Notable Welsh Lawyers
Legal Wales

Hywel Dda (Hywel ap Cadell c.880 – 948) king of Deheubarth and ruler of all Wales)

Hywel’s name is associated with the codification of the laws of Medieval Wales, an event traditionally associated with Whitland, Carmarthenshire, and they are commonly known as the Laws of Hywel Dda. None of the extant law manuscripts can be dated to Hywel’s time, but Hywel’s name is mentioned in the prologues and his name continued to be associated with Welsh law which remained in active use throughout Wales until the appointed date of implementation of the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542.

Judge David Jenkins of Hensol (1582-1663) Judge and Law Reporter.

Judge of the Court of Great Sessions of Wales. A prominent royalist he was imprisoned during the Civil War when he devoted his time to compiling the first digest of common law case reports the forerunner of the modern casebook. In 1650 when he was amongst the royalist prisoners that the Rump Parliament considered executing, he said that if he was to go to the scaffold he would be “hanged with the Bible under one arm and Magna Carta under the other”.

Sir John Vaughan of Trawscoed (1603-1674) Chief Justice of Common Pleas 1668 to 1674

Sir John Vaughan won lasting fame for his important decision in Bushell’s Case (1670), that juries were not to be fined for returning a verdict against the direction of the judge.

Rt Hon Sir Leoline Jenkins (1625 – 1685), admiralty and ecclesiastical judge, administrator and diplomat

Leoline Jenkins was born in Llantrisant, the son of a small landowner. He went to school in the nearby town of Cowbridge and then proceeded to Jesus College, Oxford.

As Judge of the Admiralty Court from 1665, played a crucial role in the development of English Admiralty law as a coherent body of legal principles. He served Charles II as Secretary of State. He secured the passage of the Statute of Distributions dealing with intestacy (1670) and was one of the drafters of the Statute of Frauds 1677. Sir Leoline also represented the King in international private law cases as well as serving as a diplomat. He was the Principal of Jesus College, Oxford and bequeathed an endowment by which the Welsh character of the college was still further accentuated.

Sir Leoline spoke fluent Welsh, and was fond of quoting Welsh proverbs, sometimes to the bewilderment of his listeners.
Images: More Information Coming Soon...

Sir William Jones, (1746-1794) Judge and Orientalist.

Sir William Jones FRS FRSE was an Anglo-Welsh philologist, a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, and a scholar of ancient India, particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among European and Indo-Aryan languages, which he coined as Indo-European.

Rt Hon Sir Samuel Evans GCB (1859-1918), President of the Probate Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court.

Born in Skewen, Neath, the son of a grocer, Samuel Evans first qualified as a solicitor. Elected to Parliament in 1890, he was called to the Bar the following year and was appointed Solicitor-General in 1908. He accepted appointment as President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division in 1910. He made an outstanding contribution to the Admiralty law as President of the Prize Court established during the First World War.

The Sir Samuel Evans Prize, founded in his memory by public subscription in 1923, is still awarded for the best undergraduate law degree at a Welsh Law School by Y Werin Legacy Fund administered by the University of Wales Trinity St David.

David Lloyd George (1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC) (1863-1945), solicitor, Prime Minister

Raised in modest circumstances in Caernarfonshire, David Lloyd George qualified as a solicitor, with honours, in 1884 after his uncle used his life savings to pay the required premium of £100.

Lloyd George’s role in the “Llanfrothen Burial Case” of 1888, concerning the right of non-conformists to burial in Anglican churchyards, helped to secure his election to Parliament for Caernarfon Boroughs in 1890.
He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer 1908-15, Minister of Munitions 1915 and Secretary of State for War 1916. He became Prime Minister in December 1916 at a critical juncture in the First World War. He represented the Britain at the Versailles Peace Conference and remained in office until 1922.

Viscount Sankey of Moreton GBE (1866 – 1948), Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and High Steward of the University of Oxford.

Born in Herefordshire but raised in Cardiff, John Sankey was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple 1892 after graduating from Jesus College, Oxford.

Sankey practiced initially on the South Wales Circuit specialising in workmen’s compensation cases, until he took Silk – which then required a move to London chambers – in 1909. Appointed to the High Court in 1914, he acted as a reviewer of internment cases during the First World War, including the cases of Irish republican internees held at Frongoch, Merionethshire. For this work he was appointed GBE.

Although an opponent of the disestablishment of the Welsh Church, he was the principal drafter of the Constitution of the Church in Wales in 1917, which remains in place today.

In 1919 he chaired a Commission on the Coal Industry and produced a notable report recommending the nationalisation of the industry.

He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1928. On the formation of the second Labour Government in 1929l he was appointed Lord Chancellor, taking the title Lord Sankey of Moreton. During his six years on the Woolsack, Lord Sankey was a pioneer of law reform setting up a permanent Law Revision Committee, the precursor of today’s Law Commission.

In retirement, he gave his name to the Sankey Declaration of the Rights of Man, a charter drawn up in 1940 by a committee of which HG G Wells was a leading member and closely followed in the eventual drawing up of the wording for the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Images: More Information Coming Soon...

Lord Atkin of Aberdovey (1867-1944) Law Lord.

Lord Atkin was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1891 and developed a great reputation at the commercial Bar. He was appointed to the King's Bench in 1913 and made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1919, becoming a Law Lord in 1928.

He is particularly remembered for two cases. The "snail in the bottle" case (Donoghue v Stevenson - 1932) is the foundation of the modern law of tort. His dissenting judgement in Liversidge v Anderson in 1942 supported the right of the Courts to review Ministerial orders made under wartime regulations and pointed the way to the development of the modern system of judicial review.

Along with F E Smith, Atkin was crucial in the re-establishment of Gray's Inn, the inn of court most associated with Wales, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.

Thomas Levi, (1874-1954) first Professor of Law at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Educated at Ardwyn grammar school he entered UCW Aberystwyth in 1891 proceeding to Lincoln College Oxford in 1893 where he won the Carrington Prize for Law in 1897 graduating with first-class Honours in Law in the in the BCL, before being called to the Bar by the Inner Temple.
When the Law Faculty was opened at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, in 1901, he applied for the Chair of Law, despite the advice of the Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford, A. V. Dicey, that he should not throw away his brilliant gifts in such a remote and insignificant place (Levi had succeeded F. E. Smith (later Lord Birkenhead) as one of Dicey's star students). Nevertheless, Dicey supported him and he was appointed Professor of English Law at Aberystwyth. Levi headed the Law Department thenceforward until his retirement in 1940.
Under his care the department became nationally known, both in universities and in legal circles. He established a vision of a university law school as something more than just a training ground for future practitioners that has inspired the Welsh law schools ever since.
Levi himself was a notable undergraduate teacher of law and his reputation and style as a lecturer drew audiences from beyond the law faculty. He also travelled throughout Wales giving lectures to raise money to keep the Department afloat and in support of the Liberal cause in Wales.

Elizabeth Andrews JP 1882 – 1960

Elizabeth Andrews became a magistrate in 1920, one of the earliest women magistrates in Wales. (the first having been Dame Margaret Lloyd George GBE appointed on Christmas Eve 1919).

She became a respected authority on juvenile delinquency and was awarded an OBE in 1948 for her services as a magistrate. She was the first woman organiser of the Labour Party in Wales and translated leaflets from English to Welsh, encouraging women to use their newly won vote.

Elizabeth Andrews was also a leading figure in the campaign for pithead baths and one of three women who gave evidence in the House of Lords before the 1918 Sankey Commission in the mining industry. She also opened the first nursery school in Wales in the Rhondda in 1938.

Agnes Twiston Hughes (1895-1981) Solicitor

Agnes Twiston Hughes was the first Welsh woman to be admitted a solicitor in 1925, after being articled to her father J W Hughes of Conwy. After taking a BSc (Econ) degree at London University, she took First Class Honours in the Law Society Final Examinations of 1923 winning the Sheffield and Mackrell Prizes that year for the top result.

Agnes Hughes practiced for her entire career in Conwy, succeeding her father as principal of the firm of J W Hughes & Co in 1949. She played an active role in the affairs of Conwy serving as a local councillor and as Mayor of Conwy in 1954. She was the major mover in the campaign to save Thomas Telford’s Conwy Suspension Bridge and secure its preservation by the National Trust.

Lord Edmund-Davies (1906-1992) Law Lord

Edmund Davies, who was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1929, was raised in the Cynon Valley and educated at Mountain Ash Grammar School from where he proceeded to King’s College, London and then to Oxford where he won the Vinerian Scholarship.

He practiced extensively in Wales until appointed to the High Court in 1958 after serving successively as the Recorder of Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea and Cardiff. He was one of the bes- known judges of the 1960’s and 70’s not least for presiding at the trial following the Great Train Robbery in 1963 and as the chair of the Aberfan Tribunal. Appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1966, he became a Law Lord, taking the title Lord Edmund-Davies of Aberpennar in 1974.

When Edmund Davies was raised to the peerage he chose as his motto “Anela’n Uchel!” (Aim High!) which has found a living memorial in the Lord Edmund Davies Legal Education Trust which serves young people living in Wales or having a connection with Wales who are interested in entering the legal profession with the aim of ensuring that no one in society would conclude that their background would prevent them from entering the law.

Rt Hon Sir Tasker Watkins VC, GBE (1909-2007) Lord Justice of Appeal and Deputy Chief Justice

Born in Nelson, Glamorgan, the son of an engine fitter and educated at Pontypridd Boys’ Grammar School, Tasker Watkins pursued a commercial career in London before the Second World War.

In August 1944, while serving as a company commander in the Welsh Regiment, he won the Victoria Cross, for his actions on the 16th August 1944 near Falaise in Normandy.

After the war he studied for the Bar and was admitted by the Middle Temple in 1948. He built an extensive criminal and civil practice on the Wales and Chester Circuit and was instrumental in maintaining its independence in the 1960’s.

As a lawyer he was a persuasive advocate before a wide range of tribunals, while on the bench he displayed an outstanding judicial temperament.

After serving as Recorder of Merthyr and Swansea, he was appointed to the High Court in 1971, the Court of Appeal in 1980 and served as Deputy Chief Justice to both Lord Lane and Lord Taylor. He was appointed GBE in 1990.

Tasker Watkins played rugby as an outside half for the Army, Cardiff RFC and Glamorgan Wanderers. He was president of the Welsh Rugby Union from 1993 to 2004, overseeing the switch from the amateur era to professionalism and the move from club to regional rugby in Wales.

Lord Elwyn-Jones CH, (1909-1989) Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain

Born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire the son of a tinplate worker, Elwyn Jones attended Llanelli Boys’ Grammar School and then with the aid of scholarships he proceeded to Aberystwyth and Cambridge University, where he was President of the Union.

Called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn he served as prosecuting junior counsel at Nuremberg. He was elected to Parliament in 1950 for the Plaistow and then the Newham division. He was Attorney-General from 1964-70 and Lord Chancellor from 1974 - 1979

Sir Martin Edwards, (1909-1987) President of the Law Society of England and Wales

Martin Edwards was an alumnus of Lincoln College, Oxford. He was articled to his uncle Griffith Llewellyn of Gwilym James, Llewellyn and Co in Merthyr Tydfil and admitted a solicitor in 1934.

A founder member of 614 (Glamorgan) Squadron RAuxAF, he served with distinction in the RAF in the Middle East during WWII.

After the war he joined his father in Cardiff in the firm of Charles & Martin Edwards. He served on the Council of the Law Society for many years and played a large part in changes to solicitor’s professional education and formation of College of Law. In 1973 he became the first solicitor practicing in Wales to be elected President.

In 1972 his family firm had merged with the firm of Allen Pratt & Geldard to form the well-known firm of Edwards Geldard (now Geldards LLP).

Eirian Evans, (1916-2020) solicitor.

After studying law at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth Eirian Evans joined the firm of JR Williams of Abergele. She was successively the first female president of the Chester and North Wales Law Society and in 1977 she became the first woman to be elected to the Council of the Law Society of England and Wales.

Leo Abse (1917-2008) solicitor and politician .

The son of a Cardiff solicitor and cinema owner, Leo Abse was a founding partner of the firm of Leo Abse & Cohen (now part of Slater and Gordon) and Labour MP for Pontypool and then Torfaen for nearly 30 years

Though he never held office he was noted for promoting private member's bills to decriminalise male homosexual relations and liberalise the divorce laws. During his parliamentary career, Leo Abse introduced more private member's bills than any other parliamentarian in the 20th century.

Later in his political career he opposed devolution for Wales, nuclear power and nuclear weapons and British military presence in Northern Ireland. After his retirement from Parliament he wrote several books about politics, based on his interest in psychoanalysis.

Rt Hon Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd LCJ, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales

Lord Thomas was brought up the Swansea Valley, the son of a solicitor who was the Under Sherriff of Breconshire.

After a distinguished academic career at Cambridge and Chicago, John Thomas was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn and practiced at the Commercial Bar in London. He first came to public attention as the DTI Inspector appointed to report on the affairs of Mirror Group Newspapers and its proprietor Robert Maxwell.

After sitting as a Recorder on the Wales and Chester Circuit, he was appointed to the High Court in 1996 and served as Presiding Judge on the Circuit between 1998 – 2001 which coincided with the establishment of devolved government in Wales when he was instrumental in co-ordinating and animating the response of the Welsh legal community to these constitutional developments.

Following appointment to the Court of Appeal in 2003, Sir John served as Senior Presiding Judge, Deputy Head of Criminal Justice, before becoming President of the Queen’s Bench in 2011. In 2013 he was appointed was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and made a Life Peer, taking the title Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd.

In 2017 Lord Thomas accepted the invitation of the First Minister of Wales to chair a Commission on Justice in Wales which produce a wide-ranging report in 2019. Lord Thomas is currently the Chancellor of Aberystwyth University.

Lord Lloyd-Jones JSC

David Lloyd Jones was educated at Pontypridd Boys’ Grammar School. He was a Fellow of Downing College Cambridge from 1975 to 1991. He took silk in 1999 and was appointed to the High Court in 2005 and to the Court of Appeal in 2012. He then served as Chair of the Law Commission.

During his tenure at the Law Commission it published an important report on the “The Form and Accessibility of the Law Applicable in Wales” (2017), which pointed the way to subsequent consolidation and codification initiatives.

In 2017, he was appointed the first Justice of the Supreme Court of the UK to come from Wales, taking the title Lord Lloyd-Jones.

Carolyn Kirby OBE President of the Law Society of England and Wales and Tribunal Judge

Carolyn Kirby practised as a solicitor in Swansea for twenty years. In 1999 she was elected to the Law Society Council representing Mid and West Wales and in the same year became President of the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales. In 2002, she was elected President of the Law Society of England and Wales, the first woman to hold that post.

She holds honorary doctorates from the University of Cardiff, the University of Wales Trinity St David and the University of the West of England.

In addition, she chairs a South Wales based cancer charity which she co-founded in 1993, and in 2016 she was awarded the OBE for services to justice and to cancer care.
Carolyn is a licensed lay worship leader and acts as legal registrar to the Archdeacon of Gower as well as being a judge of the Church in Wales Disciplinary Court and of the Provincial Court.

Frances Edwards FCILex

Frances Edwards is a Chartered Legal Executive specialising in family law. She is a Partner in Caswell Jones, Solicitors in Caerphilly. She was CILEx Council member for Wales from 2008-2018 and National CILEx President in 2014-2015. Frances was the first Welsh woman to be President of CILEx.
Images: More Information Coming Soon...

Lady Justice Nicola Davies

Lady Justice Nicola Davies DBE was born in Llanelli and educated at Bridgend Girls’ Grammar School. Before being called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn, she worked as a financial analyst and in a solicitors’ firm.

At the Bar, Nicola Davies specialised in medical law acting in several high profile civil and criminal cases and taking Silk at the early age of 39.

Appointed to the High Court in 2010, Dame Nicola Davies served as Presiding Judge of the Wales Circuit between 2014 and 2017 and the following year appointed a Lady Justice of Appeal.

Nicola Davies is first Welsh woman to hold the appointments of QC, High Court Judge, Presiding Judge of the Wales Circuit and Lady Justice of Appeal.

Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) Chief Justice of the United States of America.

Charles Evans Hughes was the son of a Welsh Baptist Minister who had emigrated to the USA.

Hughes served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was also the 36th Governor of New York in 1906, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1910-1916, the Republican presidential nominee in the 1916 presidential election, and the 44th United States Secretary of State 1920-25.

Before becoming Chief Justice, Hughes was one of the most prominent attorneys in the country.

In 1930, President Herbert Hoover appointed Hughes as Chief Justice. Along with Associate Justice Owen Roberts, Hughes emerged as a key swing vote on the bench, positioned between the liberal and conservative wings of the Court in cases arising from the New Deal programs in the early and the mid-1930s.

Although proud of his Welsh ancestry and a patron of Welsh American causes, Charles Evans Hughes regarded himself as thoroughly American and twice declined the offer an honorary degree from the University of Wales.

Rt Hon Sir Samuel Griffith GCMG (1845-1920), first Chief Justice of Australia.

Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Samuel Griffith remained devoted to his Welsh ancestry. His career combined politics and the law.

He served as attorney general and premier of Queensland. Appointed Chief Justice of Queensland in1893, he drafted the Queensland Criminal Code, which became the model for the “Griffith” codes adopted by other Australian and Commonwealth states.

He played a leading role in the drafting of the Australian Constitution, being appointed the first Chief Justice of Australia in 1903 and serving until his death in 1920.
Images: More Information Coming Soon...

The Hon Julia Gillard AC, Prime Minister of Australia

Born in Barry, Glamorgan, Julia Gillard’s family emigrated to Australia in 1966, settling in Adelaide. After attending the Universities of Adelaide and Melbourne, she joined the law firm Slater & Gordon n 1987 In 1987, she joined the law firm Slater & Gordon. She became a partner in 1990, specialising in industrial law, leaving in 1996 to pursue a career in politics.

Elected to the federal House of Representatives in 1998, Julia Gillard held ministerial office in the Labor Party government elected in 2007, becoming Prime Minister in 2010 and holding office until 2013.

Julia Gillard was made an honorary fellow of Aberystwyth University in June 2015 and has also served as the chairwoman of the Global Partnership for Education since February 2014. In May 2020 it was announced that she had been appointed chair of the Welcome Trust to assume the role from April 2021.