Paying tribute to Timothy, Chair of the Bar Council Barbara Mills KC said:
“The Bar Council is greatly saddened by the death of our former Chair Timothy Dutton CBE KC.
“Timothy was Chair of the Bar in 2008. It was a time of enormous change at the Bar Council, and he was the perfect person to steer the Bar through that change. Later on, his regulatory knowledge and expertise helped to guide the Bar Council through some complicated governance matters. We echo the words of his chambers, Fountain Court, when they speak of his warmth and his support for juniors.
“He leaves a great legacy to the Bar in advocacy training and we are immensely grateful to him for the time and energy he put into the Bar through the many leadership roles he held. Our thoughts are with his wife Sappho, his daughter Pia, and all his friends and family.”
In her opening speech at Bar Conference 2025 on 7 June, Barbara said:
"On Thursday, I received the news that Tim Dutton KC CBE had passed away after a long fight with MND. Tim was the best of us and among the myriad of achievements in a long and stellar career, he was Chair of the Bar in 2008. Before that he was the Leader of the South Eastern Circuit where he set up the Keble Advanced Advocacy Course, now recognised as the best in the world.
"I didn’t know Tim well but those that did describe him as funny, clever, informative, engaging - all the things we all aim for in advocacy but very few achieve anywhere near as well as he did - and he did it effortlessly. He was a brilliant man but never let his remarkable intellect show. He went in to fight for the profession with government - with the criminal and publicly funded bar at the forefront of his concerns. It is difficult to narrow down the greatest talents of a man who was greater than the sum of those talents, but his integrity, kindness and humility are among the most profound of the qualities he held. The Bar mourns his passing."
Read the obituary of Timothy Dutton CBE KC on the Fountain Court website.