Shami Chakrabarti

Shami Chakrabarti CBE has been Director of Liberty since September 2003. Shami first joined Liberty as In-House Counsel on 10 September 2001. She became heavily involved in its engagement with the 'War on Terror' and with the defence and promotion of human rights values in Parliament, the Courts and wider society. A Barrister by background, she was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1994 and worked as a lawyer in the Home Office from 1996 until the summer of 2001. During that time she worked for Conservative and Labour Governments. She worked on policy, legislation and litigation in the counter-terror, asylum and criminal justice areas, and on the implementation of the Human Rights Act within Government. Since becoming Liberty's Director she has written, spoken and broadcast widely on the importance of the post-WW2 human rights framework as an essential component of democratic society. She was recently appointed a Governor of the London School of Economics and sits on the Advisory Board of the British Institute of Human Rights and the Executive Committee of the Administrative Law Bar Association. She was appoiumnted a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours.