The Bar Council has come out in support of a new barrister training programme involving a two-part Bar Professional Course run by the Inns of Court, which should be cheaper for aspiring barristers. 

The Bar Council has come out in support of criminal barristers’ protests for a properly funded criminal justice system, which include plans for strike action.

From 2016 the Bar Council will open the Pupillage Gateway in mid-January, with offers to be made at the beginning of May.

The Bar Council has requested an additional £55 million investment for HM Courts and Tribunals Service to address the increased demand on court staff due to covid-19, among three other short-term “recommendations”.

A statement posted on the Bar Council’s website highlights its support of trans, non-binary and gender-fluid individuals, and urges chambers to recognise that “some people are transgender and not everyone feels that their gender can be defined within the margins of gender binary.”

The Law Reform Committee of the Bar Council has announced the topic for its annual essay competition, sponsored by the Bar Council scholarship trust.

Both undergraduate and postgraduate students considering a career at the Bar are now able to get involved with the Bar Council, benefitting from a number of its services and helping to support its work on access to justice.

The Bar Council has revealed that women and Black employed barristers are most likely to have experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination at work.

The Bar Council has furloughed 20% of its staff and introduced cuts to spending in a bid to support the profession during the coronavirus crisis.

The Bar Council has warned that the government's plans to introduce competitive tendering for legal aid contracts and deny defendants the right to choose a lawyer will undermine the UK justice system's good reputation among the international community.

The Bar Council has revamped its online careers section to make it more useful for students and anyone else hoping to join the barristers’ profession.

Chambers have been issued new guidance by the Bar Council in a move to ensure that any sexual harassment complaints are dealt with properly.

One year after launching its Wellbeing at the Bar online resource, the Bar Council is introducing a certification system for chambers, inns of court and other organisations which adopt mental health and wellbeing policies. 

The Bar Council represents almost 18,000 barristers in England and Wales.

Social mobility advocates, a new group of barristers from across England and Wales, have joined the Bar Council’s award-winning social mobility campaign – #IAmTheBar.

Last week, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) welcomed the publication of the Bar Council’s Pupillage Gateway report.

The Bar Council has published its new guide on barristers’ shared parental leave, in which it urges chambers to do more than the bare minimum required to support tenants who become parents or carers. 

A report funded by the Bar Council has strongly criticised the trend of legal executive advocates and solicitor-advocates.

With people in the Midlands and the North of England in “dire need of early legal advice”, the Bar Council has called for the government to invest in local court systems ahead of today’s spending review.