Lynda Margaret Clark, Baroness Clark of Calton Personal Computer is a Scottish judge.
Education
Clark studied law at Queens College, Street Andrews during its transition to independence as the University of Dundee School of Law, graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from Street Andrews, and subsequently gained a Doctor of Philosophy in criminology and penology from the University of Edinburgh in 1975.
Career
She was Advocate General for Scotland from the creation of that position in 1999 until 2006, whereupon she became a Judge of the Court of Session in Scotland. She was a lecturer in Jurisprudence from 1973 at the University of Dundee until she was called to the Scottish Bar in 1977. On 21 June 2012, Lady Clark succeeded Lord Drummond Young as Chairman of the Scottish Law Commission.
Lady Clark demitted office on 31 December 2013 in order to sit in the Inner House of the Court of Session, and was succeeded as Chairman by Lord Pentland.
Clark first stood for election in 1992 for the seat of Fife North East, held by Menzies Campbell, but was unsuccessful. At the 1997 election she was elected for the seat of Edinburgh Pentlands, displacing Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Malcolm Rifkind.
She stood down at the 2005 election, allowing Alistair Darling to contest the new Edinburgh South West seat. On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created a life peer, and on 21 June 2005 the title was gazetted as Baroness Clark of Calton, of Calton in the City of Edinburgh.
On 18 January 2006 Lady Clark of Calton resigned as Advocate General to take up office as a Senator of the College of Justice.
She was replaced as Advocate General by Neil Davidson, Queen's Counsel (now Lord Davidson of Glen Clova). As of 2013, Lady Clark of Calton is the most recent Senator of the College of Justice to have served in the House of Commons.
Membership
Faculty of Advocates. 52nd United Kingdom Parliament. 53rd United Kingdom Parliament]
She was formerly the Labour Member of Parliament for Edinburgh Pentlands.
She took silk in 1989, and was subsequently called to the English Bar in 1990 as a member of the Inner Temple.