Mills: Rapturous welcome
Having a coach to support wellbeing should be part of everyday practice at the Bar like having an accountant and insurance, the new chair of the Bar said last night as she launched a new working group to promote the idea.
Barbara Mills KC also cautioned the Bar Standards Board (BSB) against using its proposed new core duty on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) as “the vehicle to attempt to change our culture”.
Ms Mills was given a rapturous welcome at Inner Temple Hall last night when she stepped up to give her inaugural address as chair of the Bar. She is the first Black person to hold the post, the fifth woman and the first family practitioner since 1988.
Kirsty Brimelow KC is vice-chair and Lucinda Orr – a partner at City firm Enyo Law – the treasurer. They make up the first all-female line-up of office-holders in the Bar Council’s 131-year history.
Ms Mills identified three personal priorities for her year. First, she wanted “to raise the profile of family law and to help the government in its mission to halve violence against women and girls”.
On the latter, she called for specialised domestic abuse and child abuse support and assessment services, “trauma-informed measures such as installing screens in all court buildings and providing trauma-awareness training for Cafcass officers and case progression officers”, and the rollout of the Pathfinder courts which have been piloted in Wales, Bournemouth and Birmingham.
Secondly, she wanted “to pass on the benefits of respecting our wellbeing enough to make it a skill and a core part of effective practice management as a barrister”.
She said she wanted to explore ways to offer barristers coaching or some kind of supervision that provided the barrister “with the opportunity to have regular confidential check ins with a professional”.
Whilst much was now said about wellbeing – unlike in the past – “the emphasis remains centred around crisis management,” she explained.
“What I would like to see in the profession is wellbeing losing its stigma as a sign of weakness and elevated to the same non-negotiable level as having an accountant or having insurance.
“I do not doubt that there is considerable interest in this idea of proactive coaching across the Bar. The benefits can be transformative.
“My intention is not to reinvent the wheel but to build on the fantastic work that the Bar has done in relation to wellbeing over the last 10 years.”
Ms Mills said Charlotte May KC, a member of the Bar Council’s wellbeing committee, has agreed to chair a working group to explore and pilot some of the options.
Her third priority was to make further strides in the pursuit of EDI, which she said needed “focus on the three As – greater awareness, acceptance and action”.
Awareness and acceptance would be achieved by greater dialogue and Ms Mills identified the need to talk to the BSB over its plan to replace core duty 8 – not to discriminate – with a more proactive duty to advance and promote equality, diversity, and inclusion.
“While I do understand why the BSB wants to see faster progress, I do not believe their new proposals will achieve the intended aim… We are concerned about the BSB’s intention to use the code of conduct which is designed to set a minimum professional standard which protects people when we represent them, as the vehicle to attempt to change our culture.
“Secondly, we are concerned that the framing of the proposed core duty, to impose a duty to deliver a more diverse profession, is unlawful and misguided.
“We are concerned that the proposed regulations may hinder progress in this area given what we believe to be ambiguity and potential ineffectiveness of the regulations as proposed.”
Ms Mills recognised that not all barristers would agree with her on EDI and said her door was open to those willing to have a “respectful dialogue backed by evidence”.
“Please don’t sit behind your screen and only put your thoughts on social media. This issue is too important and nuanced. Come and talk to me.”
When it came to action, Baroness Harman’s review of bullying and harassment at the Bar will report this year, while Ms Mills said “addressing earnings disparities must be at the top of our agenda, especially at the junior end of the profession”.
Appointing barristers from underrepresented groups without supporting them to earn as much as their male/white counterparts “is discriminatory”, she said.
“Experience shows advancements in numbers does not ensure better retention, progression, cultural change, or income equality. A focus on earnings highlights inequality in access to work that affects our opportunity to progress.”
She pledged to ensure young barristers were informed about Bar Council resources, such as its new practitioners earnings gap report and toolkits for meaningful practice reviews.
Ms Mills added that career progression had been highlighted to her as a key challenge for the employed Bar.
“There is a feeling among some employed barristers, particularly in the public sector, that their skills and experiences are underutilised, so exploring how we encourage employed barristers to make full use of their skillsets should be a priority.
“Similarly, at the more experienced end of the employed Bar, there is the issue of how seniority is defined, when KC applications are so heavily focussed on advocacy, which some very senior members of the employed Bar may not exercise.”
Leave a Comment