BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Woman QC to be high court's first black judge
Clare Dyer, legal correspondent
The high court is to get its first black judge as the government steps up its efforts to change the overwhelmingly white, male face of the senior judiciary in England and Wales.
Linda Dobbs QC, whose appointment will be announced this month, is the first lawyer from an ethnic minority to reach the high court bench.
Even at the next level down, the circuit bench, only one circuit judge of 623 identifies herself as "black", while eight others describe themselves as "non-white."
The search for a suitably qualified lawyer to become the first black high court judge dates back to the last Tory lord chancellor, Lord Mackay, who had earmarked Patricia Scotland QC before the Conservatives lost the 1997 election.
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Instead, as the Labour peer Baroness Scotland, she became the first black woman to be appointed a government minister.
Ms Dobbs's appointment will also take the number of women high court judges into double figures, to 10 out of 97.
It comes as the constitutional affairs secretary, Lord Falconer, unveils plans to open all judicial posts on the circuit bench and below to part-timers from next April, to ease the path to the bench for women.
Lord Falconer has been looking at the experience of Canada, which has made big strides in the last two decades in narrowing the judicial gender gap.
Unlike Britain, which appointed its first female law lord, Lady Hale, only this year, Canada has had women in its top court, the supreme court, since the early 1980s. Last week two new women judges were appointed, bringing the total to five men and four women, compared with 11 men and one woman in Britain's highest court.
Plans for a new independent commission to select judges draw on the Canadian experience.
Ms Dobbs, 53, who is divorced, is a leading criminal QC who has just stepped down as chairman of the criminal bar association, the biggest specialist group at the Bar. She has also chaired the Bar's race relations committee and its professional standards committee.
Courtney Griffiths QC, who chairs the Bar's public affairs committee, said: "It's a very appropriate appointment. She's extremely competent and rightly respected within the profession."
Clare Dyer, legal correspondent
The high court is to get its first black judge as the government steps up its efforts to change the overwhelmingly white, male face of the senior judiciary in England and Wales.
Linda Dobbs QC, whose appointment will be announced this month, is the first lawyer from an ethnic minority to reach the high court bench.
Even at the next level down, the circuit bench, only one circuit judge of 623 identifies herself as "black", while eight others describe themselves as "non-white."
The search for a suitably qualified lawyer to become the first black high court judge dates back to the last Tory lord chancellor, Lord Mackay, who had earmarked Patricia Scotland QC before the Conservatives lost the 1997 election.
The stories you need to read, in one handy email
Read more
Instead, as the Labour peer Baroness Scotland, she became the first black woman to be appointed a government minister.
Ms Dobbs's appointment will also take the number of women high court judges into double figures, to 10 out of 97.
It comes as the constitutional affairs secretary, Lord Falconer, unveils plans to open all judicial posts on the circuit bench and below to part-timers from next April, to ease the path to the bench for women.
Lord Falconer has been looking at the experience of Canada, which has made big strides in the last two decades in narrowing the judicial gender gap.
Unlike Britain, which appointed its first female law lord, Lady Hale, only this year, Canada has had women in its top court, the supreme court, since the early 1980s. Last week two new women judges were appointed, bringing the total to five men and four women, compared with 11 men and one woman in Britain's highest court.
Plans for a new independent commission to select judges draw on the Canadian experience.
Ms Dobbs, 53, who is divorced, is a leading criminal QC who has just stepped down as chairman of the criminal bar association, the biggest specialist group at the Bar. She has also chaired the Bar's race relations committee and its professional standards committee.
Courtney Griffiths QC, who chairs the Bar's public affairs committee, said: "It's a very appropriate appointment. She's extremely competent and rightly respected within the profession."
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