A Life – by the former President of the Supreme Court

Spider Woman

Brenda Hale is a superhero who embodies Parker's law that great power brings equivalent responsibility. Her wise, accessible memoir is essential, entertaining and inspirational reading for all lovers of freedom, equality and justice

What a life, what a story... Spider Woman is restrained, warm, dryly funny ... and an inspiration to all women to aim high... Whatever her title, Brenda Hale rocks

A feminist icon... Her success story is an inspiration for men and women both - showing that law matters

This book is not only essential reading for anyone who is in the Law or interested in the Law but it is also a fascinating personal story

A compelling account of a path-breaking and inspirational career by one of the most influential lawyers and judges of our times

Brenda Hale's story is extraordinary. She has been a pioneer as a woman... Spider woman and agent of change

Lady Hale takes us on the journey from 'girly swot' to 'Spider Woman' and along the way teaches us about the importance of the rule of law and protecting human rights... with humanity, humour and deep insight

This is an extraordinary and essential journey through the law by the most inspiring of figures

Fluently written... Her accounts of her more groundbreaking cases are fascinating... [Spider Woman is] quietly thrilling

Eye-opening... I would highly recommend the work to law students, the newly qualified and those with a sociolegal interest in the treatment of women within the law and the profession

A wonderful story... A wonderful read. A wonderful woman

A fascinating memoir weaving together personal and professional reflections

Baroness Hale's autobiography, Spider Woman, is a reminder of the huge but incomplete progress made by women in public life over the past 60 years... The willingness to talk truth to power that she has shown is needed now more than ever

[A] compelling autobiography... Hale reveals more than one might expect

Lady Hale... is a trailblazer for social reform. Her sharp intelligence and fierce work ethic are striking... Reading her autobiography makes one wish to know her as a person... She appears so very admirable for being oddly both self-effacing and feisty

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. 
 
She lives in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Lady Hale is an inspirational figure admired for her historic achievements and for the causes she has championed. Spider Woman is her story. 
 
 As 'a little girl from a little school in a little village in North Yorkshire', she only went into the law because her headteacher told her she wasn't clever enough to study history. She became the most senior judge in the country but it was an unconventional path to the top. 
 
 How does a self-professed 'girly swot' get ahead in a profession dominated by men? Was it a surprise that the perspectives of women and other disadvantaged groups had been overlooked, or that children's interests were marginalised? A lifelong smasher of glass-ceilings, who took as her motto 'women are equal to everything', her landmark rulings in areas including domestic violence, divorce, mental health and equality were her attempt to correct that. 
 
 As President of the Supreme Court, Lady Hale won global attention in finding the 2019 prorogation of Parliament to be unlawful. Yet that dramatic moment was merely the pinnacle of a career throughout which she was hailed as a pioneering reformer. 
 
 Wise, warm and inspiring, Spider Woman shows how the law shapes our world and supports us in crisis. It is the story of how Lady Hale found that she could overcome the odds, which shows that anyone from similar beginnings will find that they can cope too.

Lady Hale

The Spiderwoman rides again; this time in plain clothes to report on how our legal system protects everyone. With the law under threat from decades of cuts, complacency and political hostility, this accessible, forensic and breathtakingly humane explanation may be her most important mission yet

Shami Chakrabarti, author of Human Rights

How the law works for everyone and how we can make it work better

Our laws and justice system are vast and ancient: they might touch our lives when we have an accident, a wrong is done to us, or we have a family difficulty. And they cover everything from the personal to the regulation of our government. But to most of us they are a web of intimidating institutions and practices. 
 
Lady Hale – former President of the Supreme Court and an inspirational figure admired for her historic achievements and for the causes she has championed – shows us how the law is on our side. Taking us into the complexities of real courts and real decisions, we see that we all have rights: schoolchildren, the disabled, workers, minorities and patients. 
 
Here are true stories from every part of the justice system, from lowly benefits tribunals and magistrates’ courts to the lofty heights of the Royal Courts of Justice and the Old Bailey; stories about the dilemmas of deciding what is right and just, which invite you to say where justice lies before knowing what the courts decided. From mundane situations to the dramatic and the extraordinary, we see how the people whose needs the law is designed to protect actually experience it. 
 
With The Law on Our Side is a citizen’s handbook to the law in our land, a top-to-bottom tour with a supremely expert guide. In captivating stories, it tells us what the law is about, how it works and most importantly why we should all care about it.

Lady Hale

Praise for With the Law on Our Side

The Spiderwoman rides again; this time in plain clothes to report on how our legal system protects everyone. With the law under threat from decades of cuts, complacency and political hostility, this accessible, f ...

Books by Lady Hale

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