Trolling: Supreme Court Judge-style
Twitter has erupted in anger at comments made by Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption warning of “appalling consequences for justice” if more women are rushed into the judiciary.
Blackstone Chambers‘ Dinah Rose QC is leading the charge against Sumption — who used to work at rival commercial set Brick Court before being fast-tracked into the nation’s highest court in 2012 — with support from former Court of Appeal judge Sir Henry Brooke.
But first more on those crazy Sumption comments — which are so out there and provocative that they almost seem like deliberate trolling from the Supreme Court man.
In an interview in yesterday’s Evening Standard, Sumption urged the legal profession to stick to the glacial pace at which it is increasing female representation in its senior ranks.
To do otherwise, said the top judge who is also famous for penning history books, would be to misunderstand the very nature of time itself. He explained:
These things simply can’t be transformed overnight, not without appalling consequence in other directions. One has to look at the totality of these problems and not simply at one of them. The lack of diversity is a significant problem, but it isn’t the only one. It takes time. You’ve got to be patient. The change in the status and achievements of women in our society, not just in the law but generally, is an enormous cultural change that has happened over the last 50 years or so. It has to happen naturally. It will happen naturally. But in the history of a society like ours, 50 years is a very short time.
If this wasn’t calculated to annoy, then Sumption must be, well, just a naturally very annoying person. Anyway, Twitter went wild — led by Rose:
Lord Sumption knows nothing about the lives of women at the Bar.
— Dinah Rose (@DinahRoseQC) September 21, 2015
Here's what fascinates me: what does Lord Sumption think qualifies him to make these comments? Social scientist as well as a historian?
— Dinah Rose (@DinahRoseQC) September 21, 2015
At her side was former Court of Appeal judge Sir Henry Brooke:
@DinahRoseQC I used to teach judges that if they said silly things people would say that "they all think like that". They don't.
— Henry Brooke (@HenryBrooke1) September 21, 2015
Too many other top lawyers to mention also piled in…
Here is an example of a Judge with (apparently) brain power but absolutely no judgement or wisdom… pic.twitter.com/2UbtGF9rJj
— Mukul Chawla QC (@MChawlaQC) September 21, 2015
Funny how any over representation of women is unacceptable to Lord Sumption but it’s ok that women should wait another 50 years for equality
— anya (@anyabike) September 21, 2015
By the way, the prize for best tweet in the Twitter storm goes to One Crown Office Row barrister Adam Wagner.
Lord Sumption also said he thought Charlotte Proudman looked 'stunning' in her LinkedIn pic #joke #justabout http://t.co/a0yDMfFKxI
— Adam Wagner (@AdamWagner1) September 22, 2015
In the Evening Standard interview, Sumption also said that he backed female equality and wanted to see “hidden barriers to the progress of women” removed, while warning about the “difficult” high attrition rate of female lawyers at partner and QC level. He put this down to “frankly appalling working conditions” that men are more likely to tolerate.
Sumption went on to predict that in the future gender would one day be “a wholly random matter, so it will be either 50/50 or somewhere round there.”
Currently 21 out of 106 High Court judges are female, and just eight of the 38 Court of Appeal judges are women. The 12-strong Supreme Court, meanwhile, has just one female member, Baroness Hale.
