Judge Walker qualified as a solicitor in 1987 and was appointed as an associate with W&J Burness WS in 1990. Following a career break, she worked as an academic at Heriot-Watt University, specialising in employment law and discrimination.

She was appointed as a fee-paid employment judge in 2005, a salaried employment judge in 2008 and has been vice-president of Employment Tribunals (Scotland) since 2010. In that role, she has had responsibility for the day-to-day management of employment tribunals across Scotland and has been particularly involved in the extensive introduction of video hearings during the pandemic.

Judge Walker is also a trained judge mediator and the training lead for the jurisdiction. She also sits on the Tribunals’ Training Committee of the Judicial College and is a tutor on various cross-jurisdictional courses run by the Judicial College for newly appointed and experienced judges.

She is a member of the Diversity Taskforce that has been set up by the Senior President of Tribunals.