Janet Neel Cohen, Baroness Cohen of Pimlico (born 4 July 1940) is a British lawyer and crime fiction writer. She is the daughter of George Edric Neel and Mary Isabel Budge. She was educated at South Hampstead High School, Hampstead, London, England and graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge University in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Honours, Law.
She started to work as a practising solicitor in 1965. She married James Lionel Cohen, son of Dr. Richard Henry Lionel Cohen, on 18 December 1971. She was a Governor of the BBC between 1994 and 1999. She was created Baroness Cohen of Pimlico, in the City of Westminster (life peer), on 3 May 2000 and sits as a Labour peer in the House of Lords. She is also an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge.
As Janet Neel and Janet Cohen she is the author of crime fiction novels.
She is Chancellor at BPP University College
She was Cambridge Arts Theatre Chairman, Non-Executive Director at Group London Stock Exchange, Chairman and NED of BBP Group, Deputy Chairman at Yorkshire Building Society, Director at the Charter House Bank and Civil Servant at the Department of Trade and Industry.
She also was Non-Executive Director Defense Logistics (Ministry of Defence), BBC Governor and Member of Sheffield Development Corporation.
