MacDermott Lecture 2010 - Supreme Court judge on Equality

The MacDermott Lecture 2010 is one of the key annual legal events at Queen's University Belfast.

This year, it will be delivered by Lady Brenda Hale, Justice of the UK's Supreme Court on the theme “Equality”.

The lecture takes place on Thursday 18 March at 5.30pm in The Great Hall, Lanyon Building, Queen’s University Belfast. Should be good.

Here's a profile from The Guardian, who call her a "self-confessed feminist" (is that a confessional matter these days?), while here's a biography lifted from the Supreme Court website: http://www.supremecourt.gov.uk/
 
"Lady Hale became the United Kingdom’s first woman Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in January 2004, after a varied career as an academic lawyer, law reformer, and judge. She is now the first woman Justice of The Supreme Court.
 
After graduating from Cambridge in 1966, she taught law at Manchester University from 1966 to 1984, also qualifying as a barrister and practising for a while at the Manchester Bar. She specialised in Family and Social Welfare law, was founding editor of the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, and authored a pioneering case book on ‘The Family, Law and Society’.
 
In 1984 she was the first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission, a statutory body which promotes the reform of the law. Important legislation resulting from the work of her team at the Commission includes the Children Act 1989, the Family Law Act 1996, and the Mental Capacity Act 2005. She also began sitting as an assistant recorder.
 
In 1994 she became a High Court judge, the first to have made her career as an academic and public servant rather than a practising barrister. In 1999 she was the second woman to be promoted to the Court of Appeal, before becoming the first woman Law Lord.
 
She retains her links with the academic world as Chancellor of the University of Bristol, Visitor of Girton College, Cambridge, and Visiting Professor of King's College London.  A home maker as well as a judge, she thoroughly enjoyed helping the artists and architects create a new home for The Supreme Court."