Diana Paulette Wallis, (born 28 June 1954 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire) is a British former Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber. Wallis was first elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and in 2009. She resigned her seat in January 2012 and went on to pursue an extensive array of academic, legal and mediation-related activities. On 6 September 2013, Wallis was elected President of the European Law Institute, an independent non-profit organisation established to initiate, conduct and facilitate research, make recommendations and provide practical guidance in the field of European legal development with a goal of enhancing the European legal integration. She was re-elected in 2015 for a second term, which lasted until 2017. Wallis contested Haltemprice and Howden as a Yorkshire Party candidate in the 2015 and 2017 UK General Elections and subsequently left that party in March 2019. She later joined Change UK and was selected as the lead candidate for Yorkshire and the Humber at the 2019 European Parliament elections. Early career Wallis read History at North London Polytechnic, graduating as a BA. She further studied at the University of Kent, where she obtained the degree of Master of Arts (MA), Liege, Zurich and Chester. Before being elected to the European Parliament she practised for over 15 years as a litigation lawyer (solicitor), mainly in London where she developed a European cross-border practice. Wallis was lecturer at the University of Hull in European business law from 1995 to 1999. Wallis was also a Councillor on Humberside County Council and deputy leader of the East Riding Unitary Council from 1994 to 1999. Member of the European Parliament Wallis was elected Member of the European Parliament on three successive occasions in 1999, 2004 and 2009 (5th, 6th and 7th legislative terms of the European Parliament). During her tenure she held a number of senior positions and authored a large number of parliamentary reports. Vice-Presidency of the European Parliament In 2007, Diana Wallis became the first British female of any political persuasion in twenty years to be elected to the post of Vice President of the European Parliament, as well as being the first British Liberal Democrat to do so. After the change into the sixth legislative term in 2009, the Parliament's plenary re-elected her to the position for a second term. As a member of Parliament's Bureau, comprising the President, Vice-Presidents and Quaestors,