent supporter of the women’s suffrage movement; she witnessed the Russian Revolution first-hand in 1917, having been forced to retreat from Serbia, where she was working as a volunteer motor driver in WW1 and helped to set up the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in 1946. 1908 1918 1941-45 Read Mediaeval and Modern Becomes secretary of the Women’s Joined the BBC, serving Languages at Girton College, Guild of Empire, which sparked her as the liaison officer for its Cambridge. She followed her mother North American Service into the Suffrage movement main interest in Law and set her sights on becoming a lawyer 1933 Publishes a book called ‘Law of Child Protection’ 18 December 1889 15th April 1912 1921-24 1940-72 Elsie Edith Bowerman She and her mother were first-class Admitted to Middle Temple on After her mother died born passengers on the Titanic travelling 11 October 1921 at the age of in 1953, she moved to Ohio for a holiday when it sank. 31. 23rd woman to be Called to Cowbeech near They occupied Cabin 33 on Deck E to the Bar by Middle Temple Hailsham, where she of the RMS Titanic. They were saved died in 1972 after on 17 November 1924. due to the famous ‘women and Becomes the first woman suffering a stroke children first’ tradition reinforced by the lesser quoted ‘first class barrister to appear at the Old Bailey passengers take priority’ 1889 1908 1912 1918 1921 1933 1945 1972 1911 1901 1910 1917 1938 1941 1901 1911 1941 Youngest girl to attend Graduates with a 2nd class degree in Mediaeval and Once again helped with the war Wycombe Abbey School Modern Languages. Moved to St Leonards where effort. She worked for the her mother had established a branch of the WSPU. Women’s Royal Voluntary Bowerman helped her mother run the WSPU shop on the Grand Parade and was a paid full-time Service and at the Ministry of organiser for the organisation Information 1908-10 1917 1938 Became an active Stepped away from the fight Practised on the supporter of Emmeline for women’s suffrage to support South Eastern Circuit Pankhurst’s Women’s until 1938. Her most the war effort. She joined a Social and Political Scottish women’s hospital unit famous case was Union (WSPU) and travelled to Romania. Her when she helped prosecute prominent unit ended up retreating communist activist to Russia, so she was in Harry Pollit, for libel St. Petersburg for another key moment in history: the Russian Revolution of 1917 2019 Middle Templar 29

MIDDLE TEMPLE WOMEN CHAIRS OF THE BAR COUNCIL Middle Temple Women Chairs of the Bar Master Maura McGowan Master Chantal-Aimée Doerries Master McGowan was Called to the Master Doerries was Called to the Bar Bar in 1980 and took Silk in 2001. She in 1992 and took Silk in 2008. She was was educated at Virgo Fidelis Convent made a Bencher in 2010. She Senior School and the University of specialises in energy and construction. Manchester. She was Chair of the Bar She was a Diplock Scholar and a Council in 2013 and has been a judge Harmsworth Exhibitioner. She was of the High Court (Queen’s Bench Chair of the Bar in 2016 and is a past Division) since 2014. She sits on Chair of Technology and Construction the editorial Board of the Criminal Bar Association (TECBAR) and the Bar Law Review, is a member of the Council’s International Committee. Sentencing Council and a Presiding Co-editor in chief of the International Judge of the South Eastern Circuit. Construction Law Review, co-editor of the Building Law Reports and a Contributing Editor of Hudson’s The second woman chair of the Bar Council but not the Building and Engineering Contracts 12th and 13th Ed. last, to paraphrase Theresa May. This year the Bar Council celebrates its 125th anniversary. Founded in 1894, it took Why do most chairs agree to take on the job? It sounds until 1998 to elect its first woman chair, Heather Hallett LJ faintly cheesy, but most of us do, and I did it, because we (then Heather Hallett QC). It was then another 15 years believe in the Bar. Every past chair will tell you that it’s a until I was elected its second woman chair, serving in hard gig, but it is one of the best jobs out there. It is 2013. Since then much improvement, in every sense. unique because you represent, self-evidently, the whole Master Chantal-Aimée Doerries served as Chair in 2016 Bar, whether from Swansea or Norwich, whether and Master Amanda Pinto is to serve as Chair in 2020. commercial or criminal, whether junior or Silk, whether Three members of the Middle Temple. It was a very slow self-employed or employed. The Inns, the Circuits and start but progress has been made. the SBAs and indeed Chambers, are part of the glue that keeps us together, but only the Bar Council It is a great privilege to lead the profession but it is also a represents all of us, a unified profession. very difficult job. It is a question of achieving an effective balance between any number of opposing forces. What do you do? In simple term: we represent the Bar. A whipping top is a good comparison in so many ways. Maura, Amanda and I are all different, but we all believe that there is something truly special about this profession, In recent years and for some considerable time to come, and that we need to continue to fight for it. That is what cuts in the provision of legal aid have dominated the the Chair of the Bar does, sometimes visibly, sometimes agenda but the range of topics is much wider. The behind the scenes. The job is at times exhilarating and at cohesion of the profession is incredibly important and times frustrating. It requires courage, patience, judgment, finding a balance between the publicly funded and leadership and great flexibility. At some point (or points!), commercially funded Bar is vital. A great deal of time is all of us who have been Chair will have disappointed taken up in negotiations with the Ministry of Justice someone (or more!). about fees and the provision of services. Trying to maintain the balance between the publicly funded Bar As the saying goes: You can please some of the people and the paymasters is uniquely difficult. However, there is all of the time, you can please all of the people some also the balance between the Bar Council and the Bar of the time, but you can’t please all of the people Standards Board; between the Bar Council and the Law all of the time. Society and Cilex; between the Bar Council and the Council of the Inns of Court; and between the Bar of What was it like being the third female Chair? You realise England and Wales and its international counterparts. that your being Chair can still surprise people. The Bar, like society, still has a way to go. There has been much Finding, and maintaining, that balance is at the centre change in the last 25 years, but its image often does of the role. It is vital to try to satisfy all the competing not reflect the reality. interests. There are times when it seems like an impossible task. That being said, there are moments Brexit? Was clearly an important part of 2016. The Bar of great satisfaction and achievement; avoiding the Council did not take a side, but showcased the Bar’s introduction of ‘one case one fee’ was a moment of great talent by providing independent and informed papers achievement. Attending the first joint Bar Council on the about the consequences of leaving or remaining. After island of Ireland since Partition, was a moment of great the vote, we lobbied in those areas affecting our personal satisfaction. members and the justice system. My year was almost over when the Bar was asked to stand up and defend Leading the profession is not just a great privilege it is a the independent judiciary, aka the ‘Enemies of the tremendously rewarding experience. This decade has People’. Perhaps the most important lesson from having shown that women can serve on an equal basis and whilst been Chair of the Bar is that we cannot afford to take there has been much improvement in the position of for granted that society understands the essentials of women at the top of the profession, to quote another a fair and functioning justice system. former Prime Minister, ‘things can only get better’. 30 2019 Middle Templar

Master Amanda Pinto responsibilities. They have to wait until their obligations at home diminish (I personally became more involved with Master Pinto was Called to the Bar in the Inn and the Bar Council only when my youngest was in 1983 and took Silk in 2006. She was double digits). What the women leaders of these SBAs made a Bencher in 2012. She is a demonstrate is that, although it may take longer for us to commercial crime and regulatory get there, attaining such an office is not just aspirational, specialist, writing and lecturing on but realistic. Moreover, I hope that the trend of corporate crime, corruption and appointments at the top will encourage those struggling money laundering in the UK and to progress as quickly as they would like to be heartened abroad. She is Vice-Chair of the and continue in such a rewarding career. International Committee of the Bar Council, the Director of International One of the great joys of being Chair of the Bar Council’s Affairs for the Criminal Bar Association International Committee was meeting overseas lawyers and the UK’s representative on the and seeing how they address the challenges we all face. Council of the International Criminal Bar. She is an advocacy There is no single right way to provide access to justice but trainer at the Inn. She is Vice-Chair of the Bar Council for 2019 I have witnessed more and more diverse lawyers and will be Chair in 2020. contributing to the delivery of justice domestically and across the world. Despite our differences, many concerns I am honoured to follow in the footsteps of Maura and are common to us all: for example, the rise of technology Chantal, as the third Middle Temple female Chair of the and the digitalisation of legal services; the right level of Bar. Although I will be the third woman Chair in eight years, regulation of the profession; protection of the public from I will only be the fourth in 126 years so I too am delighted unregulated ‘service providers’; a supported, independent that progress is speeding up! In my year as Chair of the judiciary, free from attack by the executive. It is learning Bar, there will also be female chairs of the CBA, Combar, from our different approaches and perspectives on similar the Chancery Bar Law Association, TecBar, BHRC and YBC issues that helps inform and improve our responses. (and there may be others that I have overlooked). And as for women joining the Bench of Middle Temple, whereas It is this collaborative spirit that I have enjoyed in the overall only about one fifth of Benchers are female, about international arena that I hope to extend to my role as one third of those benched in 2018 were women and, as I Chair of the Bar. Luckily, I have not just great role models write, in 2019 there is parity with men. The message is clear but promises of support from my eminent predecessors – women can and do lead our profession. (even if given over a glass of St Veran). Despite their words about the inevitable challenges in the role, I am We are well aware that far too many junior practitioners looking forward to an interesting and exciting year, choose to leave independent practice, if not the Bar representing the profession I love. entirely; many, especially women, simply cannot devote the time to those extra tasks which are necessary to progress to senior positions because of caring The Free Representation Unit has been around 31 since 1972. Since then we have offered an unrivalled opportunity for junior lawyers, particularly Bar students, to gain advocacy experience at the start of their careers. Many distinguished silks had their first advocacy experience representing a FRU client. We work in the areas of employment, social security and criminal injuries compensation. We act both at first instance and in appeal tribunals. Many of our clients are vulnerable and on low incomes and without our assistance they would likely be litigants in person. Each year on average FRU represents around 500 clients and trains around 1000 students. To find out how you can volunteer for us or make a donation to support our work, please visit our website www.thefru.org.uk 2019 Middle Templar

THE THIRD MIDDLE TEMPLE WOMAN DIRECTOR OF THE SFO  MASTER LISA OSOFSKY Taking Over as Director of the Serious Fraud Office Master Osofsky was Called to the Bar Alongside my need to acquire a comprehensive 1997. She became the Director of the understanding of our caseload, one of the drivers for Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in 2018. conducting this exercise was to identify those cases which Prior to this, she helped to build a should be closed: those which had sprawled or drifted, or risk, governance, and compliance where a fresh and dispassionate assessment would company, from a staff of two to over conclude that the Full Code Test for Crown Prosecutors 500. She served as EMEA Regional was unlikely to be met even after another year or two Chair, focusing on the AML and spent pursuing every line of enquiry. I have been mindful Sanctions monitorship of HSBC Bank too of the opportunity cost of persisting with cases where and other compliance work in the prospects are poor or remote: I am keen that our very Europe. She served as Deputy able people are deployed on our most promising General Counsel and Ethics officer of investigations, and I knew we had some great new cases the FBI and the Money Laundering Reporting Officer at in the intelligence pipeline. I have opened several new Goldman Sachs and also in key prosecutorial roles at the US criminal investigations since joining; two, involving Department of Justice. She was made a Bencher in 2019. Patisserie Valerie and London Capital Finance, are in the public domain. I had the honour of taking up the post of Serious Fraud Office (SFO) Director in late August 2018. It has been a Nevertheless, decisions to close cases on which time, busy few months: the SFO has achieved 13 convictions energy and resources have been expended are difficult (six in a solar panel installation fraud, two for fraud and ones to take. They can also draw criticism, particularly money laundering at Afren, one further conviction each in if charges are widely expected. the Bertling and Alstom bribery cases, two for EURIBOR rate rigging, and one in the ongoing Petrofac bribery investigation). We also have had our acquittals and setbacks, notably a dismissal at retrial of our case against individuals for false accounting at Tesco and an adverse High Court ruling in relation to the corporate defendants in Barclays (Qatar Holdings). When I joined I had already, unsurprisingly, spoken to a wide range of people and formed views about my initial priorities. These reflected my thoughts on what the SFO needs to do in response to societal changes – globalisation, the data explosion – but also to some age-old challenges which have vexed the SFO since it came into being: the pace at which we are able to progress investigations and the desirability of more proactively finding and developing the intelligence from which our cases spring. In summary, I saw the responses to these challenges as: engagement and partnership, building capabilities (especially in intelligence and technology) and exploiting new tools to gain efficiencies in every stage of our operations. The first task I set myself was to meet with every team and review every case on our books. Our caseload, consisting of a small number of large and often high profile cases, meant this was both feasible and desirable. I was struck by how compelling I found most of our investigations, and how dedicated, resourceful and determined our people are in pursuit of them. Almost invariably I ended these meetings feeling enthused and excited about the work going on. 32 2019 Middle Templar

 It is early days but I am ambitious and believe that the SFO can achieve a measurable improvement during my tenure. I am pleased to say that with the arrival of our new General Counsel, Sara Lawson QC, our Executive Group will achieve gender balance – 50% male, 50% female. However, especially in historic cases, the reality is that key When I joined, the SFO already had excellent policies suspects, evidence and witnesses can be unavailable and to combat bias – diversity training, development the case, unpromising or un-prosecutable. In short, in opportunities, mandatory gender representation on some cases it was simply no longer in the public interest recruitment and promotion panels, support for flexible to continue them. To date, I have decided to close fewer working. We have an Equality and Diversity Working cases than I had originally presumed I might, although I Group and, now, a gender equality network, whose have been able to ensure that others have been re- members are looking at how to address some of the energised and are now focused more sharply. These were practical ways that gender inequality manifests itself my decisions, but they were taken following thorough in our organisation. discussions with the case teams and my senior professional colleagues. My contribution is and will be to visibly champion – and enforce – these policies and to encourage a culture where My second priority was to build on our relationships with everyone, regardless of their gender or background, can our partners, at home and abroad. As our kind of crime is progress as far as their talent and ambition can take them. increasingly transnational and as criminals are early adopters of new structures and technology, law This means more mentoring, both through our formal enforcement needs to work together to overcome the scheme and on an ad hoc basis, where senior barriers jurisdictional differences impose. My experience professionals keep an open door for less experienced is that colleagues in law enforcement share a common colleagues and create opportunities for them. One way of mission and that effective cooperation can be facilitated ‘institutionalising’ this is our new practice of inviting by efforts to understand and accommodate our everybody in our case teams, regardless of seniority, to differences. To this end I, and other senior personnel, the regular meetings we have to assess progress and have engaged with our counterparts in the US (where consider the development of our strategy. This allows our I was born and where I spent my early career) and in junior people the opportunity to give their views (and to many other jurisdictions around the world. The SFO shine) and get exposure to how strategy is developed also engages intensively with our domestic law and key decisions are taken. It means inviting inspiring enforcement and government partners and we are speakers to share their experiences and insights with our looking to develop our relationships with key elements people. It means rigorously examining the available of the private sector as well. To build capabilities, I have evidence: diversity data, exit interviews, staff survey results made some changes to my senior team, creating two new and other feedback, for pointers to what we need to do posts. The SFO is investing heavily in both technology differently. and in people, notably in our intelligence unit. Here, also, relationships with partners is crucial, as we can share This is a long-term effort building on what went before. information and learn from each other’s experiences. It is early days but I am ambitious and believe that the SFO can achieve a measurable improvement during my Finally: one of my priorities from day one in the job has tenure. I am pleased to say that with the arrival of our new been to promote diversity and inclusion at the SFO. General Counsel, Sara Lawson QC, our Executive Group This is largely an internal-facing agenda (although it is will achieve gender balance – 50% male, 50% female. also important to demonstrate this commitment to those Although this is not the case with our Board, it is likewise we seek to recruit) but it is relevant to us all given how gratifying to report that with the recruitment of new intractable the biases in our profession seem to be. Even Non-Executive Directors its ethnic diversity is improving. as we celebrate 100 years of women in law, the sobering As well as our professional diversity, people with different truth is that we are nowhere near gender equality. backgrounds, thinking and problem-solving styles and life experiences are essential if we are to do our best work as an organisation. 2019 Middle Templar 33

CROSSING THE BORDER ANGELA GRAHAME QC The First Woman to Practise as a QC at the Bars of England & Wales and Scotland Angela Grahame QC was Called to The Scottish Bar however, remains predominantly male, the Scottish Bar in 1995 and took Silk with fewer than 27% female members; and only one in 2009. She was then Called to the female pupil (devil) this year. There have been Bar of England and Wales in 2019. improvements to the gender balance over the years. She undertakes a wide range of civil When I was Called to the Scottish Bar in 1995, only 17% litigation, including cases relating to of the Bar were female with no female judges, now 26% personal injury, clinical negligence of the senior judiciary (Senators) are female. and high-profile Public Inquiries. She was elected Vice Dean (Vice-Chair) of 2019 is the Centenary of Women in Law and I have the Scottish Bar in 2016. She is a enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate this milestone: serving Chair of the Police Appeals hosting an event with The Hon Lady Wolffe, the first Tribunal and an Arbitrator in commercial international female Commercial judge; and am due to take part in the arbitrations. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of forthcoming Summit on 100 Years of Women in the Law Arbitrators and an Honorary Lecturer in International Arbitration in Parliament House with the Cabinet Secretary for in the University of Aberdeen. Justice and the Minister for Community Safety. In September, I have the honour of welcoming, The Rt Hon. Upon being told I was a girl, my grandfather said to my Lady Hale, President of the Supreme Court to an event I mother: ‘Never mind. Better luck next time’. I do not hold am organising in the Advocates’ Library. any grudges; he was a man of his time. When I bear in mind that less than 50 years beforehand women were not On a personal note, until recently the idea of myself permitted to study or practise law, it is almost being Calling to the Bar of England and Wales was as understandable that a man of that generation would fanciful as Dick Whittington believing that the streets of consider the birth of a daughter to be a disappointment. London were paved with gold. I was Called at the Luckily, my mother did not consider my gender to be a Scottish Bar in 1995 and took Silk in 2009. It is three years disadvantage in life and she was the first person to since I became Vice Dean (equivalent of Vice-Chair). A encourage me to become a lawyer and has been a trip to Middle Temple two years ago sparked my interest fantastic support over the years. and on 14 March 2019, I attend the historic ceremony presided over by the Treasurer, Master David Bean and It was not until the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act was delighted to be admitted as a member. 1919 that the law was changed. The first female admitted to practise in the legal profession in the UK was Madge In England, as opposed to Scotland, Call by an Inn of Easton Anderson from Glasgow who qualified as a Court although essential is only part of the story. I am also solicitor in Scotland in 1920. The first Advocate at the delighted to have joined my new award-winning Scottish Bar was Dame Margaret Kidd KC, who was chambers: 3PB Barristers. Under the strong guidance of Called in 1923 and was the only woman at the Scottish David Berkley QC, Head of Chambers, and Simon Astill, Bar for over 25 years. CEO, the national set are making great strides and I am looking forward to being part of that journey. In Scotland, where I have spent the majority of my professional career, the solicitors’ profession is now made So, despite my grandfather’s early reservations, I now up of more than 50% women (the second country in the have the honour of being the first female Silk from world to reach that milestone). That trend will continue Scotland to have been Called to the Bar of England and with more than 65% women studying law at university. Wales; the first female Advocate from the Scottish Bar to Call and practise here in nearly 20 years; and a proud new member of Middle Temple. 34 2019 Middle Templar

THE FIRST MIDDLE TEMPLAR WOMAN CHAIR OF COMBAR MASTER SONIA TOLANEY The First Middle Templar Woman Chair of COMBAR Master Tolaney was Called to the Bar As well as our annual “North America Meeting” which in 1995 and took Silk in 2011. She read was held in New Orleans at the end of May, a third Jurisprudence as a scholar at Lady COMBAR India Roundtable conference will take place in Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was the Delhi on 13 September 2019. These events offer Banking and Finance Junior of the COMBAR members the opportunity to build new Year in 2007 (Chambers and Partners), relationships and deepen existing ones, while providing a and the Commercial Litigation Junior multi-jurisdictional forum for the exchanging of ideas, of the Year in 2008 and in 2009. She developments in the law and regional market insights. served on the panel of the Temple Women’s Forum and was a founder Of equal importance is the work which COMBAR has member of the Times Law Panel in been doing at home, alongside Middle Temple, to 2007 She was made a Bencher in 2013. improve access to the Commercial Bar. A career at the Commercial Bar is immensely rewarding and offers I am honoured to be taking over the reins this year as the challenging and intellectually stimulating work. It is crucial Chair of the Commercial Bar Association. This year is a that it is accessible to all, and that potential applicants special anniversary for COMBAR – it has been 30 years appreciate that that is the case. To further this aim, since COMBAR was established. COMBAR, in celebration of its 25th anniversary, In that period COMBAR has played an important role in introduced 10 scholarships to fund two weeks of work representing the Commercial Bar and the rights and experience in commercial chambers and marshalling for interests of our members, to the wider world. students who would otherwise struggle to afford the With the threat of Brexit looming large, COMBAR will expenses associated with such placements. COMBAR continue its work promoting the Commercial Bar also attends careers fairs at multiple universities in the UK overseas and ensuring that London remains the forum of to ensure that students from a diverse pool of universities choice for parties seeking to resolve commercial disputes. are aware of the opportunities offered by a career at the Maintaining this international appeal is of the utmost Commercial Bar. importance to the Commercial Bar. Surveys conducted in 2017-18 indicate that international cases account for 70% Access to commercial law advice and representation for of the Commercial Court’s business. Similarly the 2018 those who cannot afford it is another area which International Arbitration Survey found that London was COMBAR is seeking to improve. As well as continuing to selected as the most preferred seat by respondents in donate to and support ‘Advocate’ (previously known as all regions of the world. the Bar Pro Bono Unit), COMBAR is assisting with the development of a specialist pro bono scheme in the COMBAR London Circuit Commercial Court (LCCC). The Scheme is a collaboration between Advocate and the LCCC and aims to provide pro-bono assistance and representation for litigants in person appearing in applications to be heard in the LCCC. Over the past year there have also been a number of consultations and proposals from the Bar Standards Board and other bodies, on issues which have a meaningful impact on those practising at the Commercial Bar. For example, in the past year there have been consultations on: the QC appointment process, the introduction of the new Disclosure Pilot Scheme, transparency of fees and the future of training for the Bar. An important aspect of COMBAR’s work is responding to these consultations and representing the views and interests of its membership. It has been an exciting year for COMBAR. The Executive Committee and I will continue to work hard to see that the Commercial Bar continues to flourish. 2019 Middle Templar 35

A MAN’S WORLD? MASTER ADRIENNE PAGE Reflections on Barging into a Man’s World Reproduced from an article in Vol. 5 of the Women in Higher Education magazine in 1973, produced by the Forum for University Staff and Students (FUSS), University of Kent, written by Master Page when she was a student. Master Page was Called to the Bar in …She is asking no more than 1974 and took Silk in 1999. She is a that she should be allowed to specialist practitioner in defamation, practise the career for which privacy and related areas of law. She she has proved herself qualified. has spent her whole career at the She discovers, however, that media law chambers now known as the profession to which she 5RB. She was appointed an Assistant is seeking admission, in the Recorder in 1995 and a Recorder in practical sense of the word, 1999 (serving until 2004). Between operates on a closer shop; those 2003 and 2011 she was Joint Head of who enter do so only with Chambers at 5RB. She was made a the approval of gentlemen. Bencher in 2003. heading ‘Women in Law: a question of changing society’s ‘Fifty-two years I’ve been a barristers’ clerk, and in all views of women’s role and the profession’s needs’, that time there has never been a woman member of about six percent of barristers are women. The Hon. Mrs my chambers; and this one, she’ll come in here over Justice Lane is still the only woman among 70 High Court my dead body!’ Judges; there are no women at either the Court of Appeal or the House of Lords. Among over 200 circuit It is with those determined words that the play With judges, there are only three women; there is only one Prejudice, broadcast over Easter, opens. There is worse practising QC among over 250 men. The most significant to follow. Women, we are told, are a dead loss in of these figures is undoubtedly the last, the average age Chambers. Women are not tough; they are not logical. of QC’s being in all probability the lowest of all the Women are in fact only good for one thing, and that is categories of practitioners mentioned. Why are women how they invariably end up: married. It’s nothing to do staying right at the bottom of the ladder? Ruth Miller with prejudice, of course; you can’t sell a woman to reproduces a passage from the evidence given by clients: the average solicitor will not brief a woman. women barristers before Lady Seear’s House of Lords And so the buck is passed. Select Committee on discrimination: ‘…a majority (my own under-lining) of sets of Chambers have still The play, written by James Fairfax, focuses on the apparently never had a woman tenant… And a number difficulties encountered by a young woman, newly Called of set openly admits to the deliberate exclusion of to the Bar, in trying to find a place in Chambers; in other women. This policy is most frequent in the most words, a desk in a room. She is asking no more than that successful Chambers. Some sets which do admit women she should be allowed to practise the career for which operate a quota system… What is equally important, but she has proved herself qualified. She discovers, however, more difficult to establish, is the treatment accorded to that the profession to which she is seeking admission, in women once they are in Chambers. In some sets they are the practical sense of the word, operates a closed shop; obviously treated fairly but in others… they are passed those who enter do so only with the approval of over for worthwhile work’. gentlemen – I quote the words of the playwright, ‘gentlemen who thought that progress ended in 1914’. After qualification, the key to practise at the Bar lies, The most serious indictment of all is that when she finally firstly, in obtaining a pupillage. My impression is that this succeeds in obtaining a place in Chambers, it is with is not too difficult, but one is lucky to be kept on in the credit neither to herself nor to the legal profession: as it same Chambers after pupillage; secondly, one must find happens, she is the niece of an eminent Australian High Court Judge. The prejudice simply vanishes: The moral, I’m afraid, is only too clear: it is not what you know, it is who you know. Yes, it is only a play; but if the picture presented was distorted, that distortion, I believe, was one not of kind, but of degree. So what about those of us who are not nieces of High Court Judges? In order to put that matter into perspective, what, first of all, are the figures for women practising at the Bar? According to an article by Ruth Miller, published in the Times during 1972, under the 36 2019 Middle Templar

a permanent place in Chambers: generally known as a Many successful women barristers, however, have tenancy; finally, of course, one must attract the work. managed to combine the responsibilities of both practice Over recent years, the stumbling block has shifted and marriage; for example, the Hon. Mrs Justice Lane, from stage three to stage two and, though to a lesser and Mrs Margaret Puxon. Marriage is obviously not the extent, stage one. Twenty years ago, therefore, the fundamental problem. The answer is perhaps to be found problem was not to find a place in Chambers, but to in the following passage from ‘Learning the Law’, by attract the briefs once one was there; the work was scarce Glanville Williams: and the competition fierce. But whereas the work supply has increased, the number of places available in Practice at the Bar is a demanding task for a man; it is Chambers has not risen proportionately. It is very even more difficult for a woman. In building up her regrettable that more has not been done to create new practice she has a double prejudice to conquer: the tenancies. On the one hand there is, by all accounts, an prejudice of the solicitor, and the prejudice of the abundant supply of work; on the other hand, there is an solicitor’s lay client. It is not easy for a young man to abundant supply of qualified barristers; but the channel get up and face the court; many women find it harder of access between the two is either incapable of, or still. An advocate’s task is essentially combative, reluctant to, expand. The distinction is academic. The whereas women are not generally prepared to give solution to expansion lies in inducing successful battle unless they are annoyed. A woman’s voice, also, practitioners to break away and start up new Chambers. does not carry as well as a man’s. The capital outlay involved is considerable, not least the cost of a library and an insurance policy. The inducement It is not my intention here to comment on the justification must also be sufficient to attract a barrister away from the or otherwise of such value judgements, but it does prospect of inheriting the successful practice of a more highlight an interesting problem that faces a woman, and senior member of the Chambers on the retirement of the one that I have come up against while dining in the Inn. Head of Chambers. Subject to limited exceptions, this That problem is essentially one of how to strike the right has proved almost impossible. The shortage of tenancies balance in one’s behaviour. The situation is, on the face of is affecting barristers of both sexes. There is no doubt, it, a little absurd. The average Bar student is going to however, that women suffer more than proportionately. have to rely almost entirely upon contacts made while dining in the Inn in order to obtain a place in Chambers By the time a barrister is ready to practise he will have later on. The contacts that will prove most fruitful will be invested a considerable sum of money in his career; not well-established barristers who are fairly well placed in least, in the hefty membership fees of his Inn of Court; Chambers. They will be men. In order to make these the cost of keeping twelve dining terms; his Call fees; and contacts, it is essential to show these gentlemen the the purchase of a wig and gown. More important, utmost respect. For precisely that reason, a progressively however, he has passed the required examinations. Why, feminine or ‘militant’ attitude with respect to the prospect therefore, should prejudice operate against women? One of women at the Bar, is just not on. does not undergo an additional test in applying for Chambers, a barrister therefore has no particular reason The prospects, as I have described them, do look a little to assume that a girl, if she has undergone the same bleak. It is to be hoped that as more and more women process of qualification as a man, is any less prepared or enter practice they will make a concerted effort to exert able for that matter, to practise at the Bar. There are the their influence, particularly in Chambers, to help their standard arguments, of course, which are aimed at fellow women; and to ensure that every year will bring women everywhere: most common among these is that both an absolute and relative increase in the number of a woman is ‘likely’ to leave and get married. women being admitted to practise at the Bar. 2019 Middle Templar 37

WOMEN’S EMANCIPATION  MASTER JO DELAHUNTY Equality Where are we now? Master Delahunty was Called to the It took commitment and sheer bloody mindedness for Bar in 1986, took Silk in 2006 and was women of my generation, who didn’t have any family appointed Recorder in 2010. FLBA tradition or contacts in law, to assail the Temple walls executive 2010-present, she is a star with the brazen confidence of courage borne out of of the Family Bar. She is committed to ignorance of the obstacles we faced. Without St Anne’s, Legal Aid work, and noted for her Oxford as my academic pedigree, as a child of a single ‘rapier-like incisiveness’. She parent family from a comprehensive school, I wouldn’t specialises in serious abuse cases have got off the career starting blocks at the Bar. involving the death of/catastrophic injuries to a child; intergenerational/ I was Called to the Bar in 1986. By that time Lady Hale inter-sibling sex abuse, child cruelty had started her ascent to judicial success by being and ritualised abuse appointed to the Law Commission. I had to wait until 1988 to see the first woman appointed as a Justice of This year marks the centenary of the Sex Discrimination Appeal (the indomitable Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss (Removal) Act 1919. It was a first step on the road to who later became the first female President of the equality for women, but there is still a long road to travel Family Division in 1999). How many people know the significance of that Act? So have we now broken through that glass ceiling? Quite Many readers may think the pivotal moment in women’s simply: ‘No’. While increasing numbers of women have fight for equality was when women over 30 got the right entered the profession over the past two decades, high to vote under the Representation of the People Act numbers of women are leaving. Women are more likely 1918. But did you know that until the Sex Discrimination to leave if they have experienced discrimination or (Removal) Act of 1919 Act women weren’t recognised in harassment, if they are Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic law as a legal entity? I have been granted my (BAME) or if they have primary caring responsibilities for Jurisprudence degree. I have been called to The Bar. I children. The Bar Council Report of 2015 found the main have sworn my Judicial Oath. I am married but I maintain reasons for women leaving were current and future my maiden (and only) name and my children take it along income, the impact of criminal legal aid cuts, child with my husband’s. One hundred years ago I would have caring responsibilities (mainly those aged 35-44) and been denied all those rights to professional and personal an increase in expected pro bono work. self-determination as a lawyer for no reason other than I was born a woman. In law I did not exist as a ‘person’. Statistics from recent QC appointments indicate that even though women applicants are more likely to be Law was the last profession in England, apart from the successful in the competition, the number of female Church, to hold out against women’s entry. In 1913 applicants remains low. A 2016 report by The Bar Council Gwyneth Bebb, who had read law at St Hugh’s, gave her highlighted that if current trends continue, the proportion name to the case that challenged the exclusion of of women QCs is unlikely ever to mirror the number of women from the legal profession. The court ruled that women entering the profession. Christina Blacklaws, women were incapable of carrying out a public function President of the Law Society of England and Wales, in common law: a disability that must remain ‘unless and wrote this April that whilst in 2017 women accounted for until’ Parliament changed the law. ‘Are Men Lawyers 50.2% of practising certificate holders as solicitors, out of Afraid of Women’s Brains?’ asked the (mostly) 30,000 partners in private practice only 28% are women. sympathetic press. The publicity helped to mobilise a campaign for equality. Some words ring true across the generations. Some 25 years ago, Helena Kennedy QC, Baroness of The Shaws, So was professional equality gained in 1919? Hardly. said: ‘As in other professions, there is a glass ceiling for We saw the passage of the Sex Discrimination Act in women, which means that getting to the top floor 1974. We saw the indomitable Barbara Calvert QC involves a detour out through the window and up the become the first Head of Chambers in 1974: but these drainpipe, rather than a direct route along the charted fabulous women, and others like them, were clearly corridors of power’. thought to be exceptions to the rule rather than illustrative of what women could and should do. While progress has been made, change is happening far, far too slowly. How long can the situation be Consider this text from a 1978 Careers Advice Book tolerated? A fantastically creative woman called Dana which sagely advises readers that ‘an advocate’s task is Denis-Smith (a former solicitor, international journalist essentially combative, whereas women are not generally and now entrepreneur) conceived and set up ‘The First prepared to give battle unless they are annoyed. A 100 Years’ project in 2014 in order to help women place woman’s voice, also, does not carry as well themselves in history. She has been a phenomenal force as a man’s’. Really? Tell that to the witnesses I cross in making visible the hidden achievements of women in examine. The women I know go not only into battle but law for generations. As she has recently said, ‘Diversity do it with panache and skill. We dance with words and is not just about what you can see in terms of race or when compared to a man I channel this vibe (apropos gender… it can be found in the details of the challenges Fred Astaire’s skills): ‘Sure he was great, but don’t forget and struggles they have experienced to get where that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backwards they are today’. and in high heels’. 38 2019 Middle Templar

The clarion cry she sounded was this: ‘One Hundred treatment should be expected for both men and women Years ago the battle was for participation in the legal at all levels. As Christina Blacklaws said, ‘Of course system. With more women than men now entering the women need to support other women to achieve this but profession what we need now is equal numbers of men men raising their awareness, taking responsibility and and women in leadership positions, receiving the same being accountable for gender equality is also critical to remuneration’. achieving true diversity and inclusion in the profession’. Dana and I are in accord when we say that ‘culturally we The unanimous call is for action and for advocacy to seem to need our female leaders to be perfect and at support equal right. I strongly believe that it is the the top of their game while mediocre men climb the responsibility of those who have climbed the ladder not ranks all the time by simply being capable of doing their to knock away the rungs but to lean down to offer a hand job’. The task I believe we face in this hundredth to hold as others climb up and not to be afraid of taking anniversary year is to identify and tackle barriers to a public stance to give a voice to those who don’t have advancement. We need to look at unconscious bias. the autonomy to speak up and out. I am not alone in We need to confront sexual harassment and male bias that belief. There are fantastic role models out there: power politics. We need to be prepared to hold factors The Lady Hale, Baroness Helen Kennedy QC and such as allocation of briefs, chances to be led and to Baroness Ruth Deech QC (Hon). They haven’t risen to speak at seminars (at the Bar), work allocation in the prominence by being quiet and avoiding controversy. office and a transparent reward systems (in private We need women to take up their baton. Many are. practice) up for scrutiny and accountability. Equal Listen out: the call for equality is now a clamour. 2019 Middle Templar 39

WORKING MOTHERS MASTER KAMA MELLY A Modern Chambers Approach to Motherhood Master Melly was Called to the Bar in this to my advantage when the family was young – I 1997, took Silk in 2016 and became a managed to negotiate a slightly longer lunch break from Recorder in 2018. She was awarded a my trial judge in return for starting earlier and went home Benefactor’s scholarship, Blackstone’s for lunch on my kids’ birthdays. Entrance Exhibition and Stanley Wareing House Award. Practises from This method will not work for everyone and is probably Park Square Barristers in Leeds where only achievable outside of London and, whilst it worked she is Deputy Head of Chambers. She for me, it had downsides. I turned down great work has a predominantly criminal practice, outside of Leeds and at times couldn’t fill my diary. specialising in cases involving However, as you are only available for returns in one place vulnerable witnesses. Elected and you become known to every local solicitor, it soon member of the Bar Council and Chaired the Bar Conference in meant that I could fill my diary with local work. Having no 2015. She is a senior advocacy trainer. She was made a Bencher commute meant that even with conferences I was always in 2018. home before bed and often able to go to the park etc. after work. As I sat in the dead end road outside Grimsby Crown Court crying and willing myself to get out of the car I Once I was busy enough I was able to work part time by realised something had to change. strictly working only term time. This meant I was never further than six weeks from a week of being home. Of I had that morning got my baby son up (after a terrible course, now my kids are teenagers, they make sure that I night), changed him, breakfasted, dressed, changed work during school holidays. again, got myself ready, drove to nursery where he became distressed as I left, got to chambers to pick up I was determined to miss as few school events as papers and drove the 80-minute journey to Grimsby. possible. I spoke to the head teacher and arranged to By the time I had parked I felt shattered physically have advance notice of even the pencilled dates before and emotionally. the start of the year. I would then sit with my clerks and book off dates months in advance. I thought the issue was childcare and the hectic mornings that didn’t feel right. I couldn’t afford a nanny (I’m a legal Nevertheless, I came to realise that it wasn’t the rules in aid family and crime practitioner) but a colleague lived chambers that made a difference, it was the attitude. locally and we found that sharing one was the same price There is a world of difference in the feeling you are left as nursery. This improved our lives to an extent – I could with when you’re told: ‘You do right – Miss, have a great play with my baby in the morning, leaving someone else day’ and not, ‘Well, of course I’ll book that day off, if that’s to do the graft. I had less guilt, knowing he was doing all what you think is best’. When I returned to work, I wasn’t the things such as swimming, day trips and crafts that I aware of another mother with young children working in would have done if I had been home. Crime in the city. Today, I am delighted that in my chambers we have dozens of young mothers. They all However, ultimately the travel, the relentless nature of work on terms they want, with supportive clerking and being in trials, meant that even when I got the childcare management teams. We have a favourable parental leave sorted, I was still miserable and on the brink of leaving policy. We want mothers to feel part of chambers and the Bar. I approached a very senior practitioner, who had have turned one of our conference rooms into a children, and asked her how she managed. ‘A live-in breastfeeding room by the addition of a mini-fridge and nanny and boarding school’. I make no criticism at all of a locked door (though we realised the photos of our other people’s choices, but that was never going to work retired judges had to come down as it seems they dried for me. up women’s milk). I worked out what needed to change if I was going to We have childcare in chambers for when we have have a chance of being the mum I wanted to be and have wellbeing events and plan to expand this for team the career I wanted. First of all, my practice on the east meetings and our AGM. We have a support/counselling coast had to go. My nearest court was Leeds. I moved service and offer a return to work session for all those chambers to what was Number 6 Park Square, now returning after career breaks. Many of our events, such as PSQB, the busiest criminal Leeds set. I sat down with our weekend away, include families, and the inclusive the clerks and explained how I knew I wouldn’t stay if I nature of events helps people stay connected with couldn’t be local. To my shock this was greeted with chambers even when on maternity leave. enthusiasm – my senior clerk recognising that a more mutually beneficial working relationship would develop That is not to say it is perfect. There is much to be long-term if he could weather my requests for the improved in terms of working practices and stereotypical next few years. briefing policies, but if we continue to build on our retention I am confident we have a hope of beginning to To enable this change, we moved to the closest decent balance the gender representation at the senior end of suburb, where I was just a 15 minute drive to court. I used our profession. 40 2019 Middle Templar

MIDDLE TEMPLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY  MTHS Calendar 2019-20 Meetings of the Middle Temple Historical Society are open to all members, staff, friends of the Inn and their guests who are welcome to attend a meeting before becoming members. We meet four times a year in the Bench Apartments for drinks at 6:30pm followed by an informal buffet supper and a talk on an historical topic, usually with a legal theme. Meetings finish at 9:15pm. Tickets cost £30 (£15 for students of the Inn) and can be booked through the Events page of the Inn’s website. Those who are not members of the Inn or who are unable to book online may book by contacting the Treasury Office. Please note that meetings are not qualifying sessions. 2019 2020 Tuesday 5 November Tuesday 14 January Helena Normanton The Silent Revolution in Advocacy in the 20th Century Dr Judith Bourne, Programme Director at St Mary’s Dr Andrew Watson, Sheffield Hallam University University, London By the 1940s the dramatic advocacy of the late 19th After years of effort Helena Normanton was finally able Century had been replaced by a conversational tone and to join the Middle Temple as a student on Christmas Eve appeals to juries were now based on reason combined 1919. Less than three years later she became only the with a controlled appeal to emotion. Dr Andrew Watson second woman to be Called, later becoming one of the will recount how this happened. first women King’s Counsel. Her biographer, Dr Judith Bourne, will help us celebrate this determined and Bookings close on 9 January. remarkable member of the Inn. Tuesday 25 February Bookings close on 31 October. The Two Hakluyts The meeting is preceded by the Society’s AGM at 6:15pm. Professor Stephen Alford, Professor of Early Modern English History, the University of Leeds Richard Hakluyt, the younger, is famous for his accounts of the many Elizabethan explorers at the end of the 16th Century. As well as being a passionate cosmographer, his uncle, also called Richard, was a member of the Middle Temple. Professor Alford will tell the story of uncle and nephew. Bookings close on 20 February. Tuesday 17 March The Early Gardens of the Inns of Court Dr Paula Henderson Dr Henderson, an architectural and garden historian will describe how mediaeval garden design was adapted for the use of an elite professional society in the increasingly confined urban environment of the early modern period. Bookings close on 12 March. For further information about the Society and to enquire about membership, contact Master John Mitchell at [email protected] 2019 Middle Templar 41

HELENA NORMANTON INKSTAND MASTER JOHN LESLIE Helena Normanton’s Inkstand The donation of the gift and the Inn’s response In 1936, Helena Normanton presented the Inn with a large square silver inkstand made in 1935 by the distinguished silversmiths E. Barnard & Sons. Master Leslie was Called to the Bar in The inkstand is hall-marked for London in 1935; given that 1969 and was a Queen’s Bench year it also has the ‘Jubilee Mark’ – depicting the heads Master 1996-2016. He was made a of King George V and Queen Mary to mark the Silver Bencher in 2002 and was appointed Jubilee of their accession to the throne. It is said to be Master of the Silver in 2017. He grew one of the very last Jubilee marks applied; the King died up surrounded by silver, as his on 20 January 1936 and it is to be presumed that no such father’s business was in the London marks were applied after his demise. It is also interesting Silver Vaults; so, he has had an to note that the letter identifying the year in which the interest in it all his life hall-mark was applied changed, not with the calendar year, but on 29 May each year – so the gothic lower-case This is a handsome piece of silver, the design of which is ‘U’ for 1935 was used (at the London hall) from 29 May derived from a salver made in 1721 by a Huguenot 1935 until 28 May 1936. The significance of the date is silversmith, Augustin Courtauld. The square cast tray that it was King Charles II’s birthday and he decreed the bears the Middle Temple emblem of the Paschal Lamb. change after the Restoration in 1660 – prior to that date it On it stands a glass inkwell which was part of King changed on 19 May, being the date of the election of the George IV’s desk furniture in the Brighton Pavilion; the lid wardens of the Goldsmiths Company (the hall-marking of the ink bottle has a Templars’ cross as its handle. There authority) because it was also St Dunstan’s Day, he being is also a pen stand. Under the inkwell Normanton had the the patron saint of goldsmiths and silversmiths. following engraved: In presenting the inkstand, Normanton sent a letter ’In Memory of H.M. George V in whose Beneficent (dated 5 March 1936) to the Under Treasurer. She asked Reign the English Bar was opened to women. that the inkstand be used by newly called barristers when From Helena Normanton.’ signing their names and when distinguished visitors signed any visitors’ book. By letter of 17 March the Under 42 2019 Middle Templar

Treasurer notified ‘Mrs Normanton’ that Parliament had Normanton letter (dated 5 March 1936) to the considered her offer and, despite not accepting gifts with Under Treasurer conditions attached, the Bench ‘will, in this case, be pleased to accept the inkstand for use in the Ladies’ room in the library …’. She responded the same day ‘begging’ the Benchers not to place it in the Ladies’ room; she was very fearful that other ladies (members or students), many of whom were living in ‘extremely narrow circumstances’, would misunderstand her motives, be offended and regard it as ‘a patronising gesture’. She went on to say that, rather than it be placed in the Ladies’ room, she would rather it were ‘put … far away into the deepest plate chest’ and never be brought out. She was obviously conscious that the inscription she had engraved might have antagonised the Benchers as she pointed out that it was concealed under the inkwell so that nobody ‘need have known the origin of the inkstand’. There the correspondence ends.   It may be that one of the reasons the Bench rejected Normanton’s request that the inkstand be used at Call was that the Treasurer of 1933 had the following year donated an altogether more modest inkstand to mark his year of office. It is of interest to note that between 1919 (the date of her Normanton letter (dated 17 March 1936) to the admission as a student) and 1936 (the date of her Under Treasurer donation of the inkstand) of the total of 2,755 students admitted to the Inn, 128 (4.6%) were women and of the It appears that Normanton’s inkstand was placed on the 1,844 Called to the Bar 62 (3.3%) were women. So by desk in the Librarian’s office rather than the Ladies’ room 1936, 128 women were entitled to use the ladies’ Room in in the Library; the first record that it was kept there is in a the Library, of whom 62 were ‘utter barristers’ – their valuation of 1976, but it is possible that it was in that number, of course, being included in the number of those office in 1963. If it had been in the office from 1936, then, admitted as students, they having advanced to that with most of the valuable items, books and pictures, it position. Thus, the effect of the proposal by the Bench, if would have survived the serious damage resulting from not the intention, would have been to limit the use of the the bombing of the old Library during the Second World inkstand and the benefit of her donation to less than 5% War after which all the surviving treasures were evacuated of her contemporaries in the membership of the Inn and and stored outside London. Happily, wherever it was, it a great deal less than that in the total numbers of the may be presumed it found its way to the office in the new membership. Library when it opened in late 1958 and it remains one of the Inn’s treasures. It may be that one of the reasons the Bench rejected Normanton’s request that the inkstand be used at Call was that the Treasurer of 1933 had the following year donated an altogether more modest inkstand to mark his year of office; that inkstand had (and has since) been used at Call. Whether the rejection was because her gift was surplus to the requirements of Call or because it ‘outshone’ the past Treasurer’s gift must remain a matter for speculation. 2019 Middle Templar 43

LEGAL FASHIONS OVER THE CENTURIES BARNABY BRYAN & LENKA GEIDT Legal Fashions over the centuries Barnaby Bryan joined the Inn in 2015 The 1635 Rules were printed in: William Dugdale, as the Assistant Archivist, a role Origines juridiciales (London 1666). A copy of this encompassing a broad range of book is available at the Middle Temple Library. archival duties. He has been appointed to succeed Lesley Various other specific provisions were made. On Holy Whitelaw on her retirement as the Days in the legal term, judges were to wear scarlet gowns Inn’s Archivist from September 2019. in court instead, with facings appropriate to the season. He has worked in a range of Scarlet was worn on various other occasions, such as the business, cultural and collegiate presence of the Lord Mayor, hearing the sermon at St archives, and was educated at King’s Paul’s or attending upon the King. College, Cambridge and University College London. There were also detailed rules regarding costume while on Circuit. When dining with the Sheriff they were to wear Lenka Geidt joined Middle Temple scarlet gowns, tippets and hoods, and when ‘riding’ the in 2012 and is an Assistant Librarian Circuits, ‘a Serjeants’ Coat of good Broad-Cloth with in Middle Temple Library. She is sleeves, and faced with Velvet’. responsible for the European collection and periodicals, regularly Costume at the Inns of Court contributes to the Middle Temple Library blog and organises In Tudor England, clothing and apparel were governed Library exhibitions. by what were known as ‘Sumptuary Laws’. This was chiefly a matter of status – the authorities were concerned that In Michaelmas 2018, an exhibition in the Library drew people dress according to their rank, and avoid on material from the Archive, Library and Rare Books exhibitionist vanity. A 1574 statute by order of Queen collections to look at the subject of legal costume Elizabeth I fretted that, quite apart from the damage to through the ages, from the 14th to the 21st Century. the realm wrought by import of flashy foreign fabrics, In this article, we share some of the most interesting there was risk of ‘the wasting and undoing of young topics that the exhibition tackled. gentlemen allured by the vain show of these things’. For centuries, legal dress, especially wigs and gowns, This tailoring totalitarianism was felt everywhere in has symbolised the authority of the profession in court, society, even within the cloistered precincts of the Inns of constituting a professional uniform. Historically, Court. The minutes of the Middle Temple’s Parliament alterations to the appearance of legal dress have from this period are littered with detailed sartorial diktats. depended on trends in contemporary lay fashion, the For example, in 1557, orders were made that ‘none of the regulations of the profession and changes to the court Companies, except Knights or Benchers, shall wear in structure as well as the day-to-day practicalities of being their doublets or hose any light colour except scarlet and a legal professional. Attempts to regulate the outfits worn crimson, or wear any upper velvet cap, or any scarf or by legal professionals over the centuries have met with wing in their gowns’. Members were forbidden from varying degrees of success, and have by no means been wearing their ‘study gowns’ into the City, from wearing limited to the courtroom. ‘Spanish cloak, sword and buckler’ in Hall, and from wearing their beard over three weeks’ growth. Costume at Court One of the first wholesale regulations of judicial costume came in 1635, when a group of senior judges, including Middle Temple Bencher Sir John Bramston, signed a ‘solemn decree’ now known as the ‘Judge’s Rules’, which prescribed in some detail the appropriate garb for judges, in and out of court. In Court at Westminster, the judges were to wear either black or velvet gowns (depending on their preference), along with mantle and hood, and on their head the white Serjeant’s coif, black skullcap and cornered cap. The appropriate ‘facing’ for these gowns changed with the seasons – between May/June and October they should be of taffeta, and for the rest of the year miniver (white fur). 44 2019 Middle Templar

This illustration, after a sketch by Lucas de Heere, The concerns were centred mostly around the length of shows two judges in their robes during the women’s hair and their hair styles. It was suggested that Elizabethan period (1558–1603). They wear the pileus because of those issues, women barristers should rather quadratus. One is dressed in a pinkish robe and the wear a special type of a wig, or completely different ‘casting-hood’, with scarlet liripipe extending over his head-wear, such as a birreta, turban, or toque. shoulder. The other wears a violet robe, mantle and The contemporary press paid special attention to this hood. They may demonstrate summer and winter issue. Miss Helena Normanton, the first woman Called to alternatives. (MT.19/ILL) the Bar by Middle Temple, dealt with similar questions by wittily pointing out that in this case ‘it does not matter Other orders of Parliament passed in subsequent years much what is outside one’s head’. The Times reported outlawed ‘great bryches in hoses made after the Duche, that the Committee of Judges and Benchers of the Inns Spanyshe or Almon fassyon’, ‘great ruffs’, and ‘long or of Court decided in 1922 that women barristers should curled hair’ and it was dictated that no gowns could be indeed wear ordinary barrister’s wigs, albeit with the worn ‘except of sad colour’. proviso that their hair be completely covered and concealed. Middle Temple did not escape the notice of the The wig-related controversies did not end there. Another committee responsible for the Judge’s Rules of 1635, who issue arose when solicitors were allowed to appear in the passed an array of rulings for gentlemen of the Inns in higher courts. The question was whether they, too, should that year. No one was to ‘come into the Halls with hats, wear wigs, as some argued that wigged barristers had an cloaks, boots, spurs, swords, or daggers, or shall wear immediate advantage against non-wigged advocates. long hair’, and in line with this the Middle Temple In recent history, the debate surrounding wigs, and legal Parliament ordered ‘the gentlemen under the Bar to dress in general, has reversed. The focus has been on follow their studies… to order their habits and hair to simplifying legal dress and reducing the variety of judicial decency and formality’. robes. The legal profession is divided over the requirement to wear wigs. One side has argued that they To wig or not to wig are symbols of authority, inspire respect and create a dignified atmosphere while the other side damns them Every gentleman should wear a wig – at least, that was as outdated, ridiculous and alienating. the rule imported from France when King Charles II Despite these controversies and alterations, and although returned from exile there in 1660. Lawyers – dedicated the direction of travel seems at present to be away from followers of fashion – fully embraced this new trend. formality and tradition, the costume worn by barristers Originally, long or ‘full-bottomed’ wigs were worn, but and judges in court still remains a symbol of the English soon short wigs became more popular, perhaps because legal profession as we know it today. of the practicalities they offered. At the beginning of the 19th century, a new type of a wig was patented which did Alexander Glen KC (1850–1913). He wears his not require any maintenance. Gone were the days when full-dress uniform as a KC - silk gown, full-bottomed wigs needed daily treatment with ointment and powder. wig, court coat, lace jabot and cuffs, breeches and stockings. (MT.19/POR) When women were first allowed to practise law in 1919, the question of what they should wear as barristers on their heads while in court sparked a heated discussion in the profession itself, as well as in the contemporary press. 2019 Middle Templar 45

BOOK REVIEW  MASTER DAVID LLOYD-JONES A Judge’s Journey by Master John Dyson Book Review by Master David Lloyd-Jones Master Lloyd-Jones was Called to the Available to buy from Bloomsbury Professional – Hart Law books Bar in 1975 and took Silk in 1999. Educated at Downing College, An outstanding scholar, he had to overcome the huge Cambridge and a Fellow of Downing blow of a serious illness that prevented him from taking College from 1975-91. He was a his Finals and, as a result, the loss of a post as a classics Junior Crown Counsel (Common Law) instructor at Cornell University. from 1997-99. Appointed a High Court Judge of the Queen’s Bench He describes ‘the rather disorganised way in which I Division in 2005. From 2008-11 he was stumbled into the profession’. After pupillage with Patrick a Presiding Judge of Wales and Chair Garland and Derek Hyamson at 11, King’s Bench Walk of the Lord Chancellor’s Standing (later Keating Chambers), he became a tenant there, Committee on the Welsh Language. In 2012 he was appointed a specialising in building work. He paints a realistic picture Lord Justice of Appeal and was Chairman of the Law Commission of life in chambers, including the trials and tribulations of 2012-15. In 2017 he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme applying for Silk and being put in charge of organising Court. He was made a Bencher in 2005. the relocation of chambers to 10, Essex Street. The traumas accompanying his decision to accept an It is now nearly forty years since the then Master of the invitation to become head of chambers at 2, Garden Rolls published his account of his origins and his family Court (now 39 Essex Chambers) are also related in some (Lord Denning, The Family Story, Butterworths (1981). detail. That in the opening chapters of the present work his successor tells a story at least as remarkable, but which The appointment of Dyson J. to the High Court bench in could not be more different, says something about the 1993 at the age of 49 came as no surprise to his diversity of our judiciary. Master John Dyson’s book has its colleagues. He writes of life on circuit and handling jury origin in his valedictory speech as Master of the Rolls in trials, of sitting in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division 2016 in which he spoke of his Jewish roots. Many friends (and what happens when the judges there disagree) and who were present on that occasion were deeply moved of hearing cases in the Crown Office List (now the and encouraged him to write at greater length about his Administrative Court). It is remarkable to read that this family and his career. The present volume is the result. judge, who was to decide so many important public law cases and to become a major influence in the Master Dyson’s family story starts with a touching account development of administrative law, had done only one of his mother’s family living in Bulgaria and Hungary judicial review case at the Bar. He makes good use of his under the shadow of impending disaster as the Second freedom as a retired judge to answer back and certainly World War and the Holocaust approached. His great does not pull his punches when addressing personal grandmother, Hermine, was murdered in Stara Gradiska attacks by politicians. The chapter on the Court of concentration camp in Croatia in 1942. A great-uncle and Appeal, to which he was promoted in 2001, deals, great-aunt perished in Auschwitz. There is an unvarnished inter alia, with the Woolf reforms, the Human Rights Act portrait of his grandmother, Malvine, who was widowed in 1998 and the implications of the Constitutional Reform Budapest during the war, survived deportation to Act 2005. Bergen-Belsen and lived to become an important influence in the early life of her grandson. His father’s The book provides revealing insights into the Supreme family had come to England in about 1896, when his Court, to which he was appointed in April 2010, and its grandfather fled Lithuania to avoid conscription in the working practices in its early years. The most congenial of Russian army, and became well established in the Jewish colleagues, Master Dyson appears from his judgments in community in Leeds. Although the home in which John grew up was not a religious or observant household, he writes of his profound sense of being a Jew and the importance of belonging to a minority, which has retained its separate identity for some 3,000 years. His childhood in Leeds, of which he writes with great affection, was clearly enriched by his belonging to more than one community. His ‘solid rather than inspiring education’ at Leeds Grammar School carried him to Wadham College, Oxford where he read classics. The Oxford of the early 1960s, which he describes, was very different from that of today and one of the problems facing male undergraduates in single sex colleges was the lack of females. Undaunted, he and a friend hit upon a hilarious stratagem to try and ameliorate the situation for themselves. 46 2019 Middle Templar

cases such as Lumba v SSHD [2011] UKSC 12, Assange v 15 June 2015 to mark the 800th anniversary of the sealing Swedish Prosecution Authority [2012] UKSC 22; In Re of Magna Carta is particularly amusing. While the Master Lehman Bros International (Europe) [2012] UKSC 6 and Al of the Rolls is ex officio a Commissioner for the Reduction Rawi v Security Service [2011] UKSC 34 to be more than of the National Debt, he was wise to establish that the willing to stand his ground in judicial debate and to be invitation to the first meeting of the Commission since 9 capable of delivering what Professor Alan Paterson has July 1860, when William Gladstone had been Chancellor described as ‘forensic broadsides’. This view is of the Exchequer, was not a hoax. One can only hope that abundantly confirmed by these memoirs. His was clearly a the presentation on the evolution of the national debt leading voice in the Supreme Court. As a result, his time since 1860 was brief. as a Justice of the Supreme Court, although brief, was highly influential. There is a great deal of music in this book. Master Dyson was in his youth a pupil of Fanny Waterman, who makes Master Dyson ended his judicial career as Master of the several cameo appearances, and he is an accomplished Rolls and a chapter is devoted to a selection of pianist, as was evidenced by the recital in 2017 by John memorable cases in the MR’s court. A further chapter Dyson and Friends, which raised £21,000 for the Middle devoted to administrative and extra-judicial duties gives Temple Scholarship Fund. There is a memorable account some idea of the burdens of this office. The of the tragic recital given in the Middle Temple Hall in administration of civil justice, procedural reforms and 1996 by Peter Taylor and Maureen Smith. By contrast, judicial appointments are all touched upon (as the author surely there can never have been a more delightful dinner observes, it is difficult to introduce levity into a lecture on party at the Judges’ Lodgings in Cardiff than the occasion civil procedure). This is accompanied by a very frank in 1994 at which Peter Taylor and Master Dyson expression of his views, including his assessment of the performed the Schubert F minor Fantasy for four hands succession of Lord Chancellors with whom he had to and which is described by the author as ‘one of the deal. However, the office of Master of the Rolls was not highlights of my musical career’. without its compensations. There are accounts of the many foreign lecture tours he undertook at this time. This is a warm and generous book by a fine judge whose His description of mishaps at the event at Runnymede on humanity shines through in every page. It deserves to find a wide readership. 2019 Middle Templar 47

BOOK REVIEW  MASTER RICHARD WILMOT-SMITH Casket Girls by Professor Susan Castillo Street Book Review by Richard Wilmot-Smith What was it like in the Ante Bellum Deep South? How was it in pre 1776 Louisiana? How would a young visitor see it? Susan Castillo Street’s intriguing debut novel shows you. Master Wilmot-Smith was Called to Somerset Maugham said of plays: ‘It is the difficulty of the Bar in 1978 and took Silk in 1994. directing the interest that makes it so hard to write the plays Graduated from University of North that are known as plays of atmosphere’. This is a novel of Carolina in 1975 (Morehead Scholar). atmosphere and Maugham’s observation is as apposite to a In 2017 his novel (under the novel as well. Difficult, but Street succeeds. pseudonym Grant Simpson) Free Spirits was published. Its subject is the The world of slavery involves madness at its core. So does Underground Railroad, the secret the ethnic cleansing of the American Indian (spoiler alert - organisation which helped slaves from Coahoma dies but before she does she teaches her teacher the Southern states of the USA to the meaning of the word ‘Stinkard’). Slavery and ethnic reach their freedom in the period cleansing underpinned the Deep South’s economy. before the Civil War. He was Treasurer in 2018. In the novel the nuns import the possessed Sister Immaculata Under the auspices of Louis XV, Casket Girls were taken from and New Orleans cures her insanity. The sane Sidonie and France to America by the Ursuline Order to relieve their Joelle meet slavery, at first gently, and then with mounting poverty and assist the Order and the Colony by marrying horror at the demonic nature of both the Peculiar Institution and civilising the colonists. and those who ensure its prosperity (we are still nearly 140 years from abolition). Casket Girls opens you up to the experiences of young women from France of good birth but no family or means in Louisiana is an interesting place to study the rise of slavery. In 1728 Louisiana. 1712, there were only ten people of colour in the whole of the state. The date 4 July has resonance today, even more so Street’s themes are friendship between women and the because on that day in 1718 the first slave ship left Africa for need for economic independence. But above all it explores Louisiana. Then the French (over the next forty years before friendship between people of different backgrounds and the British took over) imported about 6,000 slaves from Africa ethnicities set in a crucible of challenge. (mainly from Senegambia and the Bites of Benin and Biafra). The golden-haired and, apparently, empty-headed Joelle In this novel, we see its beginnings starting from the point of marries a planter to the relief of the nuns. In a cramped view of the girls, whose arrival is alongside a slave ship where schoolroom, the angular Sidonie teaches some fallen women a great deal of its cargo had died. of New Orleans; a slave called Palmyre and Coahoma, a Natchez (from the Native American Indian Tribe of the The novel’s points of interest are many. For me it is the use of Southeast cultural group). The action is alternately narrated magic and flowers as subversion in plain sight. Wolfsbane by a young nun, Sister Immaculata, and Sidonie and takes (Aconitum to us) is deployed to great effect towards the end you through the preoccupations of the Ursuline order as it of the action. It is done with a deft and amusing touch (the tries to establish itself, the commercial life of the city and Aconitum, whose leaves are palmate, is grown by Palmyre). then out to the plantation where the bride Joelle has settled However, there are many others: the role of indigo as a to the life of her dreams and where the horrific action begins. staple crop in colonial Louisiana; the rise of sugar and cotton (sustaining the need for labour in brutal conditions); the fear created by the one-drop theory; the existence of charms and conjure women set alongside Catholic exorcism. I could go on. In this novel atmosphere abounds. But story telling is not forgotten. You learn as you are pulled by the action. But, most of all, the themes which beget the novel, friendship in adversity and the place of women in an unjust society remain with you. These are explored in a story which takes place in 1728 and they do cause you to ask yourself how far we have come. Susan Castillo Street is the former Harriet Beecher Stowe Professor of American Studies at King’s College London and the partner of Master Treasurer (Lord Justice Bean). She has published three volumes of poetry, a leading anthology of the literatures of Colonial America, and several scholarly monographs and essay collections. This is her debut novel. Available to buy from Amazon 48 2019 Middle Templar