Charles Falconer – Keynote Speaker

The former Lord Chancellor began as a commercial barrister, and flatmate of Tony Blair.
In 1997 he joined the Blair government as Solicitor-General, moving a year later to the Cabinet Office, becoming involved in all the critical issues which faced the government from 1998 until the 2001 election.

In 2001, after the general election, he became Housing, Planning and Regeneration Minister and in 2002 he became Criminal Justice Minister. In both these jobs he was engaged in leading genuine public service reform, for example in relation to the planning system and the criminal justice system.

In 2003 he became Lord Chancellor. In conjunction with the then Lord Chief Justice he worked out a detailed new relationship between the judiciary and the executive, which was embodied in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

His reform included the creation, for the first time, of a Supreme Court for the UK, the creation of a commission to appoint judges, making a full-time independent judge the Head of the Judiciary for England and Wales, and introducing an elected Speaker for the House of Lords.

In 2007 he became the first Secretary of State for Justice bringing together courts, prisons and justice policy for the first time.

The Times has named Charles Falconer to The Times Law 100 (2012), its annual list of the 100 most influential lawyers in the UK.

Lord Falconer studied at Edinburgh Academy, Trinity College, Glenalmond and Queens’ College, Cambridge.