IPOS Mediator Barbara Mills KC elected vice-chair of the Bar for 2024

IPOS are proud to see that IPOS mediator, Barbara Mills KC has been elected vice-chair of the Bar for 2024, succeeding Sam Townsend KC of Keating Chambers. Barbara will become Chair in 2025.

She will be the first family lawyer in 35 years to take on the role and the first person of colour to assume the position. She was appointed as a deputy High Court judge earlier this year.

Barbara is a member of the Bar Council’s Equality, Diversity and Social Mobility (EDSM) Committee and is Co-Chair of the Bar Council’s Race Working Group, which published the landmark Race at the Bar report in 2020.

Mills said: “When Baroness Hallett became the first woman to chair the Bar Council in 1998, I was inspired and uplifted, but it seemed like a hopeless dream for me. So, I am deeply honoured and humbled to have been elected as the next vice chair.”

Barbara’s goal is to raise the profile of the publicly funded family Bar and, in her own words, “to continue the vitally important work on equality, diversity and inclusion at the Bar”.

Barbara also said: “Since we published the Race at the Bar Report, we have seen some progress, but there is so much more to be done across race, gender, disability and social mobility where the scales require rebalancing.”

Many well-deserved congratulations to Barbara and we look forward to seeing her excellent work continue in her new role.