The first and only woman of the 12 law lords, Lady Hale is seen as a trailblazer. She brings a different perspective to rulings which can only increase as her seniority (she was appointed in 2003) in the highest court of the land grows — and which is likely to come into its own next year when the supreme court starts work. In dismissing the recent appeal by two mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq, she openly sympathised, saying she would want the same questions answered had it been her daughter who had been killed. She also broke new ground in coming to the High Court (1999) via academia where she had spent 18 years, becoming a law professor at Manchester University. She then went to the Law Commission — overseeing proposals to reform family law and making her a target of the right-wing press and some backbench Tory MPs. In 1999 she followed Baroness Butler-Sloss into the Court of Appeal, becoming only the second woman to reach that level. Born in Yorkshire, one of three daughters, she has strong views about equal rights for women and the need for more women at the top of the legal profession and judiciary. She has been married twice — first to fellow barrister John Hoggett, QC (they had one daughter), then to fellow Law Commissioner Julian Farrand (later the Pensions and Insurance Ombudsman) shortly after they were both divorced in 1992, after which she reverted to her maiden name, Hale.

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