Bar Council elections 2025

2025 Elections 

The Bar Council is the professional body for all practising barristers in England and Wales, representing around 18,000 members.

Its membership is made up of approximately 115 practising barristers who are elected or who represent the Inns, circuits and other interest groups from across the Bar. The Council is established by the Constitution of the General Council of the Bar. The role of Bar Council members is to represent their 'constituency' by collating and relaying their views at Bar Council meetings and/or disseminating relevant non-confidential Bar Council information to them. 

See the full list of 2025’s candidates in their categories below. 

Where categories received fewer nominations than vacancies, the nominated candidates are duly elected and the unfilled vacancies will be advertised as casual roles on our website from 1 November. These casual roles will be in post for one year and are voted for by members of the Council.

How to vote

Voting is open until 10am Friday 18 October 2024. 

Your vote will decide who will represent you and your area of practice in 2025.

You can cast your vote(s) by logging into MyBar.  You can view each candidate’s statement alongside their name. 

The election will be conducted by single transferable vote and the results of the election will be announced by listing successful candidates in the order of voter preference.

Eligibility for voting  

To be eligible to vote in the subscriber representative elections, you must: 

  • Be a self-employed barrister, employed barrister or dual practitioner on the day of voting  

  • Have been issued with a practising certificate for 2024 to 2025   

Categories

You can vote for representatives in three categories:

  • Self-employed junior counsel over 7 years in practice
  • Employed KC and junior counsel over 7 years in practice
  • Employed junior counsel under 7 years in practice

Candidates

Self-employed junior counsel over 7 years in practice (7 full-term vacancies)
  • Abigail Bright
  • Cleon Catsambis
  • Thomas Chacko
  • Sarah Gaunt
  • Michael Harwood
  • Shazia Mariam Akhtar
  • Katrina Mather
  • Martyn McLeish
  • Kakoly Pande
  • Andrew Parsons
  • Leanne Targett-Parker
Employed junior counsel over 7 years in practice or KC (3 full-term vacancies)
  • Ben Bentley
  • Michael Jones KC
  • Lorinda Long
  • Hannah Smith
  • Helen Tung
  • Sarah Williams
Employed junior counsel under 7 years in practice (2 full-term vacancies)
  • Sam Kharabanda Groom
  • Jordan Pratt
  • Aimee Stokes
  • Alexandra Sutton
Self-employed junior counsel under 7 years in practice (4 full-term vacancies)

Three candidates were nominated out of four vacancies. These three candidates are duly elected:

  • Yaa Dankwa Ampadu-Sackey
  • Matthew Keliris-Thomas
  • Harry Stratton

The additional vacancy will be listed as a casual role seeking applicants from 1 November.

Self-employed King's Counsel (2 full-term vacancies)

There were no nominations in this category. These two vacancies will be listed as casual roles seeking applicants from 1 November.

Please email any queries to Isi Onwukwe-Anyadike, Governance and Committees Manager.

Vote in MyBar