Joanna Smith (judge)
British judge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dame Joanna Angela Smith, DBE (born 27 April 1968), styled Mrs Justice Smith, is a British High Court judge.[1]
Mrs Justice Smith | |
|---|---|
Smith in 2022 | |
| Justice of the High Court | |
| Assumed office 15 February 2021 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 April 1968 London, England |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
Smith was born in London, England in 1968 and educated at King's Ely. She attended Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating in 1986, and graduated with a first-class MA in jurisprudence.[2][1]
She was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1990, practising commercial, professional negligence and construction law from Cornerstone Chambers and Wilberforce Chambers.[3][4] Smith took silk in 2009 and was appointed a deputy High Court judge in 2017. As a practitioner, she appeared in the 2015 Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi case before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Prior to her full-time judicial appointment, she took appointments as an arbitrator.[5][1]
On 15 February 2021, Smith was appointed a judge of the High Court and assigned to the Chancery Division.[6][7] She received the customary damehood in 2020.[1]
In 1994, she married Mark Vanhegan (a fellow KC) and together they have two daughters.[1]