Lady Clark of Calton

Lady Clark was appointed a judge of the Supreme Courts in 2006 and was appointed to the Inner House on 1 October 2013.

She graduated from St Andrew’s University LLB (Hons) in 1970 and then studied criminology and penology at the University of Edinburgh and graduated PhD in 1975. From 1972 she was a tutor in jurisprudence at the University of Dundee and became a full-time lecturer there in 1975 where she created a new course in criminal justice.

In 1977 she was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1989. In 1988 she was admitted as a member of the English bar (Inner Temple). She was appointed a governing bencher of Inner Temple in 2001.

During her period of practice at the Scottish bar, she was appointed standing junior counsel to the Department of Energy and also served as a member of the Scottish Legal Aid Board and of Edinburgh University Court. She served for a period as chairman of the Education Committee of the Faculty of Advocates and was involved in the training of members of the bar.

In 1997 she was elected MP for Edinburgh Pentlands and was re-elected in 2001. From 1997 to 1999 she was a member of the Select Committee of Public Administration. In May 1999 she was appointed by then Prime Minister Tony Blair as Advocate General for Scotland which was a new UK Office of State which she helped establish and develop.

In this position she took over, among other things, the advisory duties of the Lord Advocate to UK government departments and obtained a new range of statutory responsibilities post devolution.

She was the first woman to hold a law officer position in the UK. In 2005 she was made a life peer and carried out her ministerial duties as Advocate General thereafter in the House of Lords until she resigned in January 2006 on her appointment as a judge. In 2007 she was awarded the degree of Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Dundee and Napier University.

Gordon Jackson QC, Dean of Faculty, told Scottish Legal News: “Thankfully, when the names of new QCs are announced these days, it is no longer a surprise that women are among those awarded ‘the rank and dignity of Queen’s Counsel’.

“Currently, we have 27 practising female QCs, which is a far cry from as recently as 1989 when Lynda Clark took silk and it was headline news, because she became only the third woman ever in Scotland, after Dame Margaret Kidd in 1948 and Isabel Sinclair in 1964.

“Lady Clark enjoyed a successful career at the bar and, of course, went on to serve as a law officer (the first woman) as Advocate-General for Scotland and as a Senator of the College of Justice. We wish her a long, happy and healthy retirement.”