Opinion piece
The following is an edited version of a speech which Senior Master Fontaine delivered to the inaugural meeting of the Collective Redress Lawyers' Association (CORLA), which was held at Chancery Lane, London, on 31 March 2022. Senior Master Fontaine was admitted as a solicitor in 1978, and prior to her judicial career, was an equity partner in the global law firm Baker & Mackenzie, where she was based in the Hong Kong office for six years. Senior Master Fontaine was appointed as Senior Master of the Queen's Bench Division in 2014, and since that date, has also served as the Queen's Remembrancer (the first woman and the first solicitor to hold this ancient post). In this speech, Senior Master Fontaine provides her learned and unique insights into the opt-in group litigation regime which was introduced into English civil procedure in 2000.