Baroness Patricia Scotland
The Convener
The room, the network and the deal, brings the right people together.
Baroness Patricia Scotland of Asthal is a Dominican-British barrister and peer who served as the sixth Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations from 2016 to 2025, the first woman to hold that post. Her career contains a sequence of institutional firsts: first Black woman Queen's Counsel (1991, aged 35); first woman Attorney General for England and Wales since the office's foundation in 1315; first Black Alderman of the City of London and only the fourth woman in a thousand years. She was created a life peer in 1997, led major UK criminal justice reform, founded the Eliminate Domestic Violence Global Foundation, and served as Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to South Africa. She performed a scripture reading at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey in 2022.
“The Commonwealth is extraordinary — 56 countries, 2.5 billion people, bound not by treaty but by shared values.”
“We moved from a system focused on limitations to one focused on solutions — asking 'What can we do?' rather than 'What can't we do?'”
“Our shared legal systems create a 21% trade advantage — faster, cheaper, and more efficient collaboration.”
Rule of law and UK growth — a conversation
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