Alison Levitt, Baroness Levitt
Alison Frances Josephine Levitt, Baroness Levitt, Baroness Carlile of Berriew , is a British barrister. She was the principal legal advisor to the director of public prosecutions from 2009 to 2014, working under Keir Starmer, and served as a circuit judge from 2021 to 2024. She was appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer in 2025, and has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice since September 2025.
Early life and education
Alison Levitt was born on 27 May 1963 in London. Her father, David Levitt, was an architect and co-founder of the architectural practice Levitt Bernstein, and her mother, Christian Bevington, was a circuit judge. Levitt was privately educated at the City of London School for Girls and later studied at the University of St Andrews, where she gained a Scottish Master of Arts degree in 1986.Legal career
Levitt was called to the bar in 1988 by the Inner Temple. Her private practice as a barrister in London focused on murder, rape, fraud, and other areas of serious crime. She chaired the Bar Council's Young Barristers' Committee in 1995 and was the secretary of the Criminal Bar Association in 2006 and 2007. Levitt was appointed a recorder in 2006 and Queen's Counsel in 2008, and became a bencher of the Inner Temple in 2010.In 2009, Levitt was appointed as the principal legal advisor to the director of public prosecutions, then Keir Starmer. She conducted the Crown Prosecution Service's review of its handling of allegations made in the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. After leaving the post in 2014, Levitt became a partner at the law firm Mishcon de Reya, establishing and heading its group on white-collar crime. She returned to the bar in 2018 and was appointed as a circuit judge in 2021, resigning upon her appointment as a life peer in 2024.