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12 April 2013
Issue: 7555 / Categories: Features
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Book review—Rose Heilbron: The Story of England’s First Woman Queen’s Counsel and Judge

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"During her robed tenure, Rose handled some of the most talked about cases in the history of the English common law"

Author: Hilary Heilbron QC
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781849464017
Price: £20

All aspiring female lawyers should read this book. In fact, any aspiring lawyer should read it. Even those lawyers who aren’t aspiring, but want to read the wonderfully written account of the extraordinary life of Rose Heilbron, a Liverpudlian lass who became England’s first female judge. In fact, anyone without any legal training, young or old, would be amply rewarded were they to swap £20 of their birthday book vouchers in return for a copy of this superb biography, written fluidly and, of course, lovingly by her daughter Hilary Heilbron QC, also now a top commercial silk in London.

Rose Heilbron: what a woman, and what a life! She was without question before her time, blazing a trail now followed by countless other women, whose path has been cleared by Rose. In her day, Rose Heilbron was one of only two women to achieve the

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