Dame Philippa Jane Edwards Whipple, (born 7 May 1966) is a British judge, former

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

, and former

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

. Between October 2015 and November 2021, she was a Justice of the High Court assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. Since November 2021 she has been a judge of the Court of Appeal.

Early life

Whipple was born in or near

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

, England, on 7 May 1966 to John Braham Scott Edwards and Veronica Mary Edwards.'WHIPPLE, Hon. Dame Philippa Jane Edwards', ''

Who's Who 2017 ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...

'', A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016; online edn, Nov 201
accessed 2 July 2017
/ref> She was educated at

St Mary's School, Ascot St Mary's School Ascot is a Roman Catholic independent day and boarding school for girls in Ascot, Berkshire, England.2011 ISI InspectioReport/ref> It is a member of the Girls' Schools Association. It was named 2015 " Public School of the Yea ...

, and then earned a bachelor's degree in Law from

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

Career

Whipple began her legal career as a

, admitted in 1991. She was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1994 and was a tenant at 1 Crown Office Row. She was appointed as a

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, in 2005. On 22 March 2010, she was made a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

(QC). On 1 October 2015, Whipple was appointed a Justice of the High Court in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

''Taylor Clark v. HMRC''

Towards the later end of her career at the bar, Whipple represented the applicant (Taylor Clark) in ''Taylor Clark Leisure Plc v HM Revenue and Customs'', in litigation in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. As part of an appeal in the course of that case, Whipple sought to be allowed to appear before the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland and constitutes part of the College of Justice; the supreme criminal court of Scotland is the High Court of Justiciary. The Court of Session sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh ...

. In May 2015, the a three-judge panel of the Court of Session presided by the then- Lord President declined to permit Whipple to address a Scottish court on behalf of a client in respect of a tax matter. Whilst the Court acknowledged that under

European law European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of the European Union (EU). Since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community following World War II, the EU has developed the aim to "promote peace, its valu ...

, counsel from other

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could appear in Scottish courts, the Court observed that the provisions did not extend to counsel in different parts of the same member state (i.e. the UK,

then Then may refer to: * Then language, spoken in Guizhou province of China * "Then", a song on the 1970 album ''Time and a Word'' by English rock band Yes * ''Then'' (Canadian series), a 1999 compilation album released in Canada * ''Then'' (Misako ...

a member of the European Union), finding that the Secretary of State could have, but had not, exercised his power under separate national legislation to make

regulations Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

on the matter, and that in the absence of such provisions, Scottish law precluded the ''ad hoc'' admission of counsel in cases like that of Whipple. The court additionally observed that Whipple could have sought full admission via an expedited procedure to the Scottish bar. The substantive appeal was ultimately allowed the following year, before that decision was in turn overturned on further appeal by the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Honours

On 3 November 2015, Whipple was appointed a

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(DBE). She is an honorary fellow of

. She was appointed to the Privy Council on 15 December 2021.

References

Living people Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Merton College, Oxford 21st-century English judges British barristers People educated at St Mary's School, Ascot 21st-century King's Counsel British solicitors 1966 births Fellows of Merton College, Oxford English women judges Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom {{UK-judge-stub