The lady chief justice greeted the cream of His Majesty’s Legal Press to her annual conference with what EL Wisty – aka the late, great Peter Cook – would have called an ‘interesting fact’. There are, she informed us, 3.5 miles of red carpet in the Royal Courts of Justice. Fancy that! Pity the poor carpet layer. A Sisyphean task.

After piling (geddit?) through heavyweight stuff like judicial security and the temerity of parliamentarians, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill was asked how she thought she had done so far.

‘It has gone, for me personally, as I’d hoped for,’ she replied. ‘It has just been an incredible year. I have loved every minute of it, I have spent a lot of time not only engaging with the new administration but a lot of time I hope garnering the confidence of the judiciary, courts and tribunals across the board.’

It would be fair to say the lady justice chief has been busy since she was sworn in October 2023. She’s also proved to be excellent copy for reporters, in that she does not wince from voicing a spicy opinion. One of her latest projects is ‘looking at bringing the working practices of tribunals and courts together’. Ever up for a challenge, clearly.

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