Born 1936; educated at the City of London School and Trinity College Cambridge (Exhibitioner); BA; Harvard Law School (Harkness Commonwealth Fund Fellowship); LLM; served in the Royal Artillery, 1955-1957; 2nd Lieutenant; called to the Bar, Lincoln's Inn, 1963; Mansfield scholar; Trustee of the Runnymede Trust from 1969; Special Adviser to the Home Secretary (Roy Jenkins), 1974-1976; involved in writing two White Papers on sexual and racial discrimination; Queen's Counsel (QC), 1975; Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, 1975-1977; Member of the Board of Overseers, University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1978-1989; Irish Bar, 1983; Honorary Visiting Professor, University College London, from 1983; called to the Bar of Northern Ireland, 1984; Member of the Board of Governors, James Allen's Girls' School, 1984-1994, and Chairman, 1987-1991; Bencher, Lincoln's Inn, 1985; Member of the American Law Institute from 1985; Recorder, 1987-1993; President, Interights, from 1991; Chairman of the Runnymede Trust, 1991-1993; Visiting Professor of Public Law, University College London, from 1992; created Baron Lester of Herne Hill (Life Peer, Liberal Democrat), 1993; QC (Northern Ireland); Member of the Court of Governors, London School of Economics; Member of the International Law Association Committee on Human Rights; Member of Council, Policy Studies Institute; Member of Council, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies; Governor, British Institute of Human Rights; delivered various lectures in the UK and USA; interests include human rights law and administrative and public law. Publications: 'Justice in the American South' (Amnesty International, 1964); as co-editor, 'Shawcross and Beaumont on Air Law' (3rd edition, 1966); as co-editor, 'Policies for racial equality' (Fabian Society, London, 1967); edited Roy Jenkins' 'Essays and speeches' (Collins, London, 1967); as co-author, 'Race and Law' (1972); contributor to 'British Nationality, Immigration and Race Relations', in Halsbury's Laws of England (4th edition, 1973); 'Leading counsel's opinion on the proposed amendments to the Equal Pay Act 1970: European and community law' (1983); as co-author, 'Equal pay for work of equal value: law and practice' (1984); 'The Changing Constitution', ed Jeffrey Jowell and Dawn Oliver (1985); 'A British Bill of Rights' (1990); 'The crisis facing human rights in Europe: does the British government really care?' (1993); as co-author, 'What price Hansard?' (1994).
