Dame Linda Penelope Dobbs, DBE (born 3 January 1951), styled The Hon. Mrs Justice Dobbs, was the first non-white person to be appointed to the senior judiciary of England and Wales, being appointed a high court judge in 2004.
Her mother was from Sierra Leone, and her father was an English lawyer who went on to serve as a High Court judge in Sierra Leone.
Dobbs studied Russian and Law at the University of Surrey, graduating in 1976. She went on to the London School of Economics where she obtained a Masters degree, followed by a Doctorate in Soviet criminology and penology.
She was called to the Bar in 1981, practising from 5 King's Bench Walk, the Chambers of the then Attorney-General Sir Michael Havers QC. She had a mixed criminal practice, in later years specialising in fraud and professional disciplinary tribunals, including the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council. She took silk in 1998.
She was a member of the General Council of the Bar and chaired the Professional Standards Committee and the Race Relations Committee. In 2003, she became the Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association. She was appointed as a deputy High Court Judge in February 2003, without having previously held appointment as a Recorder.
She was appointed as a Judge of the High Court in 2004, assigned to the Queen's Bench Division without having sat as a deputy High Court Judge.
On her appointment to the High Court, Mrs Justice Dobbs said: "Whilst this appointment might be seen as casting me into the role of standard bearer, I am simply a practitioner following a career path. I am confident, nevertheless, that I am the first of many to come"
Dobbs appeared in the Black Britannia exhibition in London by Daily Mirror photographer John Ferguson, was also included in the list of Britain's 10 most powerful black women and the 100 Great Black Britons.
She is a Patron of the African Prisons Project.