The wife of the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is returning to Bermuda later this month.

Cherie Blair is flying to the Island at the invitation of the local Bar Association and will give a talk on human rights at a Bar Association dinner at Commissioner's House on May 25, 2003.

Mrs. Blair may be a household name through her famous husband, but is one of the UK's leading discrimination and employment law advocates in her own right.

She is a barrister in England and Wales and was made a Queen's Counsel in 1995. She is also a recorder in the County Court and Crown Court. In the past ten years, 730 QC awards were made by the Lord Chancellor of whom only 86 were to women.

Only 13 per cent of recorders in England and Wales are women.

Mrs. Blair has several friends among the legal fraternity in Bermuda and was at the London School of Economics with well-known Bermuda lawyers Narinder Hargun and Julian Hall.

Her reputation was strengthened in Bermuda last year when she appeared as senior counsel in Bermuda's Supreme Court representing Harold Darrell in his action against the Bank of Bermuda for alleged discrimination.

After that visit, Mrs. Blair was featured prominently in Britains' Mail on Sunday after she was feted as "a VIP and treated more like a royal visitor".

The newspaper said Premier Jennifer Smith laid on a "sumptuous feast and traditional island dance at a reception in her honour in the plantation-style official residence, Camden House, in the capital Hamilton".

The article continued: "The trip will reignite criticism that Mrs. Blair, already under fire for taking an overtly political role in hosting Downing Street think-tanks, is now fulfilling a quasi-official role as First Lady."

The newspaper published photographs provided by Government Information Services of a smiling Mrs. Blair, with a tomahawk in her hand, accompanied by the Premier dancing with the Gombeys.

However her reputation took a bit of a battering last month when she attended the Commonwealth Law conference in Australia.

She was invited by the Melbourne International store to take a free gift, but according to Australia's Daily Telegraph, helped herself to 68 items of clothing and accessories worth about $3000 she has now said that she will be paying for the goods, but the episode earned her the nickname "Grabber" Blair and reinforced a perceived tendency to accept "freebies".

As for who is paying for her upcoming trip to Bermuda, Justin Williams, a partner at Cox Hallett Wilkinson and chairman of the Bar Council social committee confirms that the Bermuda Bar Association has paid for Mrs. Blair's flight to Bermuda.

"She has made her own accommodation arrangements." said Mr. Williams.

Her last trip to Bermuda was in October, 2002 for the Women in Public Life Conference. On that occasion she stayed at Government House with her mother and three children.

Amongst the Island's lawyers, Mrs. Blair remains a popular choice of guest speaker. It's quite a coup, said Trevor Moniz, former president of the Bar Association, who said he hopes to attend the dinner.

According to Mr. Moniz, human rights remains a topical subject in Bermuda. Immigration and discrimination issues have recently arisen in relation to the working residents certificates and the decision by the British Government to grant British citizenship to Bermudians.

But Mr. Moniz says that Mrs. Blair is unlikely to supply the kind of controversy that she has courted in the past, saying: "She's the Prime Minister's wife - she's got to mind her `p's and q's'."