Seamus J. Mulholland interviewed Presiding District Judge in her chambers at the Laganside Courts, on Wednesday 4th November 2009. The judge offered a candid insight into the judicial lifestyle and her personal experiences as a lawyer.

Judge Bagnall, from South Antrim, read for a single honours law degree at Queen’s. She recalled, nostalgically, her time at Queen’s with great fondness.

 ‘I have very happy memories of my own student life. Those days should be amongst the happiest of one’s life. There is, retrospectively, no aspect of my university experience that I would alter in any way.’

She spoke of the ‘strong work ethos which pervaded [her] peers in law’, but also the ‘active social lives’ they enjoyed too – ‘the key to success lay, to a great extent, in striking an appropriate balance.’

She reminisced warmly upon the cohesiveness of her year group, which consisted of about one hundred students: ‘we were close . . . and even yet, though many months may pass between our seeing each other, when we do meet friendships are renewed which were founded as students’. She described how the ‘Law Society was very active, indeed instrumental, in arranging social events which very much contributed to the unification of our year group.’

Whilst Judge Bagnall pointedly extols the benefits of university life, she also demonstrated that in practice ‘analytical skills and an aptitude towards working with the law on a practical basis are very much key considerations to achieving success.’ Academia is only ‘a fundamental stepping stone to becoming a successful practitioner of law.’

Post-degree Judge Bagnall proceeded to the Institute of Professional Legal Studies and began to practice as a solicitor, specialising in Children’s and Family Law. This line of work exposed her to a lot of potentially emotional cases, often involving children in instances of abuse and/or neglect. Undeniably this time was useful in developing the requisite judicial skills, which she would later require, of being able to sufficiently detach oneself from a given case to see justice served as the law would have it. She put it as follows.

‘Whilst human nature would drag you towards being emotional, the role of a judge necessitates that one assumes a primarily objective stance – that said, it is still important to keep an element of humanity in judgments, where appropriate, so as not to become case-hardened or arbitrary in the dispensation of justice.’

Mrs Bagnall’s initial judicial appointment came in 2003, and in 2006 she was appointed to the position of Presiding District Judge. As such, for the past three and a half years, one of her primary duties ‘has been the judicial administration of the Magistrates’ tier of Courts across Northern Ireland’ and reporting on this to the Lord Chief Justice.

Judge Bagnall cites her career progression as the objective which spurred her towards becoming a judge. ‘

‘The hope that you can occasionally make a difference in peoples’ lives, for the better’ in her opinion, is the most rewarding aspect of judicial service. As a working example of how her work can yield long-term, professionally satisfying rewards, she illustrated occasions where ‘at the outset, when dealing with a troubled youth, [she] may have no option other than to make a difficult order (such as placing such a person in secure accommodation), but after a given duration of time has elapsed, it can occasionally be most pleasurable to see that, with help and guidance, such a youth may change their ways and become more than capable of reintegrating with society again as a valuable individual.’

On the topic of the most difficult aspect of her work as a judge, she identified sentencing as ‘ensuring that you arrive at an appropriate sentence given all the factors you have to take into consideration can be challenging.’

Judge Bagnall is very much dedicated to her profession – she ‘sometimes works up to fifty hours per week’ – work which often spills over into the weekend.

As a female, working in what was traditionally a male-dominated judiciary, it was most refreshing to hear that she has no apprehensions in her role based upon her gender. She very modestly suggested that she does not require any ‘special consideration’ as a female judge as regards striking a work/family life balance.

‘Many other women, in professions far removed from my own, manage perfectly well to achieve a desirable equilibrium.’

It was an unparalleled delight to have the opportunity to speak to Fiona Bagnall. She very kindly extended an invitation to our law students to attend Court as often as possible, so as to gain a true perspective of how the law operates on a day-to-day basis – an invitation we are very pleased to accept.