School of Law: Annual Law Lecture
About
Join us at the University of Bradford on Wednesday 13 November 2024 as we host our Annual Law Lecture: Governing Well within the Rule of Law: Law, Policy and Decision Making in Times of Uncertainty.
The Annual Law Lecture is one of the landmark events in the School of Law calendar. Each year our networks come together from academic and industry backgrounds to explore key themes and hot topics with a high profile keynote speaker joining us. This year, the speaker for the lecture is Mel Nebhrajani CB who will be exploring "Governing Well within the Rule of Law: Law, Policy and Decision Making in Times of Uncertainty".
About Mel Nebhrajani CB
Mel was a barrister, practising in Chancery chambers where she specialised in property, charity and trusts work. In 1998 she joined the Charity Commission. Since 1999 she has worked in what is now the Government Legal Department (GLD) and has advised a variety of different departments, including the Cabinet Office and Number 10, the Department for Education, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Transport and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) where she became the Legal Director in 2016. From November 2020, Mel was Director of Litigation, responsible for leading over 600 people delivering most of HM Government’s litigation and having the UK’s largest caseload in the Supreme Court. On 1 October 2021, Mel was promoted to Director General and since May 2023, has been Director General of GLD’s Litigation with Justice and Security Group which includes the Litigation Directorate and the Statutory Instruments Hub, as well as the legal teams advising the Cabinet Office, Home Office, Northern Ireland Office, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Defence.
Over her career, Mel has worked on some of the leading issues of the day including the Human Rights Act, the Devolution settlements, reform of the House of Lords, the Civil Partnership Act, Freedom of Information and Data Protection, Academies and Free Schools policy, Airport Expansion, EU Exit and NHS reform. She led DHSC’s COVID-19 legal response and now leads the legal work for the COVID-19 Inquiry.
Mel has four children. She is chair of the Advisory Board of the School of Law at the University of Bradford, a Governor of HRUC, a leading Further Education College, a trustee of GambleAware and a trustee of the Leadership Centre for Local Government. She was highly commended in the Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2020 and appointed Companion of the Bath in the 2021 New Year’s Honours List.