VOLUME 4 • ISSUE 2

PATRICIA
SCOTLAND


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NAME

Patricia Scotland
Also known as Baroness Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, Oxfordshire, PC, QC, The Rt Hon. the Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, Lady Scotland of Asthal

BORN:
Patricia Janet Scotland
19th August, 1955
St. Joseph, Dominica

PROFESSION

Attorney General for England and Wales, barrister

FAMILY

PARENTS:
Arthur L. Scotland and Dellie Marie Scotland née Mourillon

SIBLINGS:
Ten

SPOUSE:
Richard Mawhinney 1985–present

CHILDREN:
Two boys

EDUCATION

Walthamstow High School for Girls, Walthamstow, England
19?–76 University of London, England

DEGREES:
1976 LLB Hons (London), University of London, England
1977 Called to the Bar, Middle Temple, England

CAREER

1990 Chairperson, Her Majesty’s Commissioner for Racial Equality (1990–92)
1991 Appointed Queens Counsel
1994 Appointed Assistant Recorder (a part-time judge)
Member, The Millennium Commission (1994–99)
1997 Made a Bencher of the Middle Temple
1999 Appointed a judge
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1999–2001)
2000 Appointed Recorder
2001 Raised to the Privy Council
Parliamentary Secretary in the Lord Chancellor’s department (2001–03)
2002 Alternate UK Government Representative of the European Convention (2002–03)
2003 Minister of State for the Criminal Justice system and Law Reform at the Home Office
Spokesperson for the Department of Trade and Industry on women and equality issues in the House of Lords
Dame of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George
Dominican Representative of the Council of the British Commonwealth Ex-Service League
Former Honorary President of the Trinity Hall Law Society
Sponsor of the George Viner Memorial Fund Trust
Patron, The Margaret Beaufort Institute
Patron, GAP
Patron, The Frank Longford Charitable Trust
Patron, The Women and Children’s Welfare Fund
Chairperson, Former Chairman of the ILEA Disciplinary Tribunal
Chairperson, HMG Caribbean Advisory Group
Member, The Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship
Member, The BBC World Service Consultative Group Lifeline, Trinidad & Tobago
Member, The Antigua Bar
Member, The Bar of the Commonwealth of Dominica
Patron of the Women and Children’s Welfare Fund
Door Tenant at Bridewell Chambers
The Bar Public Relations Committee
Race Relations Committee
Professional Conduct Committee
Judicial Studies Board Ethnic Minority Advisory Committee
House of Commons Working Party on Child Abduction
Legal Advisory Panel on the National Consumer Council
National Advisory Committee on Mentally Disordered Offenders
Founder member and former Head of Chambers of 1 Gray’s Inn Square
Advisory Panel of the British American Project
The Parliamentary Labour Party Women’s Group
The Thomas Moore Society
The House of Lords All Party Parliamentary London Group
The All Party Parliamentary Lords’ Prayer Group
The All Parliamentary Group on Breast Cancer
The All Party Parliamentary Group of CAFOD
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Children

AWARDS

1992 Black Woman of the Year (Law)
One of the top 100 Black Britons
2004 Yorkshire Black Achievers Award
Peer of the Year in the House 2004 Awards
Peer of the Year in the Channel 4 Political Awards
Parliamentarian of the Year in the Political Studies Association Awards
2005 The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards
2007 Britain’s most influential black woman, New Nation newspaper
Honorary Doctorate for services to law, government, social justice and international affairs, University of Westminster
Honorary Doctorate, University of Buckingham
Honorary Doctorate, University of Leicester
Honorary Doctorate, University of East London
Honorary Fellow of The Society for Advanced Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Cambridge
Honorary Fellow of The Society for Advanced Legal Studies of Cardiff University

NOTABLE

Specialised in family and public law
1991 First black female QC (Queens Counsel); also the youngest person, at age 35, to be appointed Queens Counsel in Britain since William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806)
1997 Created a life peer as Baroness Scotland of Asthal, in the County of Oxfordshire
2007 Appointed Attorney General by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
First woman to become Attorney General for England and Wales
First Dominican to be appointed to a cabinet post in the United Kingdom