Mrs Justice Heather Williams DBE | |
---|---|
Justice of the High Court | |
Assumed office 1 October 2021 | |
Appointed by | Elizabeth II |
Personal details | |
Born | 1963 (age 60–61) Portsmouth,England |
Alma mater | King's College London |
Dame Heather Jane Williams, DBE (born 1963), [1] also known as The Honourable Mrs Justice Heather Williams DBE,is a British High Court judge.
Williams was born in Portsmouth,England and attended King's College London,graduating with a first-class LLB degree in 1984. [1] [2]
She was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1985 and was in practice from 1987,specialising in civil liberties,judicial review and employment discrimination;she practised from and was deputy head of chambers of Doughty Street Chambers. [3] She appeared before the inquests into the Hillsborough disaster and was successful in Miriam O'Reilly's age discrimination case against the BBC. [3] Williams took silk in 2006,was a part-time judge for the Employment Tribunals from 2005 until 2018,and served as a recorder and a deputy High Court judge from 2018. [1] [4] [2]
On 1 October 2021,Williams was appointed a judge of the High Court and assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. [5] [4] She received the customary damehood in the same year. [1]
On 1 January 2023,she became President of the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) [6]
In 1997,she married Trevor Bragg and together they have a son and a daughter. [1]
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