Nicola Padfield

Nicola Margaret Padfield KC (hon) (née Helme; born 16 May 1955) is a British barrister and academic. She is a former Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. and was succeeded to the position in October 2019 by Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton. She is Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice in the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. In addition to her academic work, she was a Recorder of the Crown Court from 2002 to 2014, and is a Bencher of the Middle Temple.

Early life and education

Padfield was born on 16 May 1955 in Windlesham, Surrey, England. She read Jurisprudence at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating with a BA degree in 1976 (later promoted to an MA (Oxon) degree). She read for a postgraduate diploma in Criminology at Darwin College, Cambridge, which she completed in 1977. She sat in the South Eastern Circuit and the Crown Court until 2014.

Personal life

In 1979, she married Christopher Padfield. Together, they have three children; two sons and one daughter. Nicola Padfield's hobbies include riding tandem bicycle, her husband being her long-time partner in this pastime. During her term as Master of Fitzwilliam College, the Padfields assembled a fleet of tandems hosted at the Master's Lodge and regularly invited the college's students to attend leisure rides around Cambridge in their company.

Selected works