New Bar Council Chair Barbara Mills KC sets out 2025 priorities
updated on 15 January 2025
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In her inaugural address at Inner Temple Hall last week, the new chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales Barbara Mills KC set out her priorities for the year ahead, including raising the family Bar's profile and enhancing the profession's wellbeing.
Mills became the first specialist family practitioner in the role since Sir Robert Johnson in 1988, and the first person of colour to lead the Bar. As part of her address, she called for greater investment in family justice, urging the government to “fund the family courts and end the horrific roll call of violence against women”, and set out why the government must look to family law to meet its target of halving violence against women and girls (VAWG).
She said: “Lack of access to legal advice, whether through legal aid or otherwise, has swollen to the point at which, at times, neither party is represented in as many as 40% of family dispute cases… This results in serious dis-function in our justice system – cost, delay, injustice, fear, uncertainty and lives put on hold are the bitter fruits of under-investment.”
While the case for investment in both the civil and criminal courts continues to be made, “we are waiting to see what funds will be made available to family justice this year,” Mills explained.
She urged the government to provide a clear definition of VAWG to encompass “all forms of violence and harmful practices specifically aimed at women and girls” and said “the family courts are ideally placed to tackle VAWG – but they will need effective and sustained investment”.
Given the “intense and highly pressured” nature of work at the Bar, Mills also wants to “build on the fantastic work that the Bar has done in relation to wellbeing over the last 10 years”. Mills will work alongside Charlotte May KC, who’s agreed to chair a working group to explore and pilot some options.
In addition to working on the family courts and wellbeing, Mills highlighted the need to focus on equality, diversity and inclusion with a focus on the findings from the Bar’s recent wellbeing report on bullying and harassment, the Young Bar and the disparity in earnings, and the employed Bar. She also reiterated the need for urgent investment in the entire justice system, while thanking Advocate and the Free Representation Unit “for the work they do”.
