Victoria McCloud
{{short description|British lawyer and judge (born 1969)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Victoria McCloud
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| image =
| imagesize = 100px
| caption = Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom
| office = King's (formerly Queen's) Bench Master
| term_start = 2010
| term_end = April 2024
| monarch = Elizabeth II {{small|(until 2022)}}
Charles III {{small|(2022–2024)}}
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1969|10|13}}
| birth_place = Surrey, England
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| nationality = British
| partner = Annie McCloud
| residence =
| alma_mater = University of Oxford
City University
| occupation =
| profession = Barrister and Chartered Psychologist
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}}
Victoria Helen McCloud ({{nee}} Williams; born 13 October 1969) is a British lawyer and former judge. A trans woman, McCloud was the youngest Master in the High Court of Justice when appointed in 2006 as a deputy and then as a full judge in 2010. McCloud is also a Chartered Psychologist and legal author. She retired from the bench in April 2024.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/first-transgender-judge-master-mccloud-signs-off/5119337.article|title=First transgender judge Master McCloud signs off|first=Bianca|last=Castro |date=2024-04-11|website=Law Gazette}}
Early life and education
McCloud was born in Surrey, England on 13 October 1969.{{Cite web |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/victoria-mccloud-a-transgender-judge-wants-a-more-diverse-judiciary-jc7rqhbc9 |title=Victoria McCloud, a transgender judge, wants a more diverse judiciary |first=Catherine |last=Baksi |date=21 April 2024| via=www.thetimes.co.uk |url-access=subscription}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aRDYDwAAQBAJ&dq=Victoria+McCloud+judge+born+1969&pg=PA160 | isbn=978-1-5292-0451-3 | title=Enemies of the People?: How Judges Shape Society | date=20 March 2020 | publisher=Policy Press }} She was inspired become a lawyer, as a child, after watching the television series Crown Court.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKPTPRfZAR0|title=First 100 Years Biography: Master Victoria McCloud|date=7 November 2019 |via=www.youtube.com}}
McCloud graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1990 with a degree in Experimental Psychology and obtained a doctorate in 1993 in human visual system science.{{Cite web|url=https://www.apil.org.uk/speaker-details?ID=34824|title=Victoria McCloud|website=www.apil.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-06-12|archive-date=2018-06-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612210900/https://www.apil.org.uk/speaker-details?ID=34824|url-status=dead}} A year later, McCloud completed a law conversion course and was called to the bar in 1995.{{cite news |title=Official Announcement of appointment of Victoria McCloud formerly Victoria Williams as a Master|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/legal-news-appointments-rhcwdsnl6f7|newspaper=The Times|publisher=Times Newspapers|access-date=19 June 2018|date=2010-06-14}}
Career
McCloud had previously been a barrister at Coram Chambers.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlSzuAAACAAJ&q=victoria+mccloud|title=Civil Procedure Handbook 2011/2012|last=McCloud|first=Victoria|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199698141|language=en}} From 2006 McCloud was a Deputy Costs Judge / Taxing Master, then appointed a Queen's Bench Master in June 2010 and also re-appointed as a Costs Judge / Taxing Master in 2017.{{cite web |title=Biographies: Queen's Bench Masters |url=https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/queens-bench-masters/ |website=Courts and Tribunals Judiciary |publisher=Judiciary |access-date=12 June 2018 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612211354/https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/queens-bench-masters/ |url-status=dead }}
McCloud wrote the first five editions of the Civil Procedure Handbook and the Surveillance and Intelligence Law Handbook for OUP (as Victoria Williams).{{Cite book|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11866543-surveillance-and-intelligence-law-handbook|title=The Surveillance And Intelligence Law Handbook |via=goodreads.com |isbn=978-0-19-928685-0 |access-date=2018-06-19 |last1=Williams |first1=Victoria |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press }}{{Citation | year=2016 | title=Women at the Inns of Court | publisher=Inner Temple Library | location =London, UK | page=17 | url =https://www.innertemplelibrary.org.uk/displays/IWD2016.pdf | access-date =12 June 2018 }}
McCloud was a Master of the Senior Courts, Queen's Bench Division, appointed in 2010. McCloud was the youngest ever Master in the High Court when appointed, the first trans person and second woman to have ever been given the position. In a letter from Master McCloud, November 2019, she said "I suspect that such limited success as I had later in life fluking my way to winning the odd case as a barrister may well have been more about grinding down my opponents, not giving up but doggedly carrying on annoyingly to the end, than due to any great forensic brilliance. I gather the Komodo Dragon does much the same: bite the prey and then follow it for miles, sometimes nipping at its heels, until it expires and becomes the next meal."{{Cite web|url=https://first100years.org.uk/news/a-letter-from-master-mccloud/|title=A letter from Master McCloud - First 100 Years|date=7 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707035759/https://first100years.org.uk/news/a-letter-from-master-mccloud/ |archive-date=7 July 2022 }}
In 2016 McCloud began consulting with professionals working in the historic abuse field, hoping to improve the experience of justice for victims as well as for defendants and insurers, founding the Historic Abuse Lawyers' forum (HALF) to look at the possibility of alternative approaches to trial and resolution.
McCloud has presided over high-profile cases which have involved Donald Trump,{{Cite web|url=https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/malik-v-trump.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwid2My-q9TbAhXZIDQIHV8wDqYQFjAOegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw2oAbFZKi15UP-IdIqzMu51|title=judiciary.uk|website=www.judiciary.uk|access-date=2018-06-15}}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{primary source inline|date=April 2025}} Jeremy Corbyn,{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/20/jeremy-corbyn-wins-right-to-be-defendant-in-leadership-court-case|title=theguardian.com|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=2018-06-15|date=2016-07-20}} Katie Price,{{Cite news|url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/price-privacy-trial-to-go-ahead-30796436.html|title=Katie Price trial to go ahead|newspaper=Belfasttelegraph.co.uk|access-date=2018-06-15}} and Andrew Mitchell MP.{{Cite web|url=http://www.civillitigationbrief.com/2013/09/26/relief-from-sanctions-and-costs-budgeting-the-judgment-in-mitchell-v-news-group-newspapers-in-full/|title=Civil Litigation Brief|website=www.civillitigationbrief.com|access-date=2018-06-15|date=2013-09-26}} Other legal judicial decisions include asbestos related disease cases, such as Yates v HMRC,{{Cite web|url=http://www.civillitigationbrief.com/2014/07/15/civil-procedure-how-it-should-be-done-a-description-of-how-the-asbestos-court-works/|title=Civil Litigation Brief|website=www.civillitigationbrief.com|access-date=2018-06-15|date=2014-07-15}} constitutional rights of access to justice and access to court proceedings,{{Cite web|url=https://www.leighday.co.uk/News/News-2017/December-2017/Landmark-judgment-in-the-High-Court-as-judge-rules|title=Dring v Cape|website=www.leighday.co.uk|access-date=2018-06-15}} modern slavery,{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/21/civil-servant-kept-nigerian-woman-in-servitude|title=Ajayi|website=www.theguardian.co.uk|date=21 August 2017 |access-date=2018-06-15}} defamation law,{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39811870|title=Zahawi|access-date=2018-06-15|work=BBC News|date=2017-05-04}} equitable interpleader,{{Cite web|url=http://www.civillitigationbrief.com/2018/02/18/interpleader-proceedings-filling-the-gap-in-the-rules/|title=Equitable Interpleader filling the gap|website=civillitigationbrief.com|access-date=2018-06-16|date=2018-02-18}} and national security.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2018/692.html|title=Abdule v UK state|website=bailii.org|access-date=2018-06-15}} Her decision in Warsama and Gannon v FCO and others considered UK constitutional issues under the Bill of Rights 1689, Parliamentary Privilege, free speech and human rights.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2018/1461.html|title=Warsama and Gannon v FCO|website=bailii.org|access-date=2018-06-16}}{{Cite web|url=https://constiequitylandlatte.wordpress.com/2018/06/15/parliamentary-privilege-chaytor-returns/|title=Parliamentary Privilege Warsama and Gannon v FCO|website=constiequitylandlatte.wordpress.com|access-date=2018-06-16|date=2018-06-15}}
McCloud resigned as a judge in February 2024, stating that "I have reached the conclusion that in 2024 the national situation and present judicial framework is no longer such that it is possible in a dignified way to be both 'trans' and a salaried, fairly prominent judge in the UK".{{Cite news |last1=Baksi |first1=Catherine |last2=Ames |first2=Jonathan |date=22 February 2024 |title=UK's only trans judge quits over risk of 'politicising the judiciary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/uks-only-trans-judge-quits-over-risk-of-politicising-the-judiciary-lpsqjtghv |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=The Times}}{{Cite news |last=Somerville |first=Ewan |date=22 February 2024 |title=UK's only trans judge quits over fears she has politicised the role |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/22/uk-trans-judge-quits-over-fears-she-has-politicised-role/ |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=The Telegraph}} She subsequently moved to the Republic of Ireland.{{cite news |last=Murray |first=Jessica |date=16 April 2025 |title='A huge reset': trans rights campaigners and gender critical activists react to supreme court ruling |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/16/a-huge-reset-trans-rights-campaigners-and-gender-critical-activists-react-to-supreme-court-ruling |work=The Guardian |location= |publisher= |access-date=17 April 2025}}
In March 2024, it was revealed that McCloud was seeking leave to join the litigation in the Supreme Court case For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers.{{Cite news |last=Libby |first=Brooks |date=28 March 2024 |title=Transgender judge seeks leave to intervene in UK court case over legal definition of 'woman' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/28/transgender-judge-seeks-leave-to-intervene-in-uk-court-case-over-legal-definition-of-woman |access-date=28 March 2024 |work=The Guardian}} This application to intervene by McCloud and Stephen Whittle for the Good Law Project was rejected by the Supreme Court in October 2024.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-08 |title=Amnesty to intervene in Scottish Government court battle over definition of 'woman' |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24638301.amnesty-joins-landmark-supreme-court-case-definition-woman/ |access-date=2024-10-08 |website=The Herald |language=en}} Following the ruling, which defined "woman" and "sex" for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 as referring to "biological woman and biological sex" (i.e. not assigned sex), McCloud said she would go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to seek judgment against the British government and Supreme Court for failing to consider the "fundamental human rights" of trans people.{{cite news |title=Trans former judge to challenge Supreme Court's gender ruling |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qw2149yelo |access-date=29 April 2025 |work=BBC News |date=29 April 2025}}
Personal life
McCloud, who is also a Chartered Psychologist, authored (as Victoria Williams) an academic letter in 2003 to a Royal College of Psychiatrists journal Psychiatric Bulletin, that considered standards of care for transgender people and highlighted errors in a paper published in the journal.{{Cite journal|title=cambridge.org|issue=2|pages=77–78|journal=Psychiatric Bulletin|volume=27|doi=10.1192/pb.27.2.77-b|last1=Williams|first1=Victoria|date=February 2003 |doi-access=free}}
McCloud lived in London with National Health Service psychiatrist Annie McCloud before moving to Ireland. They have been civil partners since 2006.{{Cite book|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-253743|title=Victoria Helen McCloud|publisher=www.whosewho.com|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U253743|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4|access-date=2018-06-19}}
References
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Category:British transgender women
Category:British expatriates in Ireland
Category:Alumni of City, University of London
Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Category:Members of Lincoln's Inn
Category:Masters of the High Court (England and Wales)
Category:21st-century English judges
Category:21st-century British lawyers