Anuja Dhir

Born at Dundee in 1968 of Indian heritage, Dhir was educated at Harris Academy before reading Law at Dundee University, graduating in 1988. She subsequently won a Gray's Inn scholarship and was called to the Bar in 1989.

She is married to Nicholas Lavender who became a Queen's Counsel, then a High Court Judge,[2] when he was knighted, at which point Dhir became entitled to be styled Lady Lavender; she is also a member of the Haberdashers' Company.[3]

Dhir practised as a barrister for 23 years, as counsel for both prosecutor and defence, being involved in serious criminal cases as well as cases involving national security and human rights.

She was a member of various Bar Council Committees including the Equality Committee, the Professional Conduct Committee and Law Reform Committee. She has been heavily involved in advocacy training in the UK and abroad: she was head of teacher training for Gray's Inn and has led training in India, Sri Lanka, Jamaica (death row cases), Bermuda, Bhutan, Malaysia, Singapore (for the AG), Zimbabwe and South Africa.[4]

Elected a Bencher of Gray's Inn in 2009, appointed Recorder in 2010 and a Circuit Judge in 2012, in 2016, Lady Lavender was appointed a Governor of the Hackney City Academy School. In February 2017, at the age of 49, she became a Judge at the Old Bailey.[4]

In November 2018 she made the headlines after allowing an 18 year-old youth, who had welded a large hunting knife at a motorist in Croydon, and with a previous conviction for robbery with a knife, to walk out of court with a suspended sentence.[5]

• Lady Lavender becomes first non-white Circuit Judge at Old Bailey
• www.judiciary.uk