Brenda Hale, Rt Hon the Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE, was born in Yorkshire and studied Law at Girton College, Cambridge.

She was called to the Bar in 1969 and spent almost twenty years in academia whilst also practising as a barrister for a short time.

In 1984, Lady Hale became the first woman and the youngest person to be appointed to the Law Commission, where she oversaw critical reforms in family law and mental disability law.
She also began sitting as a part time judge, was appointed a QC in 1989, and became a full-time judge in the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales in 1994.

She was the first and only woman to become a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, joining the appellate committee of the House of Lords in 2004, when it was still the top court for the whole United Kingdom.

She was the first woman to serve on the newly created Supreme Court, was appointed Deputy President in 2013, and its President from 2017 to 2020.

During her tenure a notable ruling by the Supreme Court was that Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted unlawfully when he advised the Queen to suspend Parliament.

Since retiring from the Court, Lady Hale has concentrated on speaking, writing and supporting a variety of charitable organisations. Her memoir, Spider Woman, was published in 2021.