An Evening with the Attorney General – Baroness Scotland QC

• Date: Wednesday 28 November2007
• Time of Lecture: 5pm
• Venue: Main Lecture Theatre, Duncan House, High Street, Stratford, London, E15 2JB

At this prestigious event, organised by the UEL Student Law Society, Mooting Society and School of Law, Baroness Scotland will discuss the nature of her role and other related matters, from policing and counter-terrorism to public interest and the criminal justice system.

The Office of the Attorney General (AG) is the government’s chief legal advisor. The role reaches back to the 13th Century, but Baroness Patricia Scotland QC, appointed to the position in June 2007, is the first female AG in the office’s eight hundred year history.

Baroness Scotland, along with her deputy, the Solicitor General, is responsible for overseeing the Government Legal Service and the prosecution services, including the CPS and the Serious Fraud Office, as well as for acting as guardian of the public interest.

Recently, many in the media have questioned the role of AG in the light of the cash-for-questions scandal and the controversial ‘Iraq war advice’. Calls for review and reform of the role have grown as a consequence of its controversial dual loyalty to both public and government.

Patricia Scotland made legal history in 1991 when she became a Queens Counsel at the age of 35, the youngest QC since William Pitt the Younger and the first ever black woman QC. In 1997, she was appointed to the House of Lords as Baroness Scotland of Ashtal, the UK’s joint-first black female peer. She became an Honorary Doctor of Laws of the University of East London in 2005, and served as Lord Irvine's deputy before being appointed AG earlier this year.

All welcome - admission free.

For further details, contact Franc Gooding on 020 8223 2884 or f.gooding@uel.ac.uk, or visit www.uel.ac.uk/lectureseries.

For travel information to our Stratford Campus see: http://www.uel.ac.uk/about_uel/why_uel/stratford.htm

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