He may have retired as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales in 2005 but he has not slowed down. Seventy-five in May, Lord Woolf of Barnes is helping Qatar in its bid to supplant Dubai as the Middle East's financial hub by leading its new criminal and commercial court system. He is chairman of the Bank of England Financial Markets Law Committee. More controversially, he has been leading an independent panel investigating the ethics of BAE Systems, the arms manufacturer. Born in Newcastle, Harry Woolf was called to the Bar in 1955 and became a judge in 1979, rising to become a law lord, Master of the Rolls and then Lord Chief Justice. The Woolf reforms, which sought to make litigation more accessible and less expensive, have had a profound impact on civil justice since they were introduced in 1999. As Lord Chief Justice he was an outspoken advocate of penal reform, the importance of rehabilitation and spare use of custody; he also successfully led the judiciary in negotiating a "concordat" with ministers on their new role, after the removal from office of the then Lord Chancellor and constitutional shake-up.

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