About the progamme
The programme provides an opportunity for barristers to consider the role they can play within their practice areas, chambers, the Bar and wider legal profession, as well as in society in general to create a positive and inclusive culture.
Barristers must reflect the society they serve, and they must be trusted by the public. Barristers have a key role to play – individually and collectively – in shaping, defining and strengthening a culture of inclusion. Creating such a culture requires leadership and a shared sense of purpose. The Bar Council Leadership Programme helps to achieve that for individuals and the Bar in general.
"This initiative enables those with potential to benefit from an organised, enjoyable and challenging personal and professional development programme. The select group of barristers will not only learn to fulfil their personal potential, but to spread what they have learned and the skills and attitudes they have acquired to other practitioners. They will be instrumental in driving forward a positive, open and inclusive culture across the Bar.
Given the extraordinary events that have taken place this year, in 2020 the Bar Council has decided to introduce the programme entirely online and entirely for free."
Amanda Pinto KC, former Chair of the Bar
We are proud to partner with Deeds and Words on the Bar Council Leadership Programme. Deeds and Words work with a range of clients to bring positive, sustainable change. Caroline and Ruth co-founded Deeds and Words in 2019 and bring with them 20 years’ of experience working with organisations and social movements.
In this inaugural and extraordinary year, the Bar Council is pleased to be able to introduce the programme entirely online. We also recognise that it has been a very difficult year for barristers and that those from minority backgrounds will likely have been more adversely impacted by the pandemic – financially and practically. We are therefore pleased to announce that for this first year only the Bar Council Leadership Programme will be completely free of charge to successful applicants.
The programme itself
The Leadership programme is an eight-month personal and professional development opportunity enabling a select group of barristers to fulfil their potential and to play an active role in building a positive and inclusive culture at and across the Bar, for themselves and everyone around them.
The programme starts with an introductory webinar (stage 1), is followed by 15 hours of modular content and discussion, delivered online over the period of two months, supported by action learning sets and reflection in trios between modules (stage 2).
This is followed by monthly action learning sets and reflection in trios, over four months, where you will work with your learning set to design and implement a project aimed at increasing inclusion at the Bar (stage 3). The programme ends with a celebration event online (stage 4).
In order for the Leadership programme to work for everyone, successful candidates must be able to make all the dates of the programme. Please only apply if you can commit to all four stages of the programme. All elements of the programme will take place online.
There are three ways you’ll work with others during the programme:
- a series of online webinars with the whole cohort of delegates
- learning sets of up to nine people drawn from across the cohort
- trios of people from the whole cohort but not part of your learning set.
We will ask you at the outset to add these dates to your diary and treat them as commitments to ensure that you can attend every webinar and learning set. We’ll ask you to arrange meetings with your fellow trio members throughout the programme.
We’ll be using Microsoft Teams to deliver the programme. Delegates will need to download and familiarise themselves with the Teams app in advance of the programme. You will need access to a desktop, laptop or tablet in a private space to access Teams. If you’re accepted onto the programme and think you might need additional IT support, please let us know and we can help get you set up.
The programme and application form is based on reflective practice. It encourages you to consider your personal journey and to help us understand what you would personally bring to the programme. Places on this programme are decided by a competitive sift process and places are allocated to ensure a diverse group of delegates are selected.
Places are open to barristers who have between seven and 15 years of legal practice. Please note that this is intended as a guide as to approximate career stage and level of experience, but we anticipate exceptions to this and applications will be considered outside of the years specified. We will ensure that the 36 delegates reflect:
- A mix of practice areas
- Geographical diversity.
And diversity across the range of:
- Socio-economic backgrounds
- Race
- Faith and beliefs
- Ages
- Disability status
- Neurodivergence
- Mental health status
- Caring responsibilities
- Gender and gender identities
- Sexual orientation.
Please therefore ensure that you reflect the diversity of experience that you have in your answers. Please note that the diversity form at the end of the application form will be anonymised and used for monitoring purposes only.
Before you complete the form, please consider and reflect on the criteria we will be taking into account when selecting the highest scoring applications:
- An interest in exploring the relevance of identity on our lives and work
- An interest in exploring how to create a positive inclusive culture at the Bar and why that is important to the Bar, the whole legal profession and society more broadly
- An interest in working with others, including senior leaders from the legal system, and in building a sustainable network for the next six months and beyond
- An interest in being a leader who enables others to be their best
- Reflection on what you would like to change in your chambers or practice area(s) for yourself and others
- Clarity about what knowledge, skills, experience (including lived experience) and interests from your life and work, you will bring to the group
- Reflection on how identity has had an impact on your life and work up to this point in your life (this may have been both positive and negative)
- A wide diversity of knowledge, skills, experience and interests in the group as a whole, to bring as many perspectives as possible into the discussions.