| Nicola Williams | |
| Occupation: | Barrister, judge, ombudsman |
Nicola Williams is a British barrister specialising in criminal law. Since 2009, she has been a part-time Crown Court Judge sitting on the London and South Eastern Circuit.[1]
She was the first Service Complaints Ombudsman for the UK Armed Forces.[2] [3] In that role she urged the Ministry of Defence to tackle racism in the armed forces.[4] She has highlighted concern at the delay, and the failure to meet the target of 90% of Service complaints to be resolved in a timely fashion; and the disproportionate number of women, black and ethnic minority Service personnel making complaints.[5] [6]
Williams was Complaints Commissioner for the Cayman Islands from 2009 to 2014.[7] She served several years as a Commissioner at the Independent Police Complaints Commission, a board member at the Police Complaints Authority [8] Williams was the lead Commissioner responsible for drafting IPCC guidelines on investigating allegations of discriminatory conduct by police officers and a member of the IPCC Resources and Diversity Committees.
She is a Fellow of the RSA and a former Chair of the BBC Regional Advisory Committee for London.[9]
In 2020 Williams was appointed as the new chair for the Independent Complaints Panel of the Portman Group the social responsibility and regulatory body for alcohol in the UK.[10]
Williams was listed as one of the 100 most influential Black people in the U.K[11] and won a Cosmopolitan magazine Woman of Achievement Award (Professions).[12]
She is the author of the novel Without Prejudice, which describes the experiences of being a black female lawyer in Britain is also an indictment of the legal system and privilege.[13] [14] The novel was republished by Penguin Books in 2020 in a series curated by Bernardine Evaristo of 'lost and hard-to-find' books by Black writers.