Victoria McCloud

Victoria McCloud is a British lawyer and former judge. A trans woman, McCloud was the youngest Master in the High Court of Justice when appointed in 2006 as a deputy and then as a full judge in 2010. McCloud is also a Chartered Psychologist and legal author. She retired from the bench in April 2024.

Early life and education
McCloud was born in Surrey, England on 13 October 1969. She was inspired become a lawyer, as a child, after watching the television series Crown Court

McCloud graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1990 with a degree in Experimental Psychology and obtained a doctorate in 1993 in human visual system science. A year later, McCloud completed a law conversion course and was called to the bar in 1995.

Career
McCloud had previously been a barrister at Coram Chambers. From 2006 McCloud was a Deputy Costs Judge / Taxing Master, then appointed a Queen's Bench Master in June 2010 and also re-appointed as a Costs Judge / Taxing Master in 2017.

McCloud wrote the first five editions of the Civil Procedure Handbook, the Surveillance and Intelligence Law Handbook for OUP (as Victoria Williams), and the White Book.

McCloud was a Master of the Senior Courts, Queen's Bench Division, appointed in 2010. McCloud was the youngest ever Master in the High Court when appointed, the first trans person and second Master using she/her pronouns. In a letter from Master Mccloud, November 2019, she said "I suspect that such limited success as I had later in life fluking my way to winning the odd case as a barrister may well have been more about grinding down my opponents, not giving up but doggedly carrying on annoyingly to the end, than due to any great forensic brilliance. I gather the Komodo Dragon does much the same: bite the prey and then follow it for miles, sometimes nipping at its heels, until it expires and becomes the next meal."

In 2016 McCloud began consulting with professionals working in the historic abuse field, hoping to improve the experience of justice for victims as well as for defendants and insurers, founding the Historic Abuse Lawyers' forum (HALF) to look at the possibility of alternative approaches to trial and resolution.

McCloud has presided over high-profile cases which have involved Donald Trump, Jeremy Corbyn, Katie Price, and Andrew Mitchell MP.

Other legal judicial decisions include asbestos related disease cases, such as Yates v HMRC, constitutional rights of access to justice and access to court proceedings, modern slavery, defamation law, equitable interpleader, and national security. Her decision in Warsama and Gannon v FCO and others considered UK constitutional issues under the Bill of Rights 1689, Parliamentary Privilege, free speech and human rights.

McCloud resigned as a judge in February 2024, stating that "I have reached the conclusion that in 2024 the national situation and present judicial framework is no longer such that it is possible in a dignified way to be both ‘trans’ and a salaried, fairly prominent judge in the UK".

In March 2024, it was revealed that McCloud was seeking leave to join the litigation in the For Women Scotland Supreme Court case.

Personal life
McCloud, who is also a chartered psychologist, authored (as Victoria Williams) an academic letter in 2003 to a Royal College of Psychiatry journal that considered standards of care for transgender people and highlighted errors in a paper published in the journal.

McCloud lives in London with National Health Service psychiatrist Annie McCloud. They have been civil partners since 2006.