About Us
Lord Edmund-Davies (July 1906 - December 1992) was one of the most respected lawyers and judges of the last century. LEDLET was founded in his name, with the blessing of his family, for exactly the reason highlighted by Lord Roskill in the tribute below.
Lord Edmund-Davies began his education at Mountain Ash Grammar School in South Wales, he was a bright, hardworking and normal schoolboy. He ended his career some sixty years later in the House of Lords, one of the most distinguished judges of his generation. Throughout that time, he never lost touch with Wales. He did not come from a family of lawyers. He did not come from a wealthy background. On the contrary, ambition, ability, hard work and scholarships were what gave Herbert Edmund-Davies from Mountain Ash his start in the law. The ambition, the ability and the hard work were his own; the scholarships – the opportunities - were provided by others.
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LEDLET was established in March 2013. Ambition and ability are what we aim to help develop and, to that end, opportunities are what we have been tasked to provide to the young people of Wales. LEDLET is here to help young students interested in the law.
One of LEDLET’s main aims is to encourage young people to ‘Aim High’ and to continue ‘giving the lie to the myth’ that a career in the law is only available to a select few. Intelligence, diligence and people skills are, in short, the main qualities that lawyers need. If you think you have, or may have, what it takes, LEDLET is here to reassure you that any sense of ‘not coming from the right background’ should never deter you or stand in your way.
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At present, LEDLET, in partnership with Legal Wales, runs a week long summer scheme each year for up to 20 students to experience what a career in the law may entail, in London and Cardiff. The scheme involves spending a day with a firm of solicitors, a day in a set of barristers' chambers, and a day sitting in court with a judge. All travel, meals and accommodation will be paid for by LEDLET.
“His career gave the lie to the myth, much propagated today in some quarters, that such a career is only possible for those of an upper middle-class background followed by public school and Oxbridge education.” ~ Lord Roskill on the career of Lord Edmund-Davies.
Our President
Lord Lloyd-Jones
The Right Hon Lord Lloyd-Jones became President of LEDLET in January 2019 having already been a supporter of LEDLET in the past, including showing our students around the Supreme Court during our summer scheme week.
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The Right Hon Lord Lloyd-Jones is a justice of the Supreme Court. He became a Justice of The Supreme Court in October 2017. Lord Lloyd-Jones was born and brought up in Pontypridd, Glamorgan where his father was a schoolteacher. He attended Pontypridd Boys' Grammar School and Downing College, Cambridge. He was a Fellow of Downing College from 1975 to 1991. At the Bar his practice included international law, EU law and public law. He was amicus curiae (independent advisor to the court) in the Pinochet litigation before the House of Lords.
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A Welsh speaker, Lord Lloyd-Jones was appointed to the High Court in 2005. From 2008 to 2011 he served as a Presiding Judge on the Wales Circuit and Chair of the Lord Chancellor's Standing Committee on the Welsh Language. In 2012 he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal and from 2012 to 2015 he was Chairman of the Law Commission. Lord Lloyd-Jones is the first Justice of The Supreme Court to come from Wales.