Lord Falconer

Charlie Falconer is an English qualified barrister and partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's, a US law firm. The former UK Lord Chancellor and first Secretary of State for Justice spent 25 years as a commercial barrister, becoming a QC in 1991. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, international arbitration and investigations.

He is the Chair of the Globe Theatre, Amicus Horizon Housing Association, The Sage Gateshead, and the John Smith Memorial Trust, and Visitor of Queens’ College Cambridge.

He is the Chair of the Institute of Family Law Arbitrators, a body which is pioneering the use of arbitration in family cases where there are financial disputes, in order to avoid lengthy courtroom battles.


He advises the Leader of the Labour Party on isues connected with the transition to government.

In June 2003, he became the Lord Chancellor and the first Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs. He was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1974 and was appointed Solicitor General in May 1997.


Between 1974 and 1997 he was a commercial barrister, and was involved in many significant commercial, industrial and financial issues of the day.

In 1997 he joined the Blair government as Solicitor-General, moving a year later to the Cabinet Office, becoming involved in all the critical issues which faced the government from 1998 until the 2001 election.

In 2001, after the general election, he became Housing, Planning and Regeneration Minister and in 2002 he became Criminal Justice Minister.
In 2003 he became Lord Chancellor, with the remit of abolishing the office.

His reform included the creation, for the first time, of a Supreme Court for the UK, the creation of a commission to appoint judges, making a full-time independent judge the Head of the Judiciary for England and Wales, and introducing an elected Speaker for the House of Lords.

In 2007 he became the first Secretary of State for Justice bringing together courts, prisons and justice policy for the first time.

The Times has named Charles Falconer to The Times Law 100(2012), its annual list of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United Kingdom.