Gordon Slynn, Baron Slynn of Hadley (17 February 1930 – 7 April 2009) was a British judge and Advocate General of the European Court of Justice. He particularly specialised in European law. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. Early life Slynn was born on 17 February 1930 to John and Edith Slynn and educated at Sandbach School, Goldsmiths, University of London, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1956 before moving to One Hare Court alongside Fisher, Neil, Parker, and Richard Southwell QC, becoming a bencher in 1970 and Treasurer in 1988. He served as Junior Counsel to the Ministry of Labour between 1967 and 1968. He was the First Junior Treasury Counsel (Common Law), or "Treasury Devil", from 1968 to 1974. Lord Denning said about Slynn in his capacity as such: "He was outstanding. The best I have ever known. He will go far." His successful application to take silk in 1974 coincided with his becoming the first Leading Counsel to the Treasury. Marriage He married Odile Marie Henriette Boutin in 1962. Judicial career He was appointed Recorder of Hereford in 1971 and as a judge of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court in 1976, receiving the customary knighthood, serving additionally as President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal from 1978. In 1981, he left both these positions to become an Advocate General at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), and was appointed a Judge in 1988, a position he held until 1992. He was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary on 11 March 1992, becoming a life peer as Baron Slynn of Hadley, of Eggington in the County of Bedfordshire, and being sworn of the Privy Council. He was a dissenter in the case R v. Brown, which upheld the legality of the criminal convictions resulting from Operation Spanner. As a member of the House of Lords, he served as Chairman of the House of Lords Select Sub-Committee on European Law and Institutions (1992–95), and as a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Public Service (1996–98) and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Corruption Bill (2003). He retired as a Law Lord in 2002. He was appointed President of the Court of Appeal of the Solomon Islands in 2001 and was life President of the Lord Slynn of Hadley European Law Foundation and President of