Patricia Scotland

Patricia Scotland served as the 6th Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations. Born in Dominica, she was nominated at the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta and became the first woman and second Caribbean national to hold the post. A distinguished lawyer, she became the first Black woman appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1991 and, at 35, the youngest woman to receive the distinction at that time. She was also the first Black woman appointed Deputy High Court Judge, Recorder, and Master of Middle Temple. Elevated to the House of Lords in 1997 as Baroness Scotland of Asthal, she later served in the Foreign Office, Home Office, and Lord Chancellor’s Department, leading criminal justice reforms, including the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. In 2007, she became the first woman Attorney General for England and Wales since 1315. She founded the Eliminate Domestic Violence Global Foundation in 2011 and became UK Trade Envoy to South Africa in 2012.