Dame Janet Smith was the winner of our 2020 Good Governance Award in recognition of her significant contribution to improving good governance through her work as a High Court Judge and President of the Council of the Inns of Court.
The Rt Hon. Lady Justice Smith is also being recognised for her roles of chairing the Shipman Inquiry into the activities of the serial killer Harold Shipman, her report following the investigation into the activities of Jimmy Savile, and as the independent assessor for miscarriages of justice compensation.
Dame Janet was presented with her Good Governance Award by Baroness Glenys Thornton, Member of the GGI Advisory Board, at GGI’s annual lecture in September 2020.
Janet Smith is a former High Court Judge and President of the Council of the Inns of Court. She became Independent Assessor for Miscarriages of Justice in June 2011.
After being called to the Bar in 1972, she practised in Manchester for twenty years, specialising in the area of clinical negligence.
She was made a QC in 1986 and a High Court Judge in 1992. In 2002 she became the fourth woman to be promoted to the Court of Appeal, and published the findings of the high-profile Shipman Enquiry in the same year. In October 2012 she was appointed by the BBC to lead an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile.
