The ‘Beyoncé of the law’, who put a stop to Boris Johnson’s parliamentary suspension, talks equality, ego and spider brooches

In a year not short on drama, it was one of the great moments of 2019. After the Queen agreed to prorogue parliament for five weeks at Boris Johnson’s request, and after the English and Scottish courts could not agree whether the suspension was lawful, in September it was left to the supreme court to resolve the issue. And over the days of deliberation that followed, Brenda Hale came into her own. On 24 September, she announced the court’s blistering judgment: “The prime minister’s advice to her majesty was unlawful, void and of no effect… The prorogation was also void and of no effect. Parliament has not been prorogued.” Her tone was emphatic, delivered in an austere black dress with a huge silver spider brooch crawling up her right shoulder. The ruling delivered the ultimate slap down for Johnson; there was even talk that the prime minister might have to resign. MPs returned to work the following day.

For many outside the law, it was the first we had seen of Brenda Marjorie Hale, but already she had decades of experience as a glass-ceiling smasher. In 2004, she was made Britain’s first female law lord. In 2009, she became the first woman to serve on the UK’s new supreme court; in 2017, she became its first woman president. Already dubbed “the Beyoncé of the legal world”, after the prorogation ruling Baroness Hale of Richmond became a household name – a septuagenarian rock star. There were calls for the spider brooch to be given its own Twitter account, and fans could buy spider-brooch T-shirts and an illustrated children’s book celebrating Hale’s journey from Yorkshire schoolgirl to head of the UK’s highest court.