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Leeds Beckett awards honorary degree to Supreme Court judge
Lady Black is only the second-ever female judge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the pinnacle of her stellar legal career spanning more than 40 years.
She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws at Leeds Town Hall on 18 July.
Lady Black said: “I am very pleased to be receiving this award. It is a great honour, and it continues a long-standing link with the university, which began when I taught law in Leeds in the 1980s.”
After completing her studies at Durham University, Lady Black became the first lawyer in her family and was called to the Bar in 1976.
Her initial career at the Bar involved a broad range of criminal and civil work, although she later specialised in family law.
For a period in the 1980s, Lady Black taught law at Leeds Beckett’s predecessor, Leeds Polytechnic, and for more than 20 years she was a member of 30 Park Square Chambers. After taking silk as a QC in 1994, she was appointed to the High Court in 1999, assigned to the Family Division and becoming a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
After being appointed as a judge in the High Court’s Family Division in 1999, she served as a Family Division liaison judge on the Northern Circuit from 2000-2004.
That year, she also became the chairman of the Judicial Studies Board’s Family Committee. In 2008 Lady Black was appointed as a Judicial Appointments Commissioner, where she served until 2013.
Appointed a Lady Justice of Appeal in 2010, she was the Head of International Family Justice from 2013 until 2017
Lady Black is also a founding author of the definitive guide to family law in England and Wales, The Family Court Practice, and continues to serve as a consulting editor.
Sir Bob Murray CBE, Chancellor of Leeds Beckett University, said: “Lady Black has risen through the ranks to serve the public in the highest court in England. Her achievements in her legal career are meteoric and she is an inspiration to any students who are keen to follow a career in law. I’m delighted we are conferring this honorary award.”