Law Weblog

Lord Justice Potter will be the new President of the Family Division.

Sunday 23 January 2005 at 11:05 am | In News | Post Comment

Lord Justice Potter, an Appeal Court judge and former commercial barrister, will be the new President of the Family Division when Dame Elizabeth Butler Sloss retires on 6 April this year). Lord Justice Thorpe, also an Appeal Court judge with many years of family experience, becomes Deputy Head of Family Justice and Head of International Family Law; this is a new post.

The president of the family division is appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the prime minister, but is, in effect, chosen by the Lord Chancellor.

The appointment has lead to cries of cronyism; Lord Justice Potter, 67, was a pupil of Lord Falconer at commercial chambers Fountain Court. Lord Goldsmith the attorney general was another of Lord Falconer’s pupils. Lord Falconer use to share a flat with Tony Blair. Lord Falconer was appointed as Lord Chancellor by Tony Blair. Tony Blair was the pupil of Derry Irvine whom he also promoted to Lord Chancellor.
In 2003 the Tories accused the government of “rampant cronyism” when Ken Macdonald QC was named new director of public prosecution. Mr Macdonald had been in the same law firm as Cherie Blair.

All four “heads of division” including Lord Woolf, had wanted as head of the family division Sir Mathew Thorpe, who will now be the deputy. An anonymous member of the bar told the Guardian newspaper that Potter “Is universally liked, a man obviously of wisdom and integrity, who is quite exceptionally good in his field.”

Whether such an appointment would be made under the planned new judicial appointments system is not known, but there were similar cries of cronyism when Dame Elizabeth’s was promoted from divorce court registrar, and she turned out to be an inspired choice. Her brother is Michael Havers who was attorney general and later Lord Chancellor.