The richness and diversity of Eileen Pembridge’s experience before qualifying as a lawyer perhaps goes some way to explaining why her approach to the law is so vastly empathetic. Her balancing of a rigorous and effective approach with a genuine and palpable interest in those individuals who seek the help of her firm is perhaps reflective of her lifelong desire to pursue a dual passion for the arts and the sciences. She studied the sciences alongside Latin and Russian for her A Levels, and went on to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge – not a common beginning for a solicitor – followed by a postgraduate degree in French and Russian. With work experience for various UN agencies under her belt, Eileen took up work in Africa, thus cementing her desire to work with those who needed her help. After moving back to England and working for the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, Eileen decided it was time to qualify as a lawyer and put the vast array of skills she had required to a cumulative use.
Post qualification, in the ambitious fashion that had become typical of her endeavours, in 1975 Eileen set up a firm, jointly with Mike Fisher, the modest beginnings of which typified by the fact that the firm operated entirely from his flat. The firm rapidly grew under Eileen’s stewardship, and now has over a hundred staff over two offices. Alongside running the firm, Eileen was a champion of the women’s movement, campaigning in particular for the changes of laws involving domestic abuse. Having spent 15 years making a name for herself in family law and legal aid, in 1990 Eileen took the step to become involved in the Law Society. She stood for presidency in 1995 and, despite the fact she did not succeed, her legacy as the first woman to ever stand, along with her wide reputation as a leader in her field, cements her name as one of the great female legal pioneers.
As one of the UK’s leading judges, Anne Rafferty commands great influence over the legal system, with her success bringing a new touch of radicalism to a traditionally male profession. As the first female chair of the Criminal Bar Association she is a genuine trailblazer, who capitalised upon her novel status as a female in the profession, rather than allowing previous discrimination to hamper her own career by default. Anne’s attitude towards achievement is epitomised by the way in which she balanced mothering four children with the fulfilment of an extremely successful career – she did not allow compromise in any area of her life, instead determinedly excelling in each of them.
Anne read Law at Sheffield University, before being called to Gray’s Inn. She took silk in 1990, and became head of her chambers, 4 Brick Court, in 1994. As well as quickly becoming a reputed barrister, she became the first female chairperson of the Criminal Bar Association, a testament to her steely ambition and tremendous talent.
After a prosperous career as a barrister, Anne became a judge, with her demeanour starkly juxtaposing against those of the slightly more stereotypical judges who populated the judiciary system at the turn of the millennium. As a judge, she presided over several high profile cases, most notably that of Paul Burrell. Becoming a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2011, Anne continues to exert influence over the justice system in the measured and accomplished manner that she has become synonymous with.
As the first female head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde is one of the most powerful women in the world. As well as being an accomplished lawyer, Lagarde has served on the French government, becoming the first female Finance and Economy Minister of a G7 country. Her legal background – most notably her experience at Baker and McKenzie, where she specialised in anti-trust law and mergers and acquisitions – has informed the trajectory of her career invaluably.
Christine was educated in Le Havre and later in Maryland, where she gained a scholarship to the Holton-Arms School and had her first taste of the political world, interning for US Senator William Cohen. She went on to receive a Law degree from Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, as well as a Master’s degree from the Political Science Institute in Aix en Provence.
Her dual passion for politics and law, cultivated in her education, developed into a remarkable and successful career. Her ascendance up the Baker and McKenzie ranks was rapid, becoming the first woman ever to run the firm, at the age of 43. She moved seamlessly and successfully into the world of politics, becoming the French Minister for Foreign Trade in 2005, before taking up the position of Finance and Economy Minister. Her time in the French government is generally deemed to have been extremely successful, and under her stewardship the country’s export levels were boosted to their highest level. It is testament to her skill and dedication that in guiding France’s economy through the financial crisis, her reputation remained intact – one of only a few Finance Ministers with this accolade to their name. Her appointment as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund was greeted with enthusiasm, and she continues to navigate her way through difficult financial times with the poise, elegance and professionalism that has become synonymous with her name.
Edwina’s career is made remarkable not only by her becoming the first woman president of the Association of District Judges, but also by the atypicality of her education. Her original diploma was in housecraft and needlework and, upon receiving it, Edwina became a teacher. However, she always harboured a nagging aspiration to become a lawyer. Recognising this, the headmistress of her school made inquiries into Edwina pursuing a part-time degree course in law, and she embarked on the beginnings of her prestigious law degree. She took articles at Gill Turner Tucker in Maidstone, where she developed the passion for family law which was to become a constant throughout her career, and by 1990 she had become senior partner of the firm.
Throughout her career, Edwina was a great champion of women, serving as national president of the UK Federation of Business and Professional Women between 1985 and 1987. So too, Edwina was a great female pioneer, forging a path right to the top of what was a very male dominated profession. By all accounts, though, Edwina’s isolated position as a female did not faze her. She became a deputy district judge in 1989 and was appointed a full-time district judge in 1995, before rising to presidency of the Association of District Judges in 2008.
Edwina’s interest in family law never dwindled, and throughout her time as a judge she continued to be involved in family cases, being heralded for her poise and thoughtfulness in particular. Edwina retired in 2013, but, after a distinguished career, her legacy to aspiring female judges is still very much tangible.
Not only was Juliet a fantastic lawyer, but she also managed to bridge the gap between law and politics in a way far more accomplished than most. Her knowledge of these two sectors led to a tremendous career, encompassing many legal firsts which she took deftly in her stride. Juliet was the first female Treasury Solicitor and Head of the Government Legal Service, and was the first female General Counsel to the Governor of the Bank of England. Juliet was a great and active supporter of other women throughout her career, making her achievements all the more commendable.
Borne in 1950, Juliet attended Sherbone School for Girls, before achieving a first class honours in modern history from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. From here, she took a law conversion course – inspired to do so by her interest in political and constitutional policy- and was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn. Before long, though, Juliet’s fascination with politics led her to pursue a career in the Government Legal Services in 1976.
In the ensuing years, Juliet skilfully navigated her way through various posts within both the Treasury Solicitor’s Department and the Law Officers’ Department, tackling issues such as the ‘cash for questions’ scandal and the question of the extradition of Chilean dictator General Pinochet.
In July 2000, her appointment as Treasury secretary made her the first woman to ever head the Government Legal Service and, aged 50, was the youngest person appointed to the role in modern times. Her role was also combined with that of HM Procurator General, whose array of responsibilities included the handling of any prize money accrued by the navy from enemy ships in wartime. Besides this oddity, Juliet’s responsibilities were always topical and crucial, with particular notability to her insistence that those serving in Iraq must be given assurances over the legality of their actions. She was made a Dame in 2004.
Upon retirement from this position, Juliet became Legal Adviser to the Governor of the Bank of England, once again a first for a woman, steering the Bank through much of the worst of the 2008 financial crisis.
Juliet is remembered as much for her eccentricities as for her excellence. Many recall fondly her insistence that she went everywhere by bicycle, preferring this mode of transport even when a limo was the alternative. Although her position as one-time neighbour of Freddie Mercury did bring much amusement to her friends, she was by no means uncultured – despite the demands of her work, she indulged passions for art, opera and ballet, and travelled often. In 2013 Juliet lost her battle with the cancer which she had so stoically fought, leaving behind her legacy as a true legal pioneer.
Britain’s only female Supreme Court judge says there needs to be more gender equality shown across Britain’s legal system and that by appointing more female judges the quality of justice could be greatly improved.
Eulalie Evan Spicer was a lawyer and Legal Aid administrator, described as “one of the most prominent divorce lawyers of her day”.
Born on 20th April 1906 to Charles Evan Spicer, a wholesale stationer, and Elsie Mary née Williams who came from a family of paper manufacturers. Eulalie was educated at St Helen’s School, Northwood. She graduated from King’s College London with a BA in philosophy, and later was awarded a PhD in philosophy from University College London.
Having then read law, Spicer qualified as a solicitor in June 1938. Such was the scarcity of women in the legal profession at the time that her Law Society exam certificate reads that Eulalie served ‘his’ Articles of Clerkship, and was placed in the Second Class. She worked in a small firm for several years, often undertaking social work, an interest which eventually became the underpinning of her career.
During the war, the 164 female solicitors holding practising certificates at the time became crucial, as male solicitors were called for duty. In December 1942, Spicer became supervising solicitor in the services divorce department at the Law Society, which was established to deal with the increase of marriage breakdowns during WWII. This work included preparing for thousands of divorces, and travelling across the country for divorce petitions. One serviceman helped by the divorce department told Spicer “I know you are doing your best for me, but I suppose all the proper solicitors are now in the Army”.
With increasing divorce rates and following the Rushcliffe committee in 1945, the Labour government established a state-funded Legal Aid Scheme after the war ended, administered by the Law Society. Spicer helped to prepare for the new arrangements and was appointed secretary of no. 1 (London) area, the largest of the new Legal Aid divisions in the country. As secretary, she was responsible for administration, and helped to arrange appeals by applicants for Legal Aid. A formidable worker, by the time Spicer retired in 1966, no. 1 area was handling 25,000 applications for legal aid a year, and subsequently was divided into two.
Spicer’s renown even reached Singapore. An article in The Straits Times described her as one of the “principal administrators” of the Legal Aid Scheme. It wrote:
Miss Eulalie Spicer has a distinction which is almost as uncommon as her first name She is a successful woman in the bewigged, striped-trousered, very masculine world of the law.
Spicer is quoted as saying that the Legal Aid Scheme had fulfilled her hopes for it, and she had no doubt “it performed a useful and humane public service”.
After retiring as secretary of no. 1 area, she went into private practice for seven years. She also became secretary of the legal aid committee of the general synod of the Church of England, and a lay reader. Aged 70, she gained another degree from KCL. Spicer died on 29th March 1997.
Spicer will always be remembered for her role in the founding of the Legal Aid, but those who knew her personally will remember her for the vivacious spirit and unique character with which she tackled the challenges of the legal profession. One of the highest-ranking female lawyers in the post-war period, she cultivated a stern, masculine exterior, wearing her hair in an Eton crop, travelling often by motor scooter, and spending her spare time practicing revolver shooting. She was never addressed by her Christian name, opting instead for Miss Spicer, or simply EES; her clients were often surprised upon their first meeting with their solicitor ‘E E Spicer’ to be greeted by a young woman but, by all accounts, Eulalie’s prowess left no room for unflattering comparisons with her male counterparts. She worked tirelessly to command the level of respect that she held within the field.
Sources
Cruickshank, Elizabeth & Rose, Neil, “Doing Their Bit”, The Law Society Gazette, 2005
Virginia Nicholson, Singled Out: How Two Million British Women Survived Without Men after the First World War, Oxford University Press, 2008
“Spicer, Eulalie”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.), Oxford University Press, 2004
Thompson, JWM, “Britain moves forward in free legal aid”, The Straits Times, 6th March 1959
Dame Barbara Mills DBE QC was the first female Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) from 1990 to 1992, and the first female Director of Public Prosecutions from 1992 to 1998. As Director of Public Prosecutions, she also served as the second head of the Crown Prosecution Service, presiding over a staff of 6,000.
Born in Chorleywood in 1940, she was one of only four in her school year group to attend university. In 1959 she was one of just two law students at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. The ratio of students at the time was around ten men to every woman. Barbara used this disparity as an opportunity to thrive, carving out a name for herself as a high flyer, rather than allowing herself to become a token woman in a resolutely male environment. This set the tone for the rest of her career.
Barbara was called to the Bar from the Middle Temple in 1963. Her first real struggle against discrimination came when, having completed her pupillage, she attempted to secure a tenancy. By this point, she was married with two small children and found that young mothers were not in particularly high demand at the Bar. However, in 1967 she joined 3 Temple Gardens, the chambers of Edward Cussens, a top criminal chambers which seemed to have more sympathy for women tenants than many of its contemporaries.
Barbara spent ten years as both a prosecutor and a defender and gained a fearsome reputation. She secured the convictions of Michael Fagan in 1982, who had broken into Buckingham Palace and stolen a bottle of wine, the Brighton bomber Patrick Magee in 1986, and the Guinness Four in 1990. In 1977 she became a Junior Prosecuting Counsel, before being promoted to the position of Senior Prosecuting Counsel. After taking silk in 1986, Barbara served on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and spent some time as Treasury Counsel at the Central Criminal Court. She was also legal assessor of the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council and a member of the Parole Board from 1990.
Barbara was appointed Director of the Serious Fraud Office in 1990. This was a completely new challenge, and she had to adapt quickly to become sufficiently adept in the field of management. Partway through her time in this post, the opportunity to become Director of Public Prosecutions arose. Her six-year stint in this role was not without controversy, coming at a time when public confidence in the organisation was at a low ebb, and Barbara was forced to deflect much criticism. During these years, the CPS was considering the prosecution of 1.4 million cases each year. She tried to increase the efficiency of the CPS and introduced victim impact statements.
After leaving the Crown Prosecution Service, Barbara became Chair of the Professional Oversight Board. She also served as governor of London Metropolitan University from 2002 to 2007 and was chair of the council of the Women’s Library from 2001 to 2007.
Barbara passed away in 2011, aged 70, leaving behind a legacy of opportunity for women lawyers. Despite the controversies of her career, Barbara’s fellow lawyers never failed to recognise the often thankless nature of her tasks, and her popularity did not wane.
It would be no exaggeration to state that, without the efforts of Eva Crawley, the Association for Women Solicitors might not exist, and that many women who had taken career breaks to become mothers would have had neither the confidence nor the facility to get back into the profession.
In 1969, the 1919 Club – an informal group set up by the first female solicitors – was dwindling. With as few as 100 members, and frankly little real purpose, it was facing dissolution. The plans were to spend the rest of the Club’s funds on a last hoorah: a lavish dinner for its members. This, it must be said, would have been a sad demise to a club set up by some of the most important women of the last century. Eva received a letter detailing the plans, and decided to be proactive. Galvanised by her belief in the necessity of the group for the furthering of women in the profession, she attended the EGM where the decision was to be made. Eva fought the Club’s corner, and won. This was the beginning of a new era, with the 1919 Club reborn as the Association for Women’s Solicitors, and Eva at the helm.
Eva qualified as a solicitor in 1954, having become the first female articled clerk at a Lincoln’s Inn Fields firm thanks to her father paying the £400 premium, and took a job targeted solely towards women, due to the fact that it carried no prospects of partnership, and paid relatively little. This job suited her, though, for at the time the ambition of most women was limited to working for just a few years before starting a family; future prospects were surplus to requirement. Indeed, a few years later, Eva was married with two children, and her legal career seemed all but over.
However, when asked by a friend to do the conveyancing on his property purchase, persuaded by her husband’s assertion that they could do with the money, she accepted, and from here she grew a home property and probate practice. Eventually, the impracticality of running a business from the kitchen table in the pre-technology era led Eva to search for an alternative. She managed to secure work at a local firm, having convinced them to allow her a month’s trial – they explicitly stated they wanted to hire a man instead – but in fact ended up staying for ten years.
Having decided to go back to work, Eva was shocked by the lack of support for women returning to the profession. She was assured by the Law Society that there was no demand for such a thing, and her requests to pay to sit in at lectures at the College of Law were flatly refused.
When Eva had taken on her role as Secretary of the AWS, she saw an opportunity to tackle this issue that had so troubled her on her return to the profession. Meeting at a dinner with the Bursar and law tutor of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, the idea of a Refreshers’ course was born. Although the Law Society refused to help fund the venture, law tutors and members of the AWS volunteered their times and resources. The first course was held in 1977, attended by 25 women and 1 man. Demand for, and momentum behind, the course gathered quick pace, with the Law Society soon recognising its worth and assisting with funding. Countless returners have been able to find work with thanks to the course, and in 1999 Eva was awarded an OBE for her work on women’s advancement in the profession.
Eva sadly passed away in 2003, but her contribution to the advancement of women has been immortalised by the Eva Crawley Award, given by the AWS to women who have made a similarly outstanding contribution. It is the highest honour that the Association can bestow, reflective of the tremendous work Eva did in furthering the cause of women in the legal profession.
Indubitably one of the most enigmatic and fascinating characters in the legal world, there are many more questions pertaining to Peirce than there are answers. Why did she change her name from Jean to Gareth? What motivated her, a Cheltenham Ladies’ College educated Oxford graduate – an education and upbringing most typically renowned for producing archetypal pillars of the community – to become the epitome of a thorn in the side of the establishment? Why did she accept her CBE only to ask, discretely, for it to be withdrawn several days later?
Although it is hard to profess to know anything about Gareth as a character, her notoriety has made her one of the most recognisable figures in the legal profession. Her involvement in high profile cases, defending the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six and Moazzam Begg to name but a few, has only heightened the sense of intrigue around her, and the growing public desire to understand this figure, whose resolve is so far removed from the perpetual panic of their own in the face of the – Gareth would argue, often hyperbolised – war on terror.
Gareth has caused controversy by representing some of the scapegoats who, the government believe, epitomise those groups most deplored in the war on terror. The common denominator shared by all those whom she represents is their underdog status. What is unique to them, though, is that, unlike in light-hearted competition, the underdog in the UK-government-versus-prosecuted-civilian dynamic plays a much grittier part, not championed by a public who admire their dogged pluck and sportsmanship in the face of an insurmountable adversary. For we have faith in the infallibility of our justice system: after all, its basic conception of right and wrong has provided the basis for our own. Not so Gareth. She even went as far as to write an article for the Guardian arguing that Lockerbie bomber al-Meghari was actually a victim of framing by the US government, questioning the universally accepted untouchability and incontrovertibility of those acting in the name of counter-terrorism on UK soil. They say ‘terrorism’, and our questions, doubts, qualms are silenced instantaneously, quashed by the brandishing of one loaded word, a skeleton key that can fit any lock. And it is this very issue that Gareth diligently, quietly, tirelessly works to change.
Some might see her endeavours as the inexplicable defence of the indefensible, but Gareth sees it differently. She is quoted as saying that ‘the minority has to be protected from what the majority thinks – otherwise the Benthamite thing, the greatest happiness of the greatest number, prevails’. Often she is right; whilst her undertaking of the defence of some of the country’s most notorious, often universally loathed, criminals can lead to the inevitable lambasting of her moral stance, her stoicism is continually vindicated, with the cases of the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six commonly acknowledged to be among the worst cases of miscarriage of justice in UK history. Gareth has recognised the creation of a new ‘suspect community’, shifting focus from the Irish to Muslims, with public opinion following the consensus on the war on terror as if swept downstream by a relentless, implacable tide. So too, she has shifted her focus to giving a voice to this new, persecuted minority. For some, her defence of Abu Qatada beggars belief. For others, her refusal to shirk away from controversy is endlessly admirable. What is certain, though, is that when Gareth Peirce takes on a case, people prick up their ears.
Gareth’s pertinacious pursuit of human rights reform can be traced back to her time as a journalist in America, following Martin Luther King on his campaign in the 1960s. The ideals that she picked up here formed the bedrock for the trajectory of her career. Armed with this notion of the capacity of a system for dramatic change, she returned to the UK and, having achieved her postgraduate law degree from the London School of Economics, started her career at a firm run by radical solicitor Benedict Birnberg. She quietly pursued miscarriages of justice, until her acquittal of the Guildford Four cemented her reputation. The press interest and the public awe followed, with the case becoming immortalised by a Hollywood movie – Emma Thompson played Gareth Peirce. Ever since, interest in this elusive figure has not wavered, and Gareth Peirce’s name has become inextricably synonymous with human rights.
Ada Summers was the first female magistrate, one of the first women in England to become a Justice of the Peace and was the first female councillor, mayor and freeman of Stalybridge.
Born Ada Jane Broome in 1861, Summers was elected as a councillor in Stalybridge in 1912, representing the Liberal Party, years before women were enfranchised.
Summers was elected mayor in November 1919, serving for two years, through which she was an ex officio Justice of the Peace, becoming the first woman to hold the post in the England on 31 December 1919, only one week after the enactment of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. She stated her intent to sit on the bench often, because “there were so many women and children coming before the courts who could be more easily understood by women than by men”.
The following year, when an Act of Parliament was passed allowing women to perform the duties of a magistrate, she was appointed a Justice of the Peace in her own right, becoming the first woman in Britain to hold the position. That her appointments to such prominent positions were so immediate is testament to the high esteem in which she was held.
Known locally as “Lady Bountiful”, Summers used her inherited wealth from her husband to fund a maternity and child welfare centre, an employment centre, the Ladies Work Society and a nurses’ home which would include treats for nurses and convalescent treatment for sick members. She later donated a considerable amount of money towards building a second nurses’ home. She was also known to give presents to the local children and pay for a Christmas tree for the community.
From 1926 to 1936, Summers was President of Stalybridge Mechanics Institute. She was also President of many other societies, including the Stalybridge auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Summers died in 1944 and there is a blue plaque about her at Stalybridge Civic Hall. At her funeral, the Coroner said that “it does not require any words of mine to appreciate Mrs Summers beneficence to this town and the services she rendered to the town upon the Council on which she served many years”, adding “her services were innumerable”.
Written by Caroline Dix, Project Coordinator for First 100 Years
The late Moira Gilmour’s remarkable achievements in the legal profession are made all the more laudable by the atypicality of her background. Born to shopkeeper parents and granddaughter to coal miners, she attended the local comprehensive before becoming the first member of her family to attend university, or indeed move out of the 10 mile radius of their home town. Moira studied French, German and philosophy on a scholarship at Glasgow University, before undertaking an MA and LLB in Law. Moira herself described this move as merely accidental; she felt she ought to pursue a vocational career, and picked law over medicine simply because several friends of hers were converting to the legal profession.
After qualifying as a lawyer in 1981, Moira worked at Scottish firm McGrigor Donald for several years. She first became a partner during her time at Kennedys, and enjoyed a 14 year partnership at Field Fisher Waterhouse. When Moira became their managing partner in 2006, she was one of only a few women to manage a leading UK law firm. Under her stewardship, the firm went from strength to strength, with turnover increasing from £60 million to £94 million, and partnership size doubling. Moira also orchestrated and oversaw an ambitious expansion onto the continent, opening offices in Belgium, France and Germany, as well as making strides in pro bono and social responsibility work closer to home – she never forgot her background and strove to help those in similar circumstances to see what it was possible for them to achieve. Moira was diagnosed with cancer and sadly died in 2012, leaving behind a law firm stronger than she found it: her ethos of pairing robust commitment to social mobility with steely and ambitious determination to succeed was imprinted on the firm irrecoverably.
Gwyneth Bebb was a plaintiff in the famous Bebb v Law Society case of 1913, which was an attempt by Bebb and others to open the legal profession to women in Britain, claiming the Law Society should be compelled to admit them to its examinations, as women were ‘persons’ within the Solicitors Act 1843. However, the action was unsuccessful, and women were barred from the profession until the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919.
Bebb’s contribution to the fight for equal access to the legal professions was monumental; despite the failure of the case, the publicity around it in the press helped to propel the campaign to its eventual success. However, while Bebb’s name has become synonymous with the struggle for equality, her personal story is often neglected, in part due to her tragic premature death.
Born on the 27th October 1889 in Oxford, Gwyneth’s father was a Reverend and Fellow at Brasenose College and her mother was the daughter of a surgeon. Gwyneth attended St Mary’s College school in Paddington, before reading Jurisprudence at Oxford in 1908, only the seventh woman at Oxford to study for a law degree. She attended St Hugh’s Hall Oxford, which had been established in 1886 as a foundation for ‘girls from modest homes’, and became an Oxford college in 1911. For most of her degree, Gwyneth was the only woman in the law school, studying alongside nearly 400 male students. Twenty years after Cornelia Sorabji had studied at Oxford, female law students remained rare, due to the fact careers in law were still closed to them.
In 1911, Gwyneth achieved first-class honours in her final law examinations (the first woman at Oxford to do so) but was not entitled to a degree in accordance with university regulations. Unable to pursue a career in the law, Gwyneth took up a post as investigating officer for the Board of Trade, which inspected industrial workplaces to ensure they met minimum conditions and wages, a job which included prosecuting employers who failed to comply.
At the same time, there were increasing efforts to open the legal profession to women. Lord Wolmer introduced a private member’s bill to Parliament to admit women into the solicitors’ profession, backed by Lord Robert Cecil and Jack Hills MP, but it failed. A test case was organised, with four women including Gwyneth sending off applications to sit for the Law Society’s preliminary examinations in December 1912. When their applications were rejected, Gwyneth and the three others (Karin Costelloe, Maud Ingram and Lucy Nettleford) brought actions against the Law Society declaring that they were ‘persons’ within the meaning of the Solicitors’ Act 1843.
At a dinner for women law graduates in 1913, Bebb was reported to have said “prejudice and a fear of competition underlay a good deal of the opposition shown to women wishing to enter the legal profession”. Despite the failure of the case, the newspapers were generally sympathetic. On the 25th January 1913, The Express wrote, “If a woman can take a first class in law at Oxford, what right has the Law Society to prevent her from earning her living as a solicitor?”
During the war, attempts to open the professions to women were disrupted, and Gwyneth took up a position in the National Service for Women as Commissioner for the West Midland division and later worked as Assistant Commissioner for Enforcement for the Ministry of Food, Midlands Division. The Ministry of Food regulated rationing and Gwyneth conducted prosecutions against black marketeers. In recognition of her work, Gwyneth was awarded the OBE.
Gwyneth married Thomas Weldon Thomson, a solicitor on 26th April 1917. Their first child was born in December 1919, just a few days after the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 passed, finally opening the legal professions to women. After recovering from childbirth, Gwyneth applied to Lincoln’s Inn and was admitted as a student in January 1920. The Bar’s hand had been forced by the new legislature; its 1918 annual general meeting had still voted 178 to 22 against admitting women.
In 1921, Gwyneth fell pregnant again whilst studying for her Bar exams. The baby Maria died two days after being born, and Gwyneth suffered from placenta praevia. She died two months after giving birth, on 9th October 1921, aged 31. Her dreams of a legal career were left unrealised, having never practised as a barrister, but her pioneering efforts allowed countless other women to fulfil the same ambitions.
The late Dame Rose Heilbron’s remarkable catalogue of firsts reads like a record book: her career was truly unprecedented. She was one of the first women to receive a first class Law degree from Liverpool University, the first woman to win a scholarship to Gray’s Inn, one of the first two women to be appointed KC in England (the other, Helen Normanton, was nearly twice Rose’s age at the time),the first woman appointed a Recorder, the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey, and the first woman Treasurer of Gray’s Inn.
Such a list of achievements only tells half the story, and does justice neither to the imperturbable manner in which Rose navigated her way to an isolated position of female seniority in a stoically masculine field, nor to the difficulty of the cases that she took on as a defence barrister: whilst defending some of England’s most infamous criminals, her celebrated and revered status – it is not an exaggeration to claim that she was almost deified in her hometown of Liverpool – was starkly juxtaposed against their notoriety.
Rose was born in Liverpool, the daughter of a hotelier, Max Heilbron. She went to the Belvedere School and Liverpool University, where in 1935 she was one of the first two women to gain a first class honours degree in law. She was awarded a scholarship at Gray’s Inn in 1936, and became one of only two women to hold a master of laws degree in 1937. Two years later she was called to the Bar, and joined the Northern Circuit in 1940.
The early period of her law career therefore ran contemporaneously with a period where there was a shortage of men able to serve as barristers, since they were instead serving in the war. This gave Rose a chance to make an immediate impact upon the legal landscape, but it would be wrong to label her meteoric rise as merely a product of being in the right place at the right time: this coincidence simply accelerated the process made inevitable by Rose’s unique talent and determination. There was nothing accidental or opportunistic about Rose’s career.
Rose practised mainly personal injury and criminal law. By 1946, she had appeared in 10 murder trials. Just a few months after the birth of her daughter Hilary in 1949, she was appointed one of the first two female King’s Counsel. Aged 34, she was the youngest KC since 1783.
As the first woman to lead in a murder case in 1950, Rose defended George Kelly in the infamous “Cameo cinema murder”, a case which captured the attention of the nation and led to the Daily Mirror naming Rose as ‘Woman of the Year’. Although she was unable to save Kelly from the gallows, the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction as unsafe in 2003, making it one of Britain’s oldest miscarriages of justice.
Rose was appointed as the first female Recorder in November 1956. In 1972, Rose was appointed as the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey. She became leader of the Northern Circuit in 1973, and then the second woman High Court judge in 1974 after Elizabeth Lane. Despite her expertise in criminal law, she was assigned to the Family Division.
In 1975, she was appointed to chair a committee to consider the reform of rape laws. The committee’s recommendations that the identity of rape complainants should be kept secret, and that the defence should be limited in its ability to cross-examine the complainant about their sexual history to attack character both subsequently became law.
Of her appointment as Treasurer of Gray’s Inn in 1985, Rose said: ‘The legal world does not discriminate by sex or race and this is possibly an example of it working rather well’. The reality behind this statement is a testament to the groundbreaking work that Rose herself did to ensure that women in the law were taken seriously. Rose was born into a world where women did not have the vote and were barred from many of the professions, yet when she departed it, passing away in 2005, women were no longer viewed in the backward way that they had been, with Rose as one of the pioneers whom contemporary women have to thank for this.
Her daughter, Hilary, also became a barrister and was in 1987 appointed a QC, the 29th woman QC.
Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman to ever sit the Bachelor of Civil Laws exam at Oxford University.
Born in Bengal in 1866, Cornelia achieved the unfathomable, becoming the first woman to practice law in both India and Britain. Coming from a large family, her mother strove widely for the education of girls in India, whilst her father campaigned for his daughters to be allowed to attend Bombay University. Despite the rejection of her sisters on the basis that no woman had ever been to university, Cornelia became the first success, and matriculated at the age of 16. She came out top of her college at English literature, an achievement which would certainly have merited a scholarship to study in England, had she been male. As it was, this was refused to her, but, upon hearing her story, a group of British women, including Florence Nightingale, created a scholarship for her out of their own pockets. By the time she arrived in Oxford, she was something of a celebrity. Having passed her Law examination (the sitting of which was a struggle in itself, due to the enormous amount of resistance with which her desire to study Law over English literature was met) Cornelia spent a year with a solicitors firm in London, becoming the first woman ever permitted to read in the Lincoln’s Inn Library along the way. Returning to India, she was resolved to use her experience to further the cause of women, but was met by another sizeable hurdle: the Chief Justice in Bombay explicitly instructed solicitors not to hire a woman.
With little option, Cornelia instead became a lawyer for the Maharajas, who were open to accepting the help of women. This, however, was similarly fruitless, with the triviality and absurdity of the cases awarded to her causing her to quit; in one such case she was ordered to defend an elephant, against the Maharaja himself. The judge presiding the case? Also the Maharaja. Cornelia won the case without having to say a word, because the Maharaja’s dog seemed to like her. Certainly this level of frivolity was beneath the standing of an Oxford postgraduate.
After 5 years of trying to become a barrister, Cornelia therefore changed tact. She wished to become an advisor to the British Government on the state of the secluded women of India, some of whom were married off in early childhood and, from this point, were not permitted to speak to any man other than their husband. They lived lives of absolute exclusion, with no access to education, but, paradoxically, were often made greatly wealthy, put in charge of huge estates if their husbands had died. This would put them in great danger, as there was little some men would stop at in their request to acquire these assets for themselves. Their lack of knowledge of the law, coupled with the prohibition of their meeting with a (male) lawyer, resulted in an impossible conundrum for these women. Cornelia spent five years, both in England and in India, trying to secure the position of legal advisor to them. In 1904, she was finally successful. For many years, Cornelia protected the rights of these women, exercising her expertise in inheritance, adoption and dispute resolution, whilst promoting education and the amendment of, often draconian, legislation.
By 1924, women were officially permitted to practice law in India, so, despite having been called to the English bar in 1923, Cornelia set up a practice in Calcutta. Predictably, this was not the end of Cornelia’s struggle, as, although men did not mind taking the advice of a woman, they certainly would not stand being beaten by one in the courtroom. Therefore, she was once again confined to the legal peripheries, only preparing cases, never performing them. Cornelia retired in 1929, and moved to London, where she died in 1954.
Cornelia’s struggle on the behalf of womankind was a product of her sheer determination, and the number of lives that she bettered, whether directly or indirectly, would be impossible to quantify. What can be determined with certainty, though, is that Cornelia Sorabji was a true pioneer, and has earned her place among the most inspirational women in history.
In their quest to open up the professions to women, the earliest pioneers found themselves up against a barrier of seemingly insurmountable stature: the ideological denial of a woman’s access to education. It is hard to believe that women were not accepted into Cambridge, one of the world’s most heralded academic institutions, on an equal basis to men until 1948. At Oxford, the arrival of women at Christ Church College was met with disdain, with the quip ‘A Woman’s Place is in the Home, not the House’ a popular one amongst the male students; testaments make clear that it was used maliciously, without a shred of the ‘irony’ that is often used to disguise more contemporary instances of sexism. And this was in 1980.
The fight for equal education began with the coming together of a group of likeminded, privileged women, Emily Davies and Elizabeth and Millicent Garrett, who decided that they themselves would have to do something about the problems facing women that they so often discussed. Calling themselves ‘the Langham Place group’ (after the Langham place headquarters of the English Women’s Journal) their primary aims were the enfranchisement of women, and the opening up of the professions. They soon came to realise that they could not force the door to their goals, and instead would have to pick the lock, the modus operandi for this undertaking being the acquisition of an equal education for women.
Emily Davies set up Girton College in 1869, with the help of Barbara Bodichon and Lady Stanley of Alderley. Davies was resolved not to teach a curriculum deliberately tailored to the perceived abilities (or lack thereof) of women, believing that this would concede inferiority. Despite this championing of educational equality, the premises of Girton were deliberately chosen for their distance from Cambridge, discouraging the mixing of the sexes. Newnham College, whose inception closely followed, seemed to hold opposite values; although it was situated in the town of Cambridge, its curriculum was very much tailored specifically to women. This paradigmatic opposition created a tension between the two colleges, with Girtonians believing themselves to be academically superior.
Given that these colleges were set up in the Victorian era, it is hard to believe that those women who attended them were not awarded their degrees for close to a century, with two world wars and 17 Prime Ministers in between these two landmarks. In 1948, women at Cambridge were finally granted degrees on an equal basis to men. Oxford was slightly ahead in this respect, allowing women to be full members of the University by 1920. However, the number of students coming through their women’s colleges was relatively small: by the time Somerville and Lady Margaret Colleges opened with twelve and nine students respectively, 300 women had already completed their Cambridge education.
In London, the attitude towards education seemed to be somewhat more forward-thinking, with the University of London opening its degrees to women on an equal basis as men in 1878. Its lack of residential requirement for pupils meant that many female Oxford and Cambridge ‘graduates’ took examinations there in order to gain the degree that they were owed. By 1900, 30% of graduates from the University of London were women – a startling statistic given the ideological climate of higher education at the time.
In terms of the legal profession, this created a new problem. Women were allowed to attend university, and may have passed their law examinations with flying colours, but were still prohibited from sitting the Law Society exams. It was only with the 1919 Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act that women were finally allowed to utilise their education, and to pursue a legal career. Without the vision of the Langham Place group, and the subsequent accomplishments of those women who had been educated within this vision, perhaps the struggle would have gone on far longer.
Louise Arbour’s list of honours and awards is staggering, and rightly so. Her long and distinguished career began in academia: following her graduation from the Université de Montréal where she completed an LL.B in 1970, she taught at Osgoode Hall Law School, climbing the ranks to become Associate Professor and Dean. From academia, she was elevated directly to the high court of Canada, and from here her human rights legacy began.
Widely renowned for her work as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, her integrity and commitment to justice commands international respect, and (an unfortunate scarcity in an age where those more ostentatious lawyers can find themselves a platform upon which to be pandered to with relative ease) Louise has never succumbed to the lure of personal fame and publicity. Her most striking act as Chief Prosecutor was her indictment of Serbian president Slobodan Milošević for war crimes, the deplorability of which extended to ethnic cleansing and the ruthless murder of political opponents and former friends alike. This was the first time in history that a serving Head of State was brought to account for their actions, cementing Louise’s reputation in world history and dramatically changing the political landscape of Europe for the better.
After serving this role, Louise became a Justice on the Supreme Court of her native Canada, before serving as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2004-2008. Here she took a strong, uncompromising stance on the human rights records of several UN states, ruffling some feathers, but acknowledging that this was a necessity in her job; in her own words, had she kept all players happy, ‘you would have to wonder about the quality of work’. Certainly, Louise Arbour was not one to succumb to the pressures of political heavyweights.
Yesterday, Louise stood down from her five year tenure as President and CEO of the International Crisis Group, where her contribution to the resolution and prevention of often unexpected and transformational crises has been described as extraordinary.
Dana Denis-Smith talks about what inspired the First 100 Years Project:
A wonderful group image captured my imagination in 2013 – it was a photograph of the partners of city law firm Herbert Smith (now Herbert Smith Freehills) dating from 1982, marking the firm’s centenary at Grocer’s Hall in London. In the middle of the group of 50 or so men, there was a blue-clad woman – the only visible female partner of the firm. Of course, this tells the story of its day – not dissimilar to that of, say, prime-minister Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet photographs, in which she, too, is the only woman. Many of the leading women in law practising in the 1970s and 1980s would have found themselves similarly lonely in professional circles. To me, this 1982 image, taken within my lifetime, encapsulates not a long lost past, but the professional journey of women that are still active in the legal profession today. It made me realise that without hearing more individual voices – past and present – it will be difficult to understand what the future of women in the profession will really look like. Thus, the “First 100 years” project was born.
We have come a long way since 1982. Herbert Smith itself now counts as many as 100 women partners among its ranks, 21.5% of the total partnership globally and, in 2014, it appointed a woman co-CEO. But women enter the profession in higher numbers than men and, at the current pace, their progression up the partnership ranks remains painfully slow. We are constantly preoccupied by the negligible change in the percentage numbers of women at the top of the legal profession. By setting the debate in a historical context, it is easier to see the rapid rise of women in the profession in the last 30 years as well as how we can affect change in the future.
The First 100 years project is the first ever project dedicated to the women in the legal profession that aims to chart their progress over the last 100 years. It is the most ambitious multimedia project, looking to make accessible to all, information on women in the law in a visual, structured and engaging way. The project is a partnership between Obelisk and the Law Society. We are aiming to create an interactive and engaging story of professional women that can inspire the generations that are coming through, as well as to record the progress of women in the profession in video interviews that will be a valuable resource in the future.
We would like to hear from you if you can contribute to the project. We are not just interested in hearing from women: if your story features an inspirational woman in your career, we want to hear from you too. Get in touch with us at Obelisk or on [email protected].
Dr Ivy Williams was the first woman to be called to the English Bar on the 10th May 1922, although she never practised as a barrister.
Born in 1877 in Devon, Ivy’s mother was Emma Ewers, and her father, George St Swithin Williams, was a solicitor. She was educated privately along with her brother, Winter Williams. They studied Latin, Greek, Italian and Russian, and she spoke French and German fluently. Her brother, Winter Williams, became a barrister but died in World War One. In 1923, Ivy endowed two law scholarships at Oxford in his memory, one for women only.
Ivy studied law at the Society of Oxford Home Students, which was later incorporated into Oxford University as St Anne’s College. She was the third female law student at Oxford. Although she completed her law examinations in 1903, she was prevented from receiving her BA, MA and BCL until Oxford changed its regulations and allowed women to matriculate in October 1920. She also received an LLD in 1903 from London University. In 1904, Ivy speculated that women could form a “third branch of the profession”, practising as “outside lawyers”, an opinion which was dismissed by the Law Journal as “a futile attempt of a persistent lady to gain admission to the Bar.”
Ivy joined the Inner Temple as a student on the 26th January 1920, after the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 removed the prohibition on women entering the legal profession. In an article for Woman’s World magazine in 1921, Ivy wrote that if her application to be called to the Bar was unsuccessful, she would petition parliament. She was eventually called to the Bar in 1922 aged 45, after receiving a certificate of honour (first class) in her final bar examinations, which excused her from two terms of dinners. Her appointment was the result of a lengthy campaign by women to gain access to the legal profession. Ivy herself described it as “the dream of my life”.
At the event, the Treasurer, Henry Dickens, the son of Charles Dickens, spoke of the great advances in women’s rights, and the prejudices which still remained. Williams thanked the Benchers for the honour they had bestowed upon her and asked them to support the women who would follow her. The Law Journal described her call to the Bar as “one of the most memorable days in the long annals of the legal profession”, although the editor added that the admission of women “was never likely to be justified by any success they will achieve in the field of advocacy.”
The news even crossed the Atlantic, with the New York Times commenting:
The jollities of Call night at Inner Temple were touched with historical significance tonight when a woman was for the first time called to the English bar.
Ivy taught law at the Society of Oxford Home Students from 1920 until 1945, the first woman to teach law at an English university. In 1923 she became the first woman to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law in Oxford for her published work, The Sources of Law in the Swiss Civil Code, which was described as ‘an extremely readable introduction to the study of the latest great continental codes’ by H. F. Jolowicz. She also represented Great Britain at the Conference for the Codification of International Law in The Hague in 1930, and in 1956 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of St. Anne’s College, Oxford.
In her spare time, Ivy enjoyed travelling, tennis, gardening and driving. In her later years when her eyesight grew weak, she taught herself to read Braille, and systematised the learning of braille into a primer, which was published for the National Institute for the Blind in 1948.
Ivy died in Oxford in 1966. She is remembered for her persistent yet measured resolve to open access to the Bar. While she never practised, she opened the door for other women to become barristers.
Written by Annabel Twose, Project Coordinator of First 100 Years
Before rising to fame as a celebrity chef, Clarissa Dickson Wright was a barrister. There are many legends surrounding her time at the Bar, none more colourful than her impromptu appearance at a Gray’s Inn Smoking Concert.
Notoriously ‘male only’, the concert encouraged Bar members to showcase their own talents. Clarissa attempted to circumvent her exclusion in spectacular fashion: brazenly donning an evening jacket and a wig, she masqueraded as an uncannily androgynous youth. At the conclusion of one Bencher’s performance on a comically small banjo, Clarissa removed her disguise, revealing her true identity. The Bencher was furious, and the concert was brought to a premature end, with repercussions promised against the perpetrators. The concerts eventually faded from fashion, but perhaps they are due a revival – unisex, of course – in honour of Clarissa herself.
Legal Futures spoke to founder of The First 100 Years and Obelisk CEO Dana Denis-Smith about the project and its objectives. She explains that The First 100 Years is an attempt to view the achievements of women lawyers positively, in contrast to the “negative narrative of the diversity debate.”
Read the full article here.
Simon Hughes told The Independent that large parts of the country regard the criminal justice system as hostile and argued it could only regain their confidence if it reflected modern Britain.
He urged young people from poorer backgrounds to be inspired by Nelson Mandela and other great lawyers to aspire to the profession and indicated they could be given financial backing to help break into a profession still dominated by white, male, Oxbridge graduates.
In his first newspaper interview since his appointment, he challenged legal firms to “proactively go out and look for people from all communities in Britain to be lawyers”.