Elizabeth Gloster

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Dame Elizabeth Gloster
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (Tudor crown).svg
Lady Justice of Appeal
In office
9 April 2013 – 1 June 2018
MonarchElizabeth II
High Court Judge
In office
21 April 2004 – 9 April 2013
Personal details
Born
Elizabeth Gloster

(1949-06-05) 5 June 1949 (age 74)
NationalityBritish
Spouses
Alma materGirton College, Cambridge
OccupationJudge
ProfessionBarrister

Dame Elizabeth Gloster, DBE, PC (born 5 June 1949[1]) is a British lawyer who was a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Vice-President of the Civil Division. She was the first female judge of the Commercial Court.[2]

Education

Gloster was educated at Roedean School and Girton College, Cambridge.[3]

Career

Gloster was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1971 (and made a bencher in 1992).[4] In 1989, she became a Queen's Counsel. She was appointed a judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey in 1993 and a Recorder in 1995.[5]

On 21 April 2004, Gloster was appointed a High Court judge,[6] receiving the customary appointment as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) and allocated to the Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court).[7] From 2010 to 2012, she was the judge in charge of the Commercial Court.[5]

Gloster heard a case in 2022 involving two Russian oligarchs in which Boris Berezovsky claimed Roman Abramovich had intimidated him into selling shares in Russian oil giant Sibneft. and was claiming £3bn in damages. She found Berezovsky to be "an inherently unreliable witness" and found in favour of Abramovich. An editorial in The Times agreed with the judge's conclusion.[8] At the start of the trial she had disclosed in court that her stepson had represented Abramovich as a barrister at an early stage of the case. Berezovsky's lawyers said their client had no objection to her continuing to hear the case. They later claimed that the barrister's involvement for which he had been paid £469,000 in fees had been understated but did not appeal against the judgment.[9] Asked outside the court if he felt Russia's President Vladimir Putin would be happy with the ruling, Berezovsky replied: "Sometimes I have the impression that Putin himself wrote this judgment." [10] A Statement from the Judicial Office which represents judges said Dame Elizabeth's stepson had not appeared at any hearings where she had been present. The statement said: "Where a judge has disclosed a family relationship to the parties, it is a judicial decision whether a judge believes he or she should recuse him or herself. The way to challenge a decision not to recuse would be by appealing through the courts." [11]

On 9 April 2013, Dame Elizabeth was appointed a Lady Justice of Appeal[12] and consequently appointed to the Privy Council.

She became Vice-President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal on 7 December 2016, on the retirement of Lord Justice Moore-Bick.[13] She retired from the Court of Appeal on 1 June 2018.[7]

Judgments

Private life

In 2005, Elizabeth Gloster was divorced from Stanley Brodie QC. On 15 March 2008, she married Sir Oliver Popplewell.[14]

References

  1. ^ "Senior judiciary". The Judicial Office. 3 October 2011. Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
  2. ^ Malkin, Brendan (13 April 2004). "Gloster QC is first female Commercial Court judge". The Lawyer. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  3. ^ "Elizabeth Gloster QC". Commonwealth Secretariat. 2011. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  4. ^ "Gloster, Dame Elizabeth - Hot 100". The Lawyer. 7 January 2005. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  5. ^ a b "Appointment of new judge in charge of the Commercial Court". The Judicial Office. 6 July 2010. Archived from the original on 28 May 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
  6. ^ "No. 57274". The London Gazette. 28 April 2004. p. 5305.
  7. ^ a b "Court of Appeal: Retirement of Lady Justice Gloster DBE". www.judiciary.uk. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  8. ^ "Richly Deserved - Berezovsky's ill-advised case against Abramovich has failed dramatically". The Times. 1 September 2012.
  9. ^ Belton, Catherine (2021). Putin's People How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West. London: HarperCollins. pp. 5, 506. ISBN 9780007578818.
  10. ^ "Roman Abramovich wins court battle against Berezovsky". BBC News.
  11. ^ Leppard, David (22 September 2012). "Berezovsky cries foul over £3.5bn Abramovich trial judge". The Times. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  12. ^ "No. 60472". The London Gazette. 11 April 2013. p. 7097.
  13. ^ "Courts and Tribunals Judiciary | Appointment of the new Vice-President of the Court of Appeal (Civil)". Archived from the original on 17 November 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  14. ^ Rozenberg, Joshua (4 June 2008). "Brief Encounters". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 October 2011.