Frances Gibb (born 1951) is a British journalist and the former legal editor of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''. She retired from the newspaper in February 2019, and continues to write and broadcast on the law, contributing to publications including ''

'', ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' and ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

''.

Early life and education

Frances Gibb was born in north London, the eldest of three children. Her father was a solicitor and her mother a writer of short fiction. She was educated at St Margaret's School, Bushey. She read English at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, England, graduating with first class honours in 1973.

Career

Gibb's first job after graduating was filing cuttings for the news film agency

Visnews {{nofootnotes, date = March 2016 Visnews was a London-based international news agency. It began as the British Commonwealth International Newsfilm Agency (BCINA), which was setup with help from The Rank Organisation when that company closed its cin ...

. In 1974, she joined the ''

Times Higher Education Supplement ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The THES''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

'', where she worked for four years. She then moved to ''

'', where she was Art Sales Correspondent from 1978 to 1980, covering major auctions. As a general reporter at ''The Times'' from 1980, she covered stories such as the 1980 Dan-Air Flight 1008 crash in

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

and the 1981

wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer The wedding of Prince Charles (later King Charles III) and Lady Diana Spencer took place on Wednesday, 29 July 1981, at St Paul's Cathedral in London, United Kingdom. The groom was the heir apparent to the British throne, and the bride was a mem ...

. Gibb was appointed Legal Correspondent of ''The Times'' in 1982, at the age of thirty-one. As the first person to hold the post from outside the legal profession, she had to overcome some resistance from the then editor, Charles Douglas-Home, but persuaded him that journalistic independence and an ability to communicate to the public were more important. She became Legal Editor of ''The Times'' in 2000. As Legal Correspondent and subsequently Legal Editor, Gibb was in charge of daily reporting on legal news, as well as weekly pages on the law. In 2000, she established ''The Times''’ weekly ''LAW'' supplement, the only legal pull-out to be published by a national newspaper in the UK. She also oversaw the paper's acclaimed supplements for law students. In recent years, she launched the newspaper's daily legal bulletin, ''The Brief'', of which she was co-editor. She served under nine editors on ''The Times'', including

William Rees-Mogg William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg (14 July 192829 December 2012) was a British newspaper journalist who was Editor of ''The Times'' from 1967 to 1981. In the late 1970s, he served as High Sheriff of Somerset, and in the 1980s was Chairman of ...

and John Witherow. In 2006, Gibb was the recipient of the Bar Council's Legal Reporting Awards for 2005–2006. In 2009, she received an award from the International Council of Jurists, presented by

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers Nicholas Addison Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers (born 21 January 1938) is a British former senior judge. Phillips was the inaugural President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, holding office between October 2009 and Octo ...

at a ceremony in London.

Retirement

Gibb retired from ''The Times'' on 7 February 2019. In a column published that day,

Lord Pannick David Philip Pannick, Baron Pannick, (born 7 March 1956) is a British barrister and a crossbencher in the House of Lords and Blackstone Chambers. He practises primarily in public law and human rights and has argued high profile cases before th ...

wrote: On 5 February 2019, a motion was tabled in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

Keith Vaz Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz (born 26 November 1956) is a British politician who served as the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 Unit ...

and sponsored by Drew Hendry:

Recent journalism

Gibb has remained active in the legal field since she retired from ''The Times'', with regular contributions to her former paper as well as ''The Sunday Times'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', and '' PM'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibb, Frances British newspaper journalists Alumni of the University of East Anglia 1951 births Living people