First ever female Lord Chief Justice to be named

A woman is to become lord chief justice for the first time, ending a male stranglehold on the post dating back 755 years.

Two women – Dame Victoria Sharp, 67, a senior judge, and Dame Sue Carr, 58, an appeal court judge – were the only judges to make it to the final shortlist where they were interviewed by a specially chosen panel.

Alex Chalk, the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, is expected to announce within the next fortnight which of the two women will be head of the judiciary in England and Wales, once his and the Prime Minister’s recommendation is approved by the King.

After more than 100 male holders of the post since it was established in 1268, the law may have to be amended to accommodate the title of “Lady Chief Justice.” Because it has never been held by a woman, it remains written into the UK’s constitutional law as solely a male title in the form of “Lord”.

Dame Victoria, the first woman to be president of the King’s bench, is said by insiders to be the favourite as a current deputy to the retiring Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett. She is the twin sister of the former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp, who stepped down as the chairman of the BBC after controversy over his involvement in a chain of events that led to Boris Johnson securing a loan.

Dame Sue, a court of appeal judge since April 2020, is described by legal insiders as having a more “outwardly confident personality”.

“She would be better able to do the public-facing stuff parts of the role and liaising with the Government and the Lord Chancellor,” said one legal observer. Whoever wins the race faces a daunting task to rein in the backlogs and delays in cases that mushroomed during Covid as well as the perennial funding battles over maintaining and repairing the fabric of the courts.

The courts are also undergoing radical change with greater use of technology such as pre-recorded video evidence and remote trials, the introduction of cameras to film court cases and a drive toward greater transparency for the public to see justice done.

Broke through judicial glass ceiling

Both are high-fliers who broke through the judicial glass ceiling.

Dame Victoria won promotion to the court of appeal at the first attempt, continuing her reputation for hard work from 7am to 9pm on most days and often at weekends.

She had four children in five years with her doctor husband, in one case going into labour while in court.

“She acknowledges she was very competitive, both then and now,” said Prof David Clarke, when she was awarded a doctor of law at her alma mater Bristol University.

“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.”

She specialised in defamation and, as a judge and barrister, has been involved in high-profile cases such as those involving Carole Caplin, a style adviser to Cherie Blair, and the Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Dame Sue, a mother of three, was educated at Wycombe Abbey School, Bucks, and Trinity College Cambridge. In an interview for the school website, she described how she “threw myself into everything I could” at school including music where she admitted she was “not gifted in any way.”

“I chose the viola because I worked out that it would maximise my chances of getting into the school orchestra, something which I was keen to experience. It proved to be a canny choice. Despite my lack of talent, I ended up in the front row pretty quickly!” she recalled.

And her advice to the Wycombe Abbey pupils? “To me, feminism is having that true freedom of choice.  Sometimes the burden of potential is a heavy one and it is all too easy to go down a certain career path because it seems to be what is wanted of you,” she said.  

“So perhaps you could be Prime Minister, but if actually you really want to be a painter or teach riding and your circumstances permit it, then that is what you should do.”