Dr Diana Richards

Diana specialised in socio-legal research on the judiciary and the justice system, with a focus on quantitative evidence. She is passionate about using robust evidence to inform and improve policy-making in justice. Diana obtained a doctorate in judicial studies at UCL Laws with a study on how judges at different levels of expertise have different learning needs.

Her study was the first large-scale study of judicial attitudes in Europe to validate Kolb's theory of adult learning on judicial office holders. She has also conducted research on judicial-led alternative dispute resolution, judicial diversity, and judicial independence. Details about her academic research, publications, presentations and teaching can be found here.

What is Diana doing now?

Dr Diana Richards is now a senior policy advisor in judicial policy at the Ministry of Justice.

She has been working in areas such as judicial recruitment strategy, impacts of judicial policies on judicial morale and retention, and impacts of EU Exit and other cross-governmental policies on caseload and judicial resource.

She continues to be a champion of robust evidence in policy making.