David Christopher Ormerod CBE, KC (Hon), DCL (Hon) is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the Faculty of Laws,

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. Born 1966 to parents Margaret (nee Schofield) and Derek; the second-born of three siblings

Academic and legal career

Ormerod graduated with an LLB from the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

in 1998, before working for a year as a lecturer there. He then moved to the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

, where he worked as a lecturer and a senior lecturer, meeting Professor John Cyril Smith, who later invited him to edit ''Smith and Hogan's Criminal Law''. Smith passed away in 2003, as Ormerod took professorships at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

and

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

, before moving to

Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...

in 2007. In 2010, Ormerod took up a position as Law Commissioner at the Law Commission of England and Wales, responsible for all law reform projects relating to the criminal law. During his secondment, Ormerod was made King's (then Queen's) Counsel (honoris causa, 2013), appointed as Professor of Criminal Justice at

, and appointed a deputy High Court judge in 2018. Ormerod was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2021 New Year Honours The 2021 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to criminal justice.

Impact

Ormerod has for over two decades been editor, now with Karl Laird, of ''Smith, Hogan and Ormerod's Criminal Law'' (Laird's name added in 2018 in the 15th Edition). Originally ''Smith and Hogan'', this volume is considered

persuasive authority Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by thin ...

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

and other

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

jurisdictions. Ormerod is also editor of Blackstone's Criminal Practice, was Consultant Editor for Halsbury's Laws of England ''Criminal Law'' (2020) and ''Criminal Evidence and Procedure'' (2021), and was General Editor of the Criminal Law Review (2012-2023). Ormerod's work at the Law Commission was varied and impactful. Reforms to the Sentencing Code led to the Sentencing Act 2020, proposals around contempt of court rules in the digital age led to reforms in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, and discussion continues about how to respond to proposals stemming from reports around misconduct in public office, offences against the person and insanity defences. In relation to the Sentencing Code, parliamentarians have descrived Ormerod as the "principal driver", and the work "extraordinary", "exceptional", the result of "brilliant imagination", and whose "work on this and other measures has been of singular importance in improving the quality of our criminal law". Ormerod is widely acknowledged as a transformative force in English law. During the passage of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, upon accepting amendments concerning strangulation and suffocation advised upon by Ormerod, the Government, through then-minister David Wolfson, Baron Wolfson of Tredegar, noted that this was "not the first time, and will not be the last, that rmerodhas contributed significantly to the criminal law of this country".

References

British legal scholars 21st-century English judges Academics of University College London Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire {{UK-academic-bio-stub Criminal law