Preceded by Lady Cosgrove Political party Labour Preceded by Office created Name Lynda Baroness | Preceded by Malcolm Rifkind Role Member of Parliament Party Labour Party | |
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Succeeded by Lord Davidson of Glen Clova Full Name Lynda Margaret Clark Born 26 February 1949 (age 75) ( 1949-02-26 ) Education University of Edinburgh, University of St Andrews, University of Dundee | ||
Succeeded by constituency abolished | ||
Lynda Margaret Clark, Baroness Clark of Calton, PC, QC (born 26 February 1949) is a Scottish judge. She was formerly the Labour Member of Parliament for Edinburgh Pentlands. She was Advocate General for Scotland from the creation of that position in 1999 until 2006, whereupon she became a Judge of the Court of Session in Scotland.
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Career
Clark studied law at Queens College, St Andrews during its transition to independence as the University of Dundee School of Law, graduating in 1970 with a LLB (Hons) from St Andrews, and subsequently gained a PhD in criminology and penology from the University of Edinburgh in 1975. She was a lecturer in Jurisprudence from 1973 at the University of Dundee until she was called to the Scottish Bar in 1977. She took silk in 1989, and was subsequently called to the English Bar in 1990 as a member of the Inner Temple.
Politics
Clark first stood for Parliament at the 1992 general election, when she unsuccessfully contested the Fife North East constituency held by the Liberal Democrat Menzies Campbell. At the 1997 general election she was elected to the House of Commons for the seat of Edinburgh Pentlands, displacing the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Malcolm Rifkind.
In May 1999 Clark was appointed as the first Advocate General for Scotland, a new post created by the Scotland Act 1998 to advise the Crown and Government of the United Kingdom on Scots law.
She stood down at the 2005 election, allowing Alistair Darling to contest the new Edinburgh South West seat.
On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created a life peer, and on 21 June 2005 the title was gazetted as Baroness Clark of Calton, of Calton in the City of Edinburgh.
On 18 January 2006 Lady Clark of Calton resigned as Advocate General, pending an expected judicial appointment. She was replaced as Advocate General by Neil Davidson, QC (now Lord Davidson of Glen Clova).
Judge
On 19 January Clark was appointed as a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland. She was installed in office in February 2006.
On 21 June 2012, Lady Clark succeeded Lord Drummond Young as Chairman of the Scottish Law Commission. Lady Clark demitted office on 31 December 2013 in order to sit in the Inner House of the Court of Session, and was succeeded as Chairman by Lord Pentland.
As of 2016, Lady Clark of Calton is the most recent Senator of the College of Justice to have served in the House of Commons.