Dinah Rose

She was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1989,[4] and took silk in 2006.[4] In a July 2009 interview with The Lawyer, she referred to Lord Lester QC as a mentor and described Lord Pannick QC as a huge influence.[5]

She has appeared in many high-profile cases, including representing "extraordinary rendition" victim Binyam Mohamed at his Court of Appeal hearing.[6][7]

Rose also worked on the judicial review of the Attorney General's decision to drop the investigation into alleged bribes of Saudi officials by BAE Systems.[8]

Rose represented the family of a child who had been denied a place at the prominent Jewish comprehensive school, JFS, because his mother was not recognised as Jewish by the Office of the Chief Rabbi. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that the denial of a place constituted unlawful race discrimination.[9]

She appeared for Julian Assange in Assange v The Swedish Judicial Authority before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, in his unsuccessful appeal against extradition to Sweden.[10][11]

It was announced in October 2012 that Rose had been appointed by the BBC to investigate its culture and policies in relation to sexual harassment and bullying, following the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal.[12][13] Respect at Work, for which 930 employees were interviewed, was published at the beginning of May 2013. Rose and her team found 37 cases of alleged sexual harassment by 35 persons between April 2006 and November 2012, but said cases of bullying were much more common, and were often not properly investigated by BBC management.[14] Rose said in June that a "very troubling" atmosphere existed between staff and their superiors at the BBC.[15]

In March 2013, Rose ended her party membership of the Liberal Democrats in protest at Nick Clegg's support for the coalition government's justice and security bill describing it as a "betrayal of the party's guiding principles".[16]

In February 2020, she was elected President of Magdalen College, Oxford, in succession to Sir David Clary: she is the first woman to hold the position.[17] She took up the post in September 2020, becoming the 43rd President of the college.[18]

In January 2021, Rose was criticised by former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and Oxford alumnus Edwin Cameron for acting for the Cayman Islands government in a case opposing the legalisation of same-sex marriage.[19] The Magdalen College undergraduate body passed a motion affirming its support for her and rejecting calls for her to resign.[20]