Anthony Lester, Baron Lester of Herne Hill

* For the "Death Note" character, see List_of_Death_Note_characters#Anthony Rester----Anthony Paul Lester, Baron Lester of Herne Hill, QC (born July 3, 1936) is a British politician and member of the House of Lords, and a member of the Liberal Democrats.

He studied history and law at Trinity College, Cambridge and Harvard Law School. In 1968, he co-founded the Runnymede Trust anti-discrimination think-tank with Jim Rose He was a special advisor to Roy Jenkins at the Home Office in the 1970s, and moved with Jenkins from the Labour Party to found the SDP in 1981. He was Chairman of the Runnymede Trust from 1991 to 1993.

He was created Baron Lester of Herne Hill, of Herne Hill in the London Borough of Southwark in 1993. As a barrister he works out of Blackstone Chambers. He was appointed Adjunct Professor of the Faculty of Law at University College Cork (Ireland) in 2005.

On 29 June 2007, Lord Lester was appointed by in-coming Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a special advisor on constitutional reform to the Secretary of State for Justice. [http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12225.asp]

Lord Lester is a patron of the Family Planning Association, previously called the National Birth Control Committee. He represented the FPA in a contentious case in Northern Ireland where it was widely claimed that the FPA were trying to use strategic litigation to introduce liberalised abortion laws into the country.

Lord Lester is a widely acclaimed human rights lawyer in the European human rights system where he has represented individuals and states.

External links

* [http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/people/lord-lester-of-herne-hill-qc.html Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC] profile at the site of Liberal Democrats