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).