2026 Winners

Aliya Rashid has served the Bar for 32 years, including 28 with the CPS and 20 as a Crown Advocate, in a career defined by exceptional advocacy and public service. 

She has prosecuted the most serious cases, including child sexual exploitation, organised crime and homicide.

Her work includes the Telford 9 grooming gang and the child murder of Daniel Pelka, for which she became the first CPS prosecutor to receive a ‘red’ bag, reflecting the gravity of her casework and trust in her.

Joining Forsters in September 2025 as Partner (Head of Children), Sarah has made an immediate and profound impact on the firm’s family practice. A Band 1 Chambers-ranked practitioner, Top Flight in Spears, and qualified Children Arbitrator and Mediator, she stands amongst the leading figures in children and modern family law. 

Sarah advises UHNW and high-profile individuals, as well as professional organisations and vulnerable pro bono clients on the most complex and sensitive children matters before the courts. Her practice spans international child abduction and relocation, surrogacy, adoption, donor conception, parentage disputes, safeguarding, domestic abuse and jurisdictional conflicts. 

Rhys Hopkins reached the employed Bar by an unusual route, serving for 10 years as a Royal Marine Officer before being called to the Bar in 2010 and pupillage at 2 Bedford Row.

In the 15 years since, he has practiced in three distinct legal fields: criminal law, international law as a uniformed legal adviser deployed on operations, and since 2021, technology law at Meta. This breadth of experience gives him a uniquely diverse perspective as an employed barrister, and makes him a uniquely persuasive leader.

The Family Rights Group’s legal team has played a pivotal role in the charity achieving its strategic goals and its reputation as a leading authority on child welfare law and policy. The team address a range of systemic injustices impacting children and families involved with the child welfare and family justice systems through legal work. 

Their recent work has included providing legal analysis and advice for the charity to influence the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Current work includes a major legal aid reform proposal to improve access to legal advice and justice for kinship carers.

Wing Commander Emma Duckett (Royal Air Force Legal Officer) has excelled in the delivery of operational legal advice in her role as legal adviser to both the UK’s Standing Joint Force Headquarters (SJFHQ) and Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) over a geopolitically turbulent period which saw increased instability and crisis in the Middle East and continuing conflict in Europe. 

Emma has served as the sole SJFHQ Legal Adviser since July 2024 and assumed further responsibilities for providing legal support to operations in the Middle East as part of the PJHQ Legal team in August 2025.