Shortly after being appointed a excessive court docket choose within the household division, Jennifer Roberts was chosen to listen to a posh, monetary dispute that produced the most important ever settlement in a British divorce case at the moment.
The courtroom battle between the philanthropist and hedge fund supervisor Sir Christopher Hohn and his estranged spouse Jamie Cooper-Hohn additionally featured vital arguments about what the media ought to have the ability to report from personal hearings.
The rigorously reasoned choice by Roberts, who has died aged 71 of most cancers, eliminated the blanket ban on press protection. Till then journalists had been allowed to take a seat in divorce instances however have been unable to report most of what they witnessed. In a later 105-page ruling, the choose awarded £337m to the previous spouse – a judgment that strengthened the UK’s repute because the world’s divorce capital.
What was not obvious on the time was that Roberts had shortly earlier than been identified with breast most cancers. Such was her dedication to making sure that the trial proceeded effectively and easily that she delayed present process surgical procedure and chemotherapy. “She stated it will simply have to attend ‘till I hear this case first’,” a former colleague recalled.
An knowledgeable in monetary matrimonial instances, Roberts was additionally chosen to listen to the broadly reported divorce contest between the one-time Pirelli calendar mannequin Christina Estrada and her rich husband Sheikh Walid Juffali.
Estrada was cross-examined in court docket over her declare that she required £1m a yr for garments, together with £40,000 for fur coats, £109,000 for high fashion clothes and £21,000 for sneakers. Her attorneys argued that she additionally wanted £60m for a luxurious London house and £495,000 for automobiles in London and the US. Estrada’s request for £238m in whole was subsequently dismissed by Roberts as “inflated”; as a substitute she obtained a payout of £53m.
Roberts was a trailblazer, taking an uncommon path to the regulation. Already a spouse and mom when she turned a barrister, she continuously acted as mentor to youthful colleagues, who would gravitate to her chambers room to hunt recommendation. Nicknamed “Duchess” for her sleek look, she usually wore a Hermès scarf however was additionally famend for her skilled dedication and capability for exhausting work.
She was born in Southampton. Her mother and father, Mary (nee Kelway Pope) and Michael Halden, met and married in Khartoum after the top of the second world conflict. He had served within the Royal Navy on North Atlantic convoys; she had been within the Girls’s Auxiliary Air Power. Sudan was then a British protectorate. The eldest of three kids, Jenny spent her early years in Khartoum the place her father labored for Shell. The household returned to Hampshire after Sudan was granted independence, settling in Highcliffe-on-Sea on the sting of the New Forest.
She attended Fernhill Manor college in Hampshire. Relatively than going immediately to college, she moved to London the place she modelled and joined Island Data. Years later she recalled assembly Led Zeppelin, Cat Stevens and different artists.
On the age of 19 she married her childhood sweetheart, Richard Roberts, who additionally lived in Highcliffe. He was a musician however later turned a recruitment government working within the oil and gasoline trade. They’d two daughters and settled within the New Forest. In her early 30s, with each kids at college, Roberts determined to review regulation at Southampton College; her maternal grandfather had been a solicitor within the metropolis.
She would drop her kids at college then drive to lectures. She was awarded a first-class diploma in 1986 and selected to change into a barrister. She was referred to as to the bar by Inside Temple in 1988. Household regulation attracted her and he or she joined chambers at Queen Elizabeth Constructing in London, a set which specialises in divorce, baby and matrimonial instances.
Though she entered the authorized career comparatively late in life, her success was fast. Roberts was made a recorder (part-time choose) on the western circuit in 2000, listening to prison and civil instances. Her apply flourished, shoppers appreciating her empathy, compassion and authorized abilities. She was appointed a QC in 2009 and in 2014 turned a excessive court docket choose within the household division, when she was made a dame.
Her progress continued regardless of having to deal with household tragedy. Her youngest brother, Flying Officer Ian Halden, had been killed in 1991 when the Phantom fighter jet he was flying from the Falkland Islands disappeared over the South Atlantic. In 2004, her husband died of most cancers.
Roberts was identified with breast most cancers in 2014.
Final September she was identified with pancreatic most cancers however continued listening to instances for some time, and till earlier this yr labored from house on court docket papers. In April, she insisted on showing at a celebration to mark the appointment of recent household regulation silks together with considered one of her former pupils.
“She was shiny, she was humorous and he or she was sort,” stated Dame Sue Carr, the girl chief justice of England and Wales. “She was a tremendously standard excessive court docket choose.” Roberts was awarded an honorary doctorate by Southampton College in 2017.
She is survived by her two daughters, Melanie and Sophie, her six grandchildren and her brother Simon.
