All change
Two of the most senior legal roles in government changed hands yesterday as new PM Andy Burnham reshaped his cabinet.
Alex Norris MP, who represents Nottingham North and Kimberley, steps into the Lord Chancellor role with no legal background, taking over from Doughty Street associate tenant and barrister David Lammy. Ellie Reeves KC MP, meanwhile, was elevated from Solicitor General to Attorney General, replacing Lord Hermer KC.
Norris is the fifth non-lawyer to hold the justice brief, following Conservatives Chris Grayling (remember him, older LC readers?), Michael Gove, Liz Truss and David Lidington, who held it in succession between 2012 and 2018. Lammy was among several ministers dropped to the backbenches as Burnham continues to reshape his cabinet.
Before Westminster, Norris cut his teeth in local government and the union movement. He moved from Manchester to Nottingham as a student in 2003, became a city councillor in 2011 and worked as an organiser for Unison. He entered the Commons in 2017 and worked his way through opposition briefs before landing junior ministerial roles at housing and then the Home Office, where he took on asylum and border security.
He now inherits a justice brief with unfinished business. Lammy spent much of his tenure pushing to curtail jury trials, a move that put him at odds with both the Bar Council and the Law Society.
The profession, so far, seems open-minded. Bar Council chair Kirsty Brimelow KC posted on X that she had met Norris recently, having invited him to Nottingham Crown Court. “He spent time and engaged with and listened to barristers in the robing room. He also saw the court’s disrepair,” she said.
Congratulations to our new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice @AlexJJNorris
Pictured a few months ago when we invited him to visit Nottingham Crown Court.
He spent time and engaged with and listened to barristers in the robing room. He also saw the Court’s… https://t.co/8Zatmszgqt— Kirsty Brimelow KC (@Kirsty_Brimelow) July 20, 2026
Reeves is a trained barrister, having worked as an employment rights specialist before being elected to represent Lewisham West and East Dulwich in 2017. She studied law at St Catherine’s College, Oxford and is the younger sister of Rachel Reeves, who was sacked from the cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday and replaced by John Healey MP.
If a non-lawyer can become the Justice Secretary, perhaps there is hope yet for all my fellow law grads still seeking TCs… (or perhaps we can become politicians, despite having no experience in politics)…
Pretty sure Ellie Reeves is an unregistered barrister? As in, she may have done the bar course but hasn’t completed pupillage anywhere as far as I remember? Her previous work is referred to as a “human rights lawyer”.
Completed pupillage at 12 King’s Bench Walk according to her LinkedIn
Ta mate, I stand corrected!