A lawyer who started her legal career as a 15-year-old on work experience has become the youngest woman in the UK to become a judge, at the age of 31. Briony Clarke was sworn in as a deputy district judge at Chelmsford crown court in Essex yesterday. Her legal experience began as a schoolgirl when she had a placement with the Chelmsford firm Taylor Haldane Barlex. Sixteen years on, she will sit in judgment at magistrates’ courts on the London and South East circuit. In 2001 she joined Taylor Haldane Barlex as a trainee solicitor and from there rose through the ranks to become a general criminal law solicitor, attending magistrates’ courts and police stations regularly, as well as the crown court.

Source: The Times March 08, 2017 00:45 UTC