The General Council of the Bar, commonly known as the Bar Council, is the representative body for

barristers in England and Wales Barristers in England and Wales are one of the two main categories of lawyer in England and Wales, the other being solicitors. Barristers have traditionally had the role of handling cases for representation in court, both defence and prosecutio ...

. Established in 1894, the Bar Council is the 'approved regulator' of barristers, but discharges its regulatory function to the independent

Bar Standards Board The Bar Standards Board regulates barristers in England and Wales for the public interest. It is responsible for: * Setting standards of conduct for barristers and authorising barristers to practise; * Monitoring the service provided by barrist ...

. As the lead representative body for barristers in England and Wales, the Bar Council’s work is devoted to ensuring the Bar’s voice is heard, efficiently and effectively, and with the interests of the Bar (and the public interest) as its focus.

History

The General Council of the Bar was created in 1894 to deal with breaches of a barrister's professional etiquette, something that had previously been handled by the judiciary. Along with the

Inns of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They have ...

it formed the Senate of the Inns of Court and the Bar in 1974, a union that was broken up on 1 January 1987 following a report by Lord Rawlinson. The

Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 The Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 (c. 41) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the legal profession and courts of England and Wales. The Act was the culmination of a series of reports and reforms that started with ...

designated the Bar Council as the professional body for barristers, with the role as a regulatory body being split off in 2006 to form the

List of chairs

* ?–1899: Herbert Cozens-Hardy *1899–?: Joseph Walton *1913–18: Sir Paul Ogden Lawrence *1918–20: John Alderson Foote *1920–31: Sir Thomas Hughes * 1931–32: E. A. Mitchell-Innes *1932–46: Sir Herbert Cunliffe *1946–?: Sir Charles Doughty *1946–48: G. O. Slade *1948–52: Sir Godfrey Russell Vick * 1952–57: Sir Hartley Shawcross * 1957–58:

Milner Holland Sir Edward Milner Holland (8 September 1902 – 2 November 1969) was a British lawyer. He served as the Attorney-General of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1951 to 1969. Holland was born in Sutton, Surrey, the second son of the publisher Sir Edward ...

* 1958–60: Gerald Gardiner * 1960–62: Geoffrey Lawrence * 1962–63: Sir Milner Holland *1963–66: Joseph Molony *1966–68: The Hon. H. A. P. Fisher * 1968–70: Desmond Ackner * 1970–72: John Arnold * 1973–74: James Comyn *1974–75: Patrick Neill *1975–76: Sir Peter Rawlinson * 1985–86: Robert Alexander *1987: Peter Scott *1988: Robert Johnson *1989:

Desmond Fennell Desmond Carolan Fennell (29 June 1929 – 16 July 2021) was an Irish writer, essayist, cultural philosopher and linguist. Throughout his career, Fennell repeatedly departed from prevailing norms. In the 1950s and early 1960s, with his extensiv ...

*1990:

Peter Cresswell Peter Cresswell FRS is a British immunologist, and Eugene Higgins Professor of Immunobiology and Professor of Cell Biology and of Dermatology, at Yale School of Medicine. His lab primary focuses on the molecular mechanisms of antigen processing ...

*1991: Anthony Scrivener QC *1992: The Lord Williams of Mostyn *1993: John Rowe *1994: Robert Seabrook * 1995: Peter Goldsmith *1996:

David Penry-Davey Sir David Herbert Penry-Davey (16 May 1942 – 10 October 2015) was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales. He was educated at Hastings Grammar School and at King's College London (LLB, 1964). He was called to the Bar at Inner Temple in ...

*1997: Robert Owen * 1998: Heather Hallett * 1999 – Daniel Brennan * 2000 – Jonathan Hirst * 2001 – Roy Amlot * 2002 – David Bean * 2003 – Matthias Kelly * 2004 – Stephen Irwin * 2005 – Guy Mansfield * 2006 – Stephen Hockman * 2007 –

Geoffrey Vos Sir Geoffrey Charles Vos (born 22 April 1955) is a British judge. Since January 2021, he has held the position of Master of the Rolls, the head of civil justice in the court system of England and Wales. Early life Vos was born on 22 April 1955 ...

* 2008 – Timothy Dutton * 2009 – Desmond Browne * 2010 – Nicholas Green * 2011 – Peter Lodder * 2012 – Michael Todd * 2013 –

Maura McGowan Dame Maura Patricia McGowan Order of the British Empire, DBE (born 27 January 1957), styled The Hon. Mrs Justice McGowan, is a High Court judge (England and Wales), judge of the High Court of England and Wales. Personal life and education She ...

* 2014 – Nicholas Lavender * 2015 –

Alistair MacDonald Alistair Huistean Macdonald (18 May 1925 – 6 February 1999) was a British Labour Party politician. Macdonald was educated at Dulwich College, Enfield Technical College and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was a bank clerk and area trea ...

* 2016 – Chantal-Aimée Doerries * 2017 – Andrew Langdon *2018 – Andrew Walker *2019 - Richard Atkins QC *2020 – Amanda Pinto QC *2021 - Derek Sweeting QC *2022 - Mark Fenhalls QC

References

External links

Official website
{{Law firms of the United Kingdom 1894 establishments in the United Kingdom Bar of England and Wales Organizations established in 1894 Regulators of barristers and advocates Legal regulators of the United Kingdom Law enforcement in Wales