Dinah Gwen Lison Rose KC (born 16 July 1965) is a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

. She has been President of Magdalen College, Oxford since 2020. A member of

Blackstone Chambers Blackstone Chambers is a set of barristers' chambers in the Temple district of central London. Established in the 1950s, as of 2022 it had 119 tenants, of whom more than 50 are silks. Current notable members include Robert Anderson, Michael Belo ...

, she was named Barrister of the Year in ''

The Lawyer ''The Lawyer'' is a legal business information product for law firm leaders, commercial lawyers, barristers and in-house counsel. It is based in London. History and profile ''The Lawyer'' was launched in 1987 by Centaur Media plc. It publ ...

'' Awards 2009. In 2016, she was appointed a Deputy Judge of the High Court.

Early life and education

Rose was born on 16 July 1965, and was educated at

City of London School for Girls (''O Lord Direct us'') , established = 1894 , closed = , type = Independent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmistress , head = Jenny Brown , r_head_label = ...

. She studied modern history at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

, and law at City University.

Career

Legal career

She was called to the bar at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

in 1989, and

took silk In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

in 2006. In a July 2009 interview with ''

'', she referred to Lord Lester QC as a mentor and described Lord Pannick QC as a huge influence.

Notable cases

She has appeared in many high-profile cases, including representing "

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored Kidnapping, forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had t ...

" victim

Binyam Mohamed Binyam Ahmed Mohamed (, , born 24 July 1978), also referred to as Benjamin Mohammed, Benyam Mohammed or Benyam Mohammed al-Habashi, is an Ethiopian national and United Kingdom resident, who was detained as a suspected enemy combatant by the US Go ...

at his Court of Appeal hearing. Rose worked on the judicial review of the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

's decision to drop the investigation into alleged bribes of Saudi officials by BAE Systems. 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 Chief Rabbi ( he, רב ראשי ''Rav Rashi'') is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a ...

. The

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (initialism: UKSC or the acronym: SCOTUK) is the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom for all civil cases, and for criminal cases originating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As the Unite ...

ruled that the denial of a place constituted unlawful race discrimination. She appeared for

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...

in ''

Assange v The Swedish Judicial Authority ''Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority'' were the set of legal proceedings in the United Kingdom concerning the requested extradition of Julian Assange to Sweden for a "preliminary investigation" into accusations of sexual offences. The proce ...

'' before the

, in his unsuccessful appeal against extradition to Sweden. It was announced in October 2012 that Rose had been appointed by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

to investigate its culture and policies in relation to sexual harassment and bullying, following the

Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal It emerged in late 2012 that Jimmy Savile, an English media personality who had died the previous year, sexually abused hundreds of people throughout his life, most of them children but some as old as 75, and most of them female. He had been we ...

. ''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. Rose said in June that a "very troubling" atmosphere existed between staff and their superiors at the BBC.

Politics

In March 2013, Rose ended her party membership of the Liberal Democrats in protest at

Nick Clegg Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicepr ...

's support for the

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

's justice and security bill describing it as a "betrayal of the party's guiding principles".

Presidency at Magdalen College

In February 2020, she was elected President of

, in succession to Sir David Clary: she is the first woman to hold the position. She took up the post in September 2020, becoming the 43rd President of the college. In January 2021, Rose was criticised by former Justice of the

Constitutional Court of South Africa The Constitutional Court of South Africa is a supreme court, supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction. The Court was fi ...

and Oxford alumnus

Edwin Cameron Edwin Cameron SCOB (born 15 February 1953 in Pretoria) is a retired judge who served as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He is well known for his HIV/AIDS and gay-rights activism and was hailed by Nelson Mandela as "one ...

for acting for the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

government in a case opposing the legalisation of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

. This was followed by mixed reactions within the student body, academia and the legal industry. Whilst Magdalen College's undergraduate body passed a motion affirming its support for her and rejecting calls for her to resign, the university-wide LGBTQ+ Society and African & Caribbean Society released statements condemning what they termed a conflict of interest between her role as President and her role as a barrister. The

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

's LGBTQ+ Society subsequently released a report in September 2021, examining Oxford Colleges' conflict of interest policies. The Society advocated for a formal duty to consider the impact of continuing professional obligations and that serving College Heads do not engage in activities that adversely impact marginalised minority groups. The Oxford LGBTQ+ Society and the Oxford African & Caribbean Society repeated this after the judgment in the Cayman Island's case was delivered on March 14, 2022, claiming that Rose breached Magdalen College's equality policy and that her client's interests ran against those of her LGBTQ+ and ethnic minority students.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, Dinah Living people Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Presidents of Magdalen College, Oxford English King's Counsel English barristers Members of Gray's Inn People educated at the City of London School for Girls 1965 births