A former partner at magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has become one of the highest-ranking solicitor-judges. HM judiciary announced today that Mrs Justice Falk (Sarah Falk), who qualified as a solicitor in 1986, has been appointed to the Court of Appeal. She is the sole solicitor on the Court of Appeal bench – diversity statistics published in July state that all 37 Court of Appeal judges are barristers.

Falk was appointed as a fee-paid deputy judge of the Upper Tribunal (tax and chancery chamber) in 2015 and sat regularly in the first-tier tax and upper tribunals until her appointment to the High Court in 2018. She was a judicial commissioner for the Judicial Appointments Commission from 2019 for three years.

Falk specialised in tax at Freshfields. In an interview with the First 100 Years Project in 2019, she said: ‘It was very different being a woman. The great majority of people in the firm, and virtually all the partners, were men. Within the firm, I personally didn’t feel I suffered any form of discrimination. But where I did notice it was in dealings with clients and business. It was the absolute norm to go into a meeting of possibly 20 people and you would be the only woman there.’

‘There’s a fantastic cartoon… there’s a meeting room with one woman, lots of men. The person chairing the meeting says ‘Well, Miss Triggs, that was a really good suggestion now would one of the men like to make it?” I had that so many times. Selective hearing – I would say something, no reaction. Half an hour later, it seemed to me, invariably one of the men would say the same thing and everyone would say “what a fantastic idea”.’

Falk said her rise up the firm was interrupted by her decision to start a family in her 20s. She became a partner in 1994 and had her second child a year later. She eventually retired from the partnership and combined two days at her firm with sitting in the tax tribunal. In 2018, she was the first woman appointed to the High Court to come directly from solicitors’ practice.

Falk is the third solicitor to reach the Court of Appeal.

Congratulating Falk on her appointment, Law Society president Lubna Shuja said: 'Solicitors bring particular skills and experiences to the judicial process and decision-making. They also come from more diverse backgrounds than the barristers who traditionally populate the bench.

'Lady Falk is currently the only solicitor on the Court of Appeal, and will be only the 20th lady justice of appeal ever, which demonstrates there is still much progress to be made before the judiciary reflects wider society. I’m sure her appointment will encourage solicitors with judicial aspirations that there need be no limits to their ambition.'

 

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