Legal career Butler-Sloss was
called to the Bar from the
Inner Temple in February 1955. In 1970 she was appointed a Registrar of the Principal Probate Registry (the predecessor to the Principal Registry of the
Family Division). In 1979, she became the fourth woman to be appointed a High Court judge, after
Elizabeth Lane,
Rose Heilbron, and
Margaret Booth. As were all previous female High Court judges, she was assigned to the
Family Division. As per tradition, she was also made a
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). In 1988, Butler-Sloss became the first woman appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal (judge of the
Court of Appeal), having chaired the
Cleveland child abuse inquiry in the previous year. In 1999, she became
President of the Family Division of the
High Court of Justice, the first woman to hold this position and the highest-ranking woman judge in the United Kingdom until
Brenda Hale became the first female
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, in January 2004. She was known officially as "Lord Justice Butler-Sloss" until
Bingham MR issued a
practice direction in 1994 to refer to her informally as "Lady Justice Butler-Sloss"; the official title in s2(3) of the
Senior Courts Act 1981 was amended by the
Courts Act 2003. Butler-Sloss was advanced to the rank of
Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2005
New Year Honours. On 12 January 2005, it was announced that she was retiring, being replaced as President of the Family Division by
Sir Mark Potter, then a
Lord Justice of Appeal. On 4 August 2006, Butler-Sloss was appointed to the
Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved for a period of five years. On 7 September 2006, Butler-Sloss was appointed as Deputy
Coroner of the Queen's Household and Assistant Deputy Coroner for
Surrey for the purpose of hearing the inquest into the death of
Diana, Princess of Wales. On 2 March 2007, she was appointed as Assistant Deputy Coroner for Inner West London for the purpose of transferring the jurisdiction of the inquest to Inner West London so that the proceedings may sit in the Royal Courts of Justice. On 24 April 2007, she announced she was stepping down in June 2007, saying she lacked the experience required to deal with an inquest with a jury. The role of coroner for the inquests was transferred to
Lord Justice Scott Baker. This had been preceded by the overturning by the High Court of her earlier decision to hold the inquest without a jury. On 8 July 2014, it was announced that Butler-Sloss would chair
the forthcoming large-scale inquiry into cases of child sex abuse in previous decades. She stood down on 14 July after mounting pressure from victims' groups and MPs over her suitability regarding the fact that her brother was the
Attorney General at the time of some of the abuses in question and her perceived unwillingness to include mention of former Anglican bishop
Peter Ball.
House of Lords On 3 May 2006, it was announced by the
House of Lords Appointments Commission that Butler-Sloss would be one of seven new
life peers – so-called "people's peers". She was created
Baroness Butler-Sloss, of
Marsh Green in the County of Devon, on 13 June 2006. She sits in the
House of Lords as a
crossbencher. She made her
maiden speech on 21 November 2006 during the Debate on the Address on that year's
Queen's Speech. Butler-Sloss has been active in the House of Lords, and served as a member of a number of committees. She was formerly a member of the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee (2007–2012). She has been a member of the
Ecclesiastical Committee, a Joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, since 2010 and has served as its chair since June 2020. She has been a member of the
Procedure and Privileges Committee, a
select committee of the House of Lords since January 2023. ==Personal life==