Feature
An interview with Lady Chief Justice, The Right Honourable Dame Siobhan Keegan LCJ Keegan
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n September 2021, the Right Honourable Dame Siobhan Keegan was appointed Lady Chief Justice in Northern Ireland; the first woman ever to hold this post. Her career started in 1994, when she was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland and appointed Queen's Counsel in 2006. During her career at the Bar, she served as Vice Chair of the Bar of Northern Ireland, Chair of the Young Bar, Chair of the Family Bar Association and Chair of the Bar Charity Committee. She was a long-standing member of the Bar Professional Conduct Committee. In October 2015, she was appointed as a High Court Judge, together with The Honourable Madam Justice McBride; the first two appointments of female lawyers to the High Court in Northern Ireland.
Another challenge, was that I wasn’t quite getting work that I wanted, that male counterparts were getting, particularly criminal and commercial work. This has changed because of the discussions around briefing practices. As I progressed, I worked on cases in civil, family, judicial review and some criminal. I wanted a challenge and that’s how I became a high court judge.
Lady Chief Justice Keegan, was appointed as a Coroner in July 2017 and was the Presiding Coroner from September 2017 until September 2020. She was assigned to hear Judicial Reviews from 2017 until 2020 and was the Senior Family Judge in the High Court of Northern Ireland from April 2020 until her appointment as Lady Chief Justice. During her tenure in the Family Division, she was also the designated Northern Ireland judicial member of the International Hague Network of Judges(i).
What is your view of gender parity in the legal profession? A milestone which was very important for me was in 2015, when I was appointed with Madam Justice McBride. There’s been a growth of female lawyers being appointed to different judicial posts. We need to do better on that. The profession is made up of an equal proportion of men and women but there is an attrition rate of women leaving the profession, after seven to fifteen years in practice. This needs to be tackled so that there is space to have time out and then return to careers. It is essential to have a pool of female lawyers in higher levels of practice as QCs or partners, from which to select for progression to the judiciary. In 2021, women represented 50.3% across the whole of the judiciary. This needs to continue into senior positions.
What is the significance of being the first female in this role? It is personally very significant for me; a great honour, a great sense of achievement and a big responsibility. I take that responsibility seriously and grasp the challenge it presents because I want to build on that and hopefully provide some inspiration. I think the bigger achievement is reflected in the reaction of wider society. It is a signpost to young women, as well as men, that they can achieve the highest office. This is important feedback I have received from people in the profession, particularly young women. I did not come from a legal background. I went through a very good education system. I hope I am a template for hard work, resilience and ambition. You need all of those and often some luck or good-timing and that all coincided and got me where I am today. Putting aside the legal profession, the wider societal issue is that it is important in all professions, that roles are not only open to both genders, but can be seen to be held by both genders. What challenges did you experience? A challenge when you start in a profession like law, is that you start without a notion of what it actually entails. When I graduated, I was told it was overcrowded and if you don’t have connections, you won’t get too far. I was told certain areas of law implicitly formed a hierarchy. I decided to keep my head down and work hard and took on whatever cases came to me. Northern Ireland has the benefit of being a small jurisdiction. It is more specialist now, but before you could practice in lots of areas, and this gave me a broad set of skills.
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A further challenge was the low number of women at the Bar. When I was called, there were sixteen men and four women. It was male-dominated and there were no female high court judges and very few female silks. That changed in the 1990s and 2000s. We are in a better place now for gender parity.
There is more openness and transparency now, explaining to candidates that no one-size-fits-all model for a judicial role and that everyone interested should apply. It is a notion of transferable skills, which you can take from one area to another. Judicial office is not just academic ability but involves many other issues, such as fairness, personal qualities, management skills and a general ability to understand our society. No one should be discouraged from applying regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, your ethnic background, community background or disability. It should be a level-playing field. What processes would assist with gender parity in the profession? I am interested in continuing with support for mentoring for women in law. I was involved in this whilst I was at the Bar prior to becoming a judge and I thought it was very important. Mentoring and peer support have been effective in different roles not just in law. Women don’t tend to have networking structures that men have, although that is changing. Mentoring even informally is important. The Law Society is continuing to work on this. It is refreshing that men are mentoring women and vice versa. I’m interested in reverse mentoring as used in a commercial environment. Young women mentor senior executives and point out how the meeting was held, and provide feedback to the senior executive.
