In September as part of the Opening of the Legal Year, Bar and Law Society leaders from around the world convened in London to discuss the threats facing the global profession.
One of the Bar Council’s priorities this year has been to raise awareness and generate support for the safety and protection of lawyers. Sarah Kavanagh reports
In January 2025, the Bar Council marked the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer by highlighting that some barristers in England and Wales have face threats, harassment, and intimidation at the hands of state and non-state actors because of their international legal work.
Barristers told the Bar Council they had faced targeted attacks including cyber harassment, threatening or impersonating emails, repeated and sustained hacking attempts and ‘privilege phishing’ which seeks to persuade those who are targeted to divulge sensitive information. Barristers also said they had been subjected to physical surveillance including being followed or photographed at international events.
Barbara Mills KC, Chair of the Bar, said: ‘The Bar Council is supporting our members and colleagues abroad who face multiple attacks and threats. In 2025 we want to see a renewed emphasis placed on promoting the important role of independent legal practitioners and adherence to the rule of law.’
New safety convention
In May, the Council of Europe launched the European Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer aimed to provide enhanced safeguards for legal professionals carrying out their daily work. The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) had suggested the idea of a convention because they were able to identify multiple challenges such as lawyers being associated with their client or causes, lawyers in some jurisdictions being persecuted or disbarred, and the title of lawyer being increasingly used as a pejorative term.
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UK joint statement
In October, the Bar Council of England and Wales joined with the Law Society of England and Wales, the Law Society of Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates, the Bar of Northern Ireland and the Law Society of Northern Ireland to express grave concern about the climate of increasing hostility towards lawyers and judges in the UK. Our joint statement described politically motivated attacks on the legal profession as ‘irresponsible and dangerous’.
The statement made clear that barristers, solicitors and judges have been subjected to violence, death threats and rape threats. Some have faced threats to their family members, and law firms and offices have been repeatedly set upon by protestors.
The threats and impact
The Times newspaper has reported that some immigration judges are too ‘scared’ to work for fear of being targeted by either the press, politicians or angry members of the public.
In a blog in September, a patron of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) Elspeth Guild highlighted that immigration law practitioners have faced different waves of threats and attack. For example, in 2024 the police advised practitioners that were targeted to take specific actions to protect themselves, their staff, clients and premises. Lawyers had their neighbours come and help them board up office windows.
Guild also points out that such attacks have ‘become a new dimension of the troubled relationship between migration and racist violence’. She added: ‘Ours is not a field where practitioners are easily intimidated or cowed. One does not choose immigration, border controls and refugee protection law if one is seeking a simple, uncomplicated life… we undertake to protect the most vulnerable in our society from violence and abuse. As all practitioners know, those who are vulnerable make easy targets… Their defence is the measure by which our society is judged and is our obligation as legal practitioners.’
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Political comments
The Attorney General Lord Hermer told the Mirror: ‘In recent weeks and months, there has been a worrying trend of individually naming and attacking judges and lawyers.’ He suggested that the ‘toxic atmosphere’ was a risk to ongoing legal proceedings, hurt victims of crime and was making ‘good lawyers and judges’ reconsider their careers.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor David Lammy MP said: ‘I take very seriously my constitutional responsibility to uphold the independence of the judiciary and that is all of our judges.’
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https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/standing-up-for-lawyers
https://www.barcouncil.org.uk/resource/vilifying-lawyers-puts-them-at-risk.html
