A WOMAN OF INSPIRATION
Retirement tributes to Yorkshire-born judge who ‘dynamited her way into the public consciousness’
IN LITTLE more than 15 years she had gone from unbending ideologue to a symbol of “swashbuckling womanhood”, and as she took her final bow yesterday, Dame Brenda Hale appeared content with both labels.
The traditional valedictory ceremony for the nation’s most senior judge – who three months ago ruled that Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament had been unlawful – also saw a third description appended to her CV.
She had been, said her successor, “an inspiration to women, and especially to women lawyers”.
The Yorkshire-born judge, who will go by the title Baroness Hale of Richmond following her retirement next month, was the first woman justice of the Supreme Court and served as its deputy president from 2013, before becoming president two years ago.
Her official farewell took place in a courtroom within the former Middlesex Guildhall on Parliament Square, where the Supreme Court sits.
Its incoming president. Lord Reed, paid tribute to her “remarkable achievements” and her “immense contribution” to the law.
Referring to herself in the third person, Lady Hale replied: “If Judge Brenda has inspired a younger generation to believe in the ideals of justice, fairness and equality and to think that they might put them into practice, Judge Brenda will retire content.”
Born in Leeds towards the end of the Second World War, Brenda Hale grew up in Richmond, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, one of three daughters of headteachers.
She was the first pupil at
Richmond High School for Girls to go to Cambridge, and the first to read law.
She would go on to become the first female Law Lord, before the creation of the Supreme Court 10 years ago.
But her greatest achievement, said Lord Reed, was her handling of the prorogation ruling. The now-famous spider brooch she wore when handing down the court’s unanimous ruling had “become a symbol of swashbuckling womanhood,” he noted.
The chairman of the Bar, Richard Atkins QC, said Lady
Hale had “dynamited her way into the public consciousness” to become a “single name celebrity” widely known simply as “Brenda”.
The president of the Law Society, Christina Blacklaws – sporting a spider brooch of her own – hailed the “enormous impact that you have had on women in the law and beyond”.
She said: “As a feminist, a lawyer and a leader, you have been a huge inspiration to so many of us.”
However, Lady Hale acknowledged that her appointment in 2004 had not been universally welcomed.
She had been described as “the most ideological, politically correct judge ever to have been appointed”, she recalled, as well as the epitome of “the moral vacuum within our judiciary and wider establishment”.
She was referring to a newspaper columnist of the time, who railed against her support for gay adoption and legally recognised gay partnerships, and her calls for the adoption of “no fault” divorces – which she denies would make breaking up marriages easier.
She also referenced the suggestions which followed the prorogation case that Supreme Court justices might in future be made to submit to a public hearing before they could be appointed.
“We do not want to turn into the Supreme Court of the United States – whether in powers or in process of appointment,” she said.
Lady Hale will now sit as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, as well as working as a judge at Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal. She will also keep her roles as visitor of Girton College, Cambridge, and visiting professor of King’s College London, as well as a new one as honorary professor at University College London.
As a feminist, a lawyer and a leader, you have been a huge inspiration. The president of the Law Society, Christina Blacklaws, pays tribute to Lady Hale.