The next Lord Chief Justice of the United Kingdom will be a woman, for the first time since the position’s foundation more than 750 years ago. Dame Sue Carr, an appeal court judge, and Dame Victoria Sharp, a senior high court judge, are the final two candidates to lead the judiciary in England and Wales. Because Lord Chief Justice is now a male-only title, British constitutional legislation may need to be amended to include the term “Lady Chief Justice,” according to the Daily Mail. More than 100 men have held the position since it was established in 1268.
The next Lord Chief Justice is expected to be named within the next two weeks
The first woman to fill the post, however, is expected to be named within the next two weeks by Alex Chalk, the Lord Chancellor, and Justice Secretary.
Dame Victoria Sharp, whose twin brother is former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp, who quit as BBC chairman last month, is the frontrunner to succeed departing Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett. She is notorious for working long hours; she and her doctor husband have been known to work 14-hour days while raising their four children. She even went through labor in court.
When she was awarded a law doctorate at Bristol University, academic Professor David Clarke said of her, ‘She was convinced that if she had not dedicated herself to her job as she did by rejecting any leave on the birth of any of her children, she would have been significantly disadvantaged; as she puts it, if you were not there in chambers, you did not receive briefs and you had no job.’ Dame Sue, a Court of Appeal judge since April 2020, is reported to have a more “outwardly confident personality.”