Linda Dobbs

Dame Linda Penelope Dobbs, DBE (born 3 January 1951), styled The Honourable Mrs Justice Dobbs, was the first non-white person to be appointed a judge of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales.

Dobbs' mother was from Sierra Leone, and her father was an English lawyer who became a High Court judge in Sierra Leone. She studied Linguistic and Regional Studies (Russian and Law) at the University of Surrey, graduating with a BSc in 1976. She received an LLM from the London School of Economics, and a PhD for research on criminology and penology in the Soviet Union.

She was called to the bar in 1981, and worked as a barrister specialising in criminal law, acting for both prosecution and defence. She practised at 18 Red Lion Court, and mainly worked on cases of white collar crime, Customs and Excise offences, and serious sexual offences. She also sat as a Legal Assessor for the General Medical Council, the General Dental Council and the General Osteopathic Council. She became a QC in 1998, and was appointed as a deputy High Court judge in February 2003, without having previously held appointment as a Recorder. She became chairman of the Criminal Bar Association in September 2003, but stood down when she was appointed a High Court judge in September 2004. She received the customary DBE, and was assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, occasionally sitting in the Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division, the Administrative Court, and the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal.

At the time of the appointment, Dobbs said: "It is a great honour to have been invited by the Lord Chancellor to become a High Court judge ... [w] hilst this appointment might be seen as casting me into the role of standard bearer, I am simply a practitioner following a career path. I am confident, nevertheless, that I am the first of many to come."

She has subsequently been appointed as chairman of the Magisterial Committee of the Judicial Studies Board.

References

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3621648.stm High Court Gets First Black Judge, BBC, 2 September 2004]
* [http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/linda_dobbs.html 100 Great Black Britons]
* [http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ado/surreygrad16.pdf Graduate profile, " Surrey Graduate", magazine of the Surrey Alumni Society, issue 16, Spring 2005, p.14]