Professor Nicola Margaret Padfield KC (hon) (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Helme; born 16 May 1955) is a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

and academic. She is a former Master of

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college has origins from 1869, with the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer academically excellent students of all ...

. and was succeeded to the position in October 2019 by Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton. She is

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Criminal and Penal Justice in the

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In addition to her academic work, she was a Recorder of the

Crown Court The Crown Court is the criminal trial court, court of first instance in England and Wales responsible for hearing all indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals of the decisions of magistrates' courts. It is ...

from 2002 to 2014, and is a

Bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher c ...

of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

Early life and education

Padfield was born on 16 May 1955 in

Windlesham Windlesham is a geographically-large village in the Surrey Heath borough of Surrey, England, approximately south west of central London. Its name derives from the Windle Brook, which runs south of the village into Chobham, and the common suffi ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England. She read

Jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree in 1976; her BA was later promoted to a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA Oxon) degree. She read for a

postgraduate diploma fILE:Prédio Pós Graduação IMECC Unicamp.jpg, The State University of Campinas, as well as many Brazilian universities, offer Postgraduate courses in Brazil A postgraduate diploma (PgD, PgDip, PGDip, PG Dip., PGD, Dipl. PGD) is a postgraduat ...

Criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

at Darwin College, Cambridge, which she completed in 1977. From 1978 to 1979, she completed a '' diplôme d'études supérieures'' in

French law French law has a dual jurisdictional system comprising private law (), also known as judicial law, and public law (). Judicial law includes, in particular: * () * Criminal law () Public law includes, in particular: * Administrative law ( ...

at the University of Aix-Marseille.

Career

Legal career

Padfield was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

on 27 July 1978. She then practised as a

criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal l ...

. On 31 October 2002, she was appointed a Recorder (a part-time judge) She sat in the South Eastern Circuit and the

until 2014. She became a

of the

on 3 February 2009.

Academic career

From 1990 to 1991, Padfield was an

Alumni Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

Affairs Officer at the

. In 1991, she was elected a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

. From 1992 to 2014, she was an academic of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology: she was an affiliated lecturer from 1992 to 1996, a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

from 1998 to 2002, and a senior lecturer from 2002 to 2004. She then moved to the

, where she was a senior lecturer from 2005 to 2012. For the 2008/2009 academic year, she was Professeur Invité at the

University of Poitiers The University of Poitiers (UP; , ) is a public university located in Poitiers, France. It is a member of the Coimbra Group. It is multidisciplinary and contributes to making Poitiers the city with the highest student/inhabitant ratio in France ...

in France. In 2012, she was promoted to Reader in Criminal and Penal Justice. In 2017, she was promoted to

in Criminal and Penal Justice. In March 2013, Padfield was announced as the next Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, in succession to Robert Lethbridge. She took up the appointment in October 2013, becoming the 8th Master of Fitzwilliam College, the first woman to hold the post. In February 2019, it was announced that she would be succeeded as Master by Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton: Padfield was succeeded by Morgan in October 2019.

Personal life

In 1979, she married Christopher Padfield. He is an engineer and academic; he works at the University of Cambridge and

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

. Together, they have three children; two sons and one daughter. Nicola Padfield's hobbies include riding tandem bicycle, her husband being her long-time partner in this pastime. During her term as Master of the Fitzwilliam College, the Padfields assembled a fleet of tandems hosted at the Master's Lodge and regularly invited the college's students to attend leisure rides around Cambridge in their company.

Selected works

* * * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Padfield, Nicola British barristers Masters of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Legal scholars of the University of Cambridge 1955 births Living people Honorary King's Counsel Members of the Middle Temple People from Surrey (before 1965) People from Windlesham Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford English women judges Alumni of Darwin College, Cambridge Aix-Marseille University alumni British legal scholars British women legal scholars Professors of the University of Cambridge