Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.)

Andrea became Chief Executive at the Howard League for Penal Reform in November 2021.

She was Director of JUSTICE from 2013 to October 2021, where she shepherded significant growth in the size and clout of the organisation.

Between 2002 and 2013 she was Equality Lawyer and then Legal Director at INTERIGHTS, litigating strategic cases before regional human rights courts.

She previously worked at the International Service for Human Rights in Geneva and at the South Asia Documentation Centre in New Delhi.

Andrea is qualified as a barrister and solicitor in Australia. She has a BA/LLB (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and an LLM (Dist.) from the London School of Economics. She sits on the advisory panels of several human rights organisations and is a trustee of BAILII.

Andrea is an Honorary Master of the Bench of Middle Temple and an Affiliate Member of the Centre for Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds.

Since 2019, she has served as a Lay Member of the House of Lords Conduct Committee.

In 2022, Andrea was appointed Queen’s Counsel (Honoris Causa) for making a major contribution to the development of the law in England and Wales.