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New British Justice Secretary after reshuffle

Former British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been appointed as the new Justice Secretary, after Robert Buckland (pictured) was dismissed in a cabinet reshuffle announced yesterday (15 September) by prime minister Boris Johnson.

Buckland had held the role since July 2019, and had faced controversies over constitutional reform and delays in the justice system, according to the Law Society Gazette of England and Wales.

Raab, who is a qualified solicitor, was also named deputy prime minister. He will be the eighth lord chancellor since the Conservatives came into government in 2010.

Raab began career at Linklaters

The Gazette says that Raab was admitted as a solicitor in 2000, and began his career at Linklaters, where he worked on project finance, international litigation, and competition law.

He also spent time on secondments at human-rights organisation Liberty, and in Brussels advising on EU and world-trade law. He served as a justice minister in the governments of David Cameron and Theresa May.

According to the Gazette, Buckland had sought to build bridges with the legal profession, despite fierce controversies over government plans to curb judicial review, and to review the Human Rights Act.

Investment

In a speech to the Law Society this year Buckland said: “I regard myself as a constitutional plumber. This is not a revolution. It is routine maintenance,” he said.

I Stephanie Boyce (president of the Law Society of England and Wales) noted that Raab would be only the second solicitor in the office of lord chancellor.

“With the rule of law and access to justice firmly in the spotlight, and with the spending review on the horizon, we hope the new lord chancellor will play a key role in advocating for sustained investment across the entire justice system,” she said.