Robert Buckland – Keynote Speaker

Rt Hon Sir Robert Buckland KBE KC MP is Conservative MP for South Swindon, former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice and former Secretary of State for Wales. He is a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard Kennedy School and Senior Counsel at Payne Hicks Beach Solicitors.

Robert’s work at Harvard centres around the ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Justice, and he lectures and speaks frequently on AI policy issues. He is leading a major Review for the Government into employment for Autistic people and has a long track record of campaigning on neurodiversity issues. As a former senior Cabinet Minister and once again a practising lawyer, Robert’s experience of the law and the wider political context is immense.

Robert’s speaking experience is considerable, from his days as an undergraduate debater at the Durham Union and in international competition around the world, to his daily advocacy in court as a criminal barrister, and his campaigns as a Member of Parliament, making frequent backbench contributions to debate in the Commons and then for seven and a half years as a Minister, handling Government business from the Despatch Box and conducting cases for the Government when he was Solicitor General in the High Court and Court of Appeal.

Robert Buckland has addressed thousands of audiences over the years, from Mansion House and Guildhall to the Swindon Women’s Institute, easily one of the most formidable audiences he has ever faced! He enjoys Q and A sessions as part of his presentation where requested but is extremely flexible and versatile as to style and content and is able to assess the appropriate level or content of his speeches extremely well. From academic lectures to more informal addresses, Robert has the widest possible experience of public speaking, and has even taught it to other up and coming speakers!

As well as his speeches, Robert’s media and broadcast experience stretches back over twenty-five years. He is a regular panellist on BBC TVs Question Time and BBC R4 Any Questions and has been interviewed on BBC and ITV by Andrew Marr, Andrew Neil and Piers Morgan to name but a few, handling some of the trickiest political issues of the day from Brexit to Covid19. Robert continues to contribute to a wide range of TV and radio current affairs programmes on a breadth of issues.

Although Robert’s legal career has been a central part of his life, his interests are varied and include education and disability, international affairs and music & the arts. He has helped co-author three books edited by Iain Dale, “The Prime Ministers”, “The Presidents” and “The Kings and Queens” and his love and knowledge of history is well-documented.