Wales’s own lioness

Praise for a judge of exceptional distinction

Lady Justice Nicola Davies is Wales’s own lioness, the lady chief justice said at the appeal judge’s valedictory ceremony yesterday. Baroness Carr described her colleague as “a judge of exceptional distinction whose career has been defined by intellectual rigour, principled leadership and a profound commitment to equality and diversity”.

Dame Nicola Davies DBE, photographed by Lis Isles

Davies’s career had been one of quiet, determined trailblazing, Carr observed:

She was the first Welsh woman to become a QC; the first Welsh woman to sit in the High Court; the first woman to be a presiding judge of the Welsh Circuit; and the first Welsh female appeal court judge.

Davies told a courtroom full of colleagues, family and friends that those achievements hadn’t looked very likely when she left the University of Birmingham after attending Bridgend Grammar School. “I didn’t think I’d stand a chance in a profession dominated by public school, Oxbridge-educated men,” she said.

As Carr explained, though, Davies was determined to increase the number of women on the bench, convening the first women in the judiciary conference in 2013 and co-convening the inns of court alliance for women in 2022. While working full-time as an appeal judge, she served with distinction in 2023 as treasurer — elected chair — of Gray’s Inn.

Despite being advised by her senior clerk when she became a barrister that women should stick to family law or crime, Davies became a leading civil practitioner specialising in medical law.

On holiday abroad one day, she was told she had been briefed to defend a doctor accused of murdering a small number of his patients. He turned out to be Harold Shipman, one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history.

Another of her cases was described by Carr as one of the most difficult and important of the 21^st century. It involved two conjoined twins, known during the hearing in 2000 as Jodie and Mary. Mary's death would be the inevitable consequence of an operation that was necessary to save Jodie’s life, the Court of Appeal said. Davies had been briefed to assist the judges on legal issues that had never before arisen in such circumstances.

The lady chief justice said that Davies’s work as a mentor had been both personal and profound:

As one colleague wrote, she has been a tremendous support to many, offering practical and kind encouragement even amidst the demands of her own position. In an interview a few years ago, Nicola said she could not say if she was seen as a role model by other women. The women here today can answer that for her — in the affirmative…

It is typical of Nicola that she initially declined a valedictory, only to be persuaded — by family, friends, and colleagues — that her legacy deserved to be celebrated. As it does.

Those present at the. ceremony thought they had learned something new about Davies’s musical tastes when Adrian Hopkins KC said she had told him she was “going to Abba”. This — or something very much like it — turned out to be an affectionate diminutive for Aberystwyth University, where Davies was recently appointed chancellor.

She is, as you might expect, the first woman appointed to that post.