Sir Robert Owen, the former barrister and British High Court judge who chaired the public inquiry into the 2006 murder of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, will visit the school for a special evening lecture on Thursday 21 November at 7pm.
The lecture will offer the county’s aspiring barristers a rare insight into the public inquiry into the former Russian agent’s death, which was completed in 2015 and continues to make the headlines today.
The lecture begins at 7pm on Thursday 21 November at Truro High School for Girls in the Piran Theatre.
The event is free of charge and all are welcome to attend however spaces are limited so please email aspiring@trurohigh.co.uk to reserve your place today.
As well as discussing his work on the Litvineko Inquiry, Sir Robert will also discuss his career at the Bar.
Sir Robert read Law at the University of Exeter and was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1968 and elected an Inner Temple bencher in 1995. He was appointed a Recorder in 1987, being qualified as a deputy High Court judge from 1994, and made a Queen’s Counsel in 1988. From 1991 to 1993, he served as Vice-Chairman of the London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association, and as its Chairman 1993 to 1995.
In 1997, he served as Chairman of the General Council of the Bar, having served as Vice-Chairman the previous year. He was named an associate fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1998. He served as a governor of the College of Law from 1998 to 2004.
He was appointed a Justice of the High Court on 15 January 2001, received his knighthood, and was assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division. From 2005 to 2008, he served as a presiding judge for the Western Circuit, and he was a member of the Judicial College Board from 2011 until 2014.
He retired in 2015 following his completion of the Litvinenko Inquiry. In 2016 he was appointed to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
