Comments on: Ban sexual relationships between barristers and pupils, landmark report urges

By: Realist

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 07:30:42 +0000

In reply to Alex.

We’re talking about the Bar here, not Size 6 yoga instructors being picked up by bankers on Tinder.

How many pupil barristers trade on their looks to get a tenancy, and since when can a senior member of chambers make someone a KC??

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By: Associate

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 07:26:06 +0000

In reply to Urgh.

I volunteered at one law-based charity where a future pupil barrister genuinely asked a member of staff if he was being asked to work with a female student on a tribunal case because he was single.

It wasn’t. He was asked to offer back-up as their schizophrenic client had a past history of racist outbursts. He really thought the organisation was going to hand women to him for romantic purposes, and none of the staff questioned it.

I’m not sure if these types of people could exist outside of chambers in the world of HR departments and larger corporations.

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By: Alex

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 19:02:02 +0000

By: US Partner

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:11:09 +0000

In reply to Urgh.

Oh, how charming of you to suggest that the only way to get some valuable advocacy experience is by putting up with a bit of sexual harassment. Honestly, I’d have thought that was a bit of an overreach. Your analysis of the situation is rather unusual.

Frankly, I’m more bothered about whether the young ones can actually think critically than about their run-in with the odd perv.

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By: Justice Prevails

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 12:15:57 +0000

If it’s consensual, why should we care? A teacher can be in a relationship with his student, so long as it’s consensual. There is nothing wrong with that. See Macron as an example.

People are overthinking relationships and this wokery must stop right now.

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By: Anon

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 11:28:45 +0000

In reply to Bean Counter.

This isn’t the very first time sexual harassment has been reported as a widespread problem at the Bar.

What ulterior motive would so many barristers have to independently report sexual harassment across the profession and across different chambers over many years?

What about those too who report sexual harassment in the entertainment industry, medicine, professional sports, banking, parliament and at other places?

With so many people coming forward in so many different contexts, it points to sexual harassment being a real problem worth addressing.

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By: Urgh

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 09:40:14 +0000

It’s a real pity this report didn’t highlight how any woman working in a voluntary capacity to gain legal or advocacy experience doesn’t have the same protection from sexual harassment as an employee does. An employee can go to an employment tribunal and have a judge hear the facts of their complaint – a volunteer cannot.

I have read legal guides for students which stated that a pupillage application would not be taken seriously unless there was evidence of lots of voluntary advocacy experience on it. So many students are pressured to volunteer to build their legal CVs, and they have been sexually harassed by barristers abusing their position whilst trying to get into the profession.

The best a volunteer can do if someone senior refuses to act to stop the sexual harassment (perhaps out of the hope of not wanting to stop donations from the legal profession) is to approach the police and hope they have the time to deal with it.

There is literally one law for volunteers when it comes to sexual harassment, and another from employees.

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By: Bean Counter

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 09:28:37 +0000

There are no sensible data to support this stuff. The campaigners know that. That’s why they use self-reporting surveys and voluntary round tables to generate reports than are designed from the start to over-represent the problem.

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