Cherie, Lady Blair (née Booth; born 23 September 1954) is an English barrister, judge, and writer. Blair has appeared in a number of leading cases, including arguing Lisa Grant v South West Trains Ltd before the European Court of Justice. In June 1999, she was appointed a recorder or part-time judge. Blair was the third Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 1999 to 2006. She is also Governor of the London School of Economics and the Open University. Blair was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to women and charity.
She is also the spouse of Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. Her father was the actor, Tony Booth.
Booth was born on 23 September 1954 at Fairfield General Hospital, Bury, Lancashire (now part of Greater Manchester), England, and brought up in Ferndale Road, Waterloo, Lancashire (now part of Merseyside), just north of Liverpool. Although her birth was registered as 'Cherie', owing to her maternal grandmother's influence, she was christened 'Theresa Cara' in deference to the requirement that she be given a saint's name. Her father, British actor Tony Booth, left her mother, actress Gale Howard (née Joyce Smith; 14 February 1933 – 5 June 2016), when Cherie was 8 years old. Cherie and her younger sister Lyndsey were then brought up by Gale and their paternal grandmother Vera Booth, a devout Roman Catholic of Irish descent. The sisters attended Catholic schools in Crosby, Lancashire. Cherie Booth attended Seafield Convent Grammar, which is now part of Sacred Heart Catholic College, where she achieved four As in her A Levels.
She read law at the London School of Economics and graduated with first-class honours. Later she was enrolled at the College of Law and passed her Bar Vocational Course. She came at the top of her year in the bar exams, while teaching law at the Polytechnic of Central London (University of Westminster). She was the Labour candidate for the Conservative safe seat of North Thanet in Kent in the 1983 general election, losing to Roger Gale.
A member of Lincoln's Inn, she became a barrister in 1976 and Queen's Counsel in 1995. Until 1988, her head of chambers was George Carman. In 1999, she was appointed a recorder (a permanent part-time judge) in the County Court and Crown Court.
She was a founding member of Matrix Chambers in London but no longer practises there. Matrix was formed in 2000 specialising in human rights law, though members also practise in a range of areas of UK public and private law, the Law of the European Union and European Convention on Human Rights, in addition to public international law. She is Founder and chair of law firm Omnia Strategy LLP. She specialises in employment, discrimination, as well as public law; in this capacity, she has occasionally represented claimants taking cases against the UK Government.
Blair has appeared in a number of leading cases. A notable example, Lisa Grant v South West Trains Ltd, before the European Court of Justice concerned discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.
In January 2010, when sentencing a defendant, Shamso Miah, for assault, Blair announced that she would suspend his prison sentence after describing him as a "religious man". The court heard that Miah had been to a mosque shortly before he broke a man's jaw following a row in a bank queue. Blair told Miah: "You are a religious man and you know this is not acceptable behaviour." This was interpreted by some observers as special leniency given on account of the criminal's religiosity. The Office for Judicial Complaints released an initial statement saying they had "received a number of complaints in relation to the comments" that Blair had made when sentencing Shamso Miah and that the matter was under investigation. On 10 June 2010, the OJC released a statement saying that the investigation had "found that Recorder Booth's observations did not constitute judicial misconduct" and accordingly "no disciplinary action is necessary". A private letter to the National Secular Society said, however, that the OJC had taken action in the form of "informal advice" from a more senior judge.
In 2015, Blair defended Rwandan spy chief Emmanuel Karenzi Karake against accusations that he had conspired to murder three Spanish NGO workers and a Canadian priest. Karake had allegedly done so because the workers knew about the Rwandan Patriotic Front killing Hutu civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Blair launched a company called Mee Healthcare with an American business partner Gail Lese in 2011. In June 2015, it ceased trading and all staff were dismissed without notice.
In 2021, Blair worked as an ethics adviser for Israeli security firm NSO Group.
Blair was the third Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 1999 to 2006. On 26 July 2006, she was awarded the honorary title of Emerita Chancellor, as well as the university honorarily naming its new Cherie Booth Building. She is also Governor of the London School of Economics and the Open University. On 2 March 2011, Blair was appointed the Chancellor of the Asian University for Women.
Blair is regularly invited to speak at legal and leadership conferences, and has in the past participated in the World Law Forum, ET Women's Forum, Yidan Prize Summit and the Commonwealth Africa Summit, amongst others.
In July 1999, Blair was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University (DUniv) from the Open University. Blair is a patron of Breast Cancer Care, a UK breast cancer information and support charity, Jospice, the international hospice organisation based in her home town of Crosby, and disability charity Scope. She is also involved with the British branch of Child in Need India (CINI UK), and is the organisation's patron.
In 2008, she launched her foundation, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, a development organisation that aims to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries. "Our mission is to provide women with the skills, technology, networks and access to capital that they need to become successful small and growing business owners, so that they can contribute to their economies and have a stronger voice in their societies," says its mission statement.
In 2010, Blair spoke at WE Day, an event held by WE Charity as part of their ongoing effort to empower youth and encourage them to get involved in their communities.
Also in 2010, Blair founded the Africa Justice Foundation alongside barristers Suella Braverman and Philip Riches.
She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to women's issues and charity.