header-logo header-logo

Next Bar Council vice chair appointed

21 May 2025
Issue: 8117 / Categories: Legal News , Profession
printer mail-detail
Crown Prosecution Service silk Heidi Stonecliffe KC has been elected as the next Bar Council vice chair

Stonecliffe will be the first employed barrister to take up the post in the Bar Council’s 132-year history. She was called to the Bar in 1996, took silk in 2020, and specialises in complex multi-defendant organised crime and homicide trials.

Last year, she chaired the Bar Council’s employed barristers’ committee. She has a particular interest in barrister wellbeing and supporting the next generation at the Bar.

Stonecliffe said: ‘At a critical time in the Bar’s history, I will continue the vital work already ongoing to resist attacks on the right to trial by jury and the ability of all members of society to access justice where it is needed, particularly amongst the most vulnerable.’

She will take office in January 2026 alongside chair Kirsty Brimelow KC, Doughty Street, and treasurer Lucinda Orr, partner at Enyo Law.

Issue: 8117 / Categories: Legal News , Profession
printer mail-details

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll