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Practice at the commercial Bar can be a highly rewarding career. However, as with certain other practice areas, inequalities remain.
By way of illustration, in 2024 female silks who are members of the Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR) and at COMBAR sets earned on average 17% less than their male colleagues. Nor is income disparity confined to silk level: in 2024, female barristers in COMBAR sets in the 0-3 PQE (years post qualification experience) band earned on average 24% less than their male counterparts (see Bar Council/COMBAR Report on Gross Earnings by Sex). The reasons for income disparity are multifactorial and it is only one metric by which differences in career progression can be measured. Nonetheless, addressing these and related issues requires a comprehensive approach to equal opportunity and progression.
COMBAR is strongly committed to equality of opportunity for all at the commercial Bar, and to finding practical and effective solutions to tackle any barriers to it. Published in November 2025, COMBAR’s Best Practice Guidance for Chambers (‘BPG’) is an important part of this commitment.
The BPG’s ultimate aim is to ensure that all barristers, regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, disability or other protected characteristics can reach their professional potential and that they can do so from a level playing field. It contains guidance for fair allocation of work, earnings monitoring and reporting, parental leave, and retention and progression. Importantly, it also includes a model fair work allocation policy and a model parental leave policy.
These are intended to provide practical and effective support for COMBAR member sets to achieve a standard of excellence in equality of opportunity that reflects the high professional standing of the commercial Bar. The BPG acknowledges that chambers have differing financial and management structures, such that there is no ‘one size fits all’ response to the issues addressed. It will therefore be up to individual chambers to decide how to tailor the BPG to their individual resources and characteristics. The BPG is also intended to complement (and not replace) relevant requirements and guidance from the Bar Council and Bar Standards Board.
Work allocation refers to the distribution of work that has not been previously allocated to a named barrister by the lay or professional client. Importantly, this not only includes instructions received by the clerking team for allocation to any available member of chambers, but also cases where a member of chambers has the opportunity to assemble a team for a particular case.
The BPG recommends that chambers implement an effective written fair work allocation policy, including: (i) a procedure to ensure that where chambers has a role in work allocation, all members are considered for instructions on an equal opportunity basis, without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, disability or other protected characteristics; and (ii) procedures for recording and reporting on work allocation.
In particular, the BPG emphasises that chambers should ‘be alert to the risk of unconscious bias or affinity bias – the tendency to favour individuals who are similar in background or outlook – and take steps to mitigate its effects’.
A model fair work allocation policy is included at Annex A to the BPG. As indicated above, it defines ‘unallocated work’ as including both led and unled work and sets out certain basic requirements intended to provide a practical framework for work allocation procedures, with appropriate monitoring by the clerking team and a work allocation committee. It aims to ensure that any disparities in opportunity can be identified and appropriately addressed.
It is, of course, recognised that individual chambers may wish to have policies which go beyond these basic requirements. To give one example, at a seminar held by COMBAR to launch the BPG in November 2025, certain chambers spoke of having mandated all opportunities for unallocated work, including led work within chambers, to be allocated through the clerking team. This avoids the situation whereby certain silks repeatedly lead their ‘junior of choice’, to the exclusion of a wider pool of juniors within chambers.
In addition to fair work allocation, the BPG encourages chambers to ensure regular practice reviews which cover discussion of barristers’ immediate and longer-term ambitions. Such practice reviews should include the quality and quantity of work obtained; advocacy opportunities, including cross-examination of witnesses; the balance of led and unled work; earnings; the variety of types of work or practice areas; and support for applications for silk or judicial appointments.
The BPG recommends that chambers implement an effective written parental leave policy which is to be reviewed annually. A model parental leave policy is included at Annex B to the BPG. The policy applies to all barristers who become parents through pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy.
The BPG emphasises, in particular, the importance of financial relief during parental leave to alleviate pressure on barristers to return to practice earlier than they would otherwise wish within any 12-month period of parental leave, and to seek to ensure that chambers’ financial requirements are structured in such a way as to facilitate barristers returning to practice following leave, rather than leaving the profession.
Given the diverse financial models operated by individual chambers, the BPG does not propose a blanket policy. It instead recommends that during the period of leave, a barrister should be entitled to up to 12 months of appropriate relief which, at a minimum, reflects the Bar Council Maternity and Parental Leave Guidance.
The BPG also emphasises the specific support which women may need. It encourages chambers to offer appropriate adjustments and support for pregnancy-related health issues. Fertility treatment, miscarriage (at any stage), stillbirth and related experiences can have a profound physical and emotional impact. The BPG specifically recognises the impact of these events and recommends that chambers should provide appropriate support, sensitively and in confidence, to barristers affected.
Finally, the BPG sets out a practical framework for pre-leave planning and post-leave return, and makes detailed provision for the active planning and management of a barrister’s return to practice.
The BPG recommends that chambers implement systems to monitor and report on gross earnings at all levels of seniority by reference to sex, race, ethnicity and disability (so far as those characteristics are known by chambers), using the Bar Council Earnings Monitoring Toolkit.
Chambers are encouraged to implement a procedure whereby any significant earnings discrepancies are discussed with the relevant member. The BPG includes suggestions for information which may be provided to members to enable them to assess their earnings relative to others within their call or PQE band, while taking into account the fact that many chambers do not have earnings transparency. The process should enable any member to discuss the possible causes for any earnings discrepancy, as well as appropriate remedial action.
COMBAR is committed to ensuring the BPG is part of a wider programme to effect tangible change. As part of this, a series of events is being held to improve female recruitment, retention and progression at the commercial Bar. Such events range from pupillage seminars targeted at female candidates, to a series of ‘speed networking events’ between female COMBAR members and leading solicitors practising in commercial and corporate litigation. COMBAR welcomes engagement from all chambers on these and any other similar initiatives.
COMBAR’s Best Practice Guidance is available on its website at tinyurl.com/yc4c8hh3.
Bar Council/COMBAR Report on Gross Earnings by Sex
COMBAR Best Practice Guidance for Chambers
Anna Boase KC practises as a commercial barrister and international arbitrator at One Essex Court. Anna is an Officer of COMBAR and chairs its Equality and Diversity Committee.
Georgina Peters practises at South Square in insolvency/restructuring, banking/finance, company law and commercial litigation. She has been a member of COMBAR’s Executive Committee, and currently chairs its Gender Equality Sub-Committee.
Jessica Sutherland of 7KBW has a wide-ranging commercial practice. She was ‘Insurance Junior of the Year’ at the 2025 Chambers UK Bar Awards. Jessica is a member of COMBAR’s Gender Equality Sub-Committee.
Practice at the commercial Bar can be a highly rewarding career. However, as with certain other practice areas, inequalities remain.
By way of illustration, in 2024 female silks who are members of the Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR) and at COMBAR sets earned on average 17% less than their male colleagues. Nor is income disparity confined to silk level: in 2024, female barristers in COMBAR sets in the 0-3 PQE (years post qualification experience) band earned on average 24% less than their male counterparts (see Bar Council/COMBAR Report on Gross Earnings by Sex). The reasons for income disparity are multifactorial and it is only one metric by which differences in career progression can be measured. Nonetheless, addressing these and related issues requires a comprehensive approach to equal opportunity and progression.
COMBAR is strongly committed to equality of opportunity for all at the commercial Bar, and to finding practical and effective solutions to tackle any barriers to it. Published in November 2025, COMBAR’s Best Practice Guidance for Chambers (‘BPG’) is an important part of this commitment.
The BPG’s ultimate aim is to ensure that all barristers, regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, disability or other protected characteristics can reach their professional potential and that they can do so from a level playing field. It contains guidance for fair allocation of work, earnings monitoring and reporting, parental leave, and retention and progression. Importantly, it also includes a model fair work allocation policy and a model parental leave policy.
These are intended to provide practical and effective support for COMBAR member sets to achieve a standard of excellence in equality of opportunity that reflects the high professional standing of the commercial Bar. The BPG acknowledges that chambers have differing financial and management structures, such that there is no ‘one size fits all’ response to the issues addressed. It will therefore be up to individual chambers to decide how to tailor the BPG to their individual resources and characteristics. The BPG is also intended to complement (and not replace) relevant requirements and guidance from the Bar Council and Bar Standards Board.
Work allocation refers to the distribution of work that has not been previously allocated to a named barrister by the lay or professional client. Importantly, this not only includes instructions received by the clerking team for allocation to any available member of chambers, but also cases where a member of chambers has the opportunity to assemble a team for a particular case.
The BPG recommends that chambers implement an effective written fair work allocation policy, including: (i) a procedure to ensure that where chambers has a role in work allocation, all members are considered for instructions on an equal opportunity basis, without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, disability or other protected characteristics; and (ii) procedures for recording and reporting on work allocation.
In particular, the BPG emphasises that chambers should ‘be alert to the risk of unconscious bias or affinity bias – the tendency to favour individuals who are similar in background or outlook – and take steps to mitigate its effects’.
A model fair work allocation policy is included at Annex A to the BPG. As indicated above, it defines ‘unallocated work’ as including both led and unled work and sets out certain basic requirements intended to provide a practical framework for work allocation procedures, with appropriate monitoring by the clerking team and a work allocation committee. It aims to ensure that any disparities in opportunity can be identified and appropriately addressed.
It is, of course, recognised that individual chambers may wish to have policies which go beyond these basic requirements. To give one example, at a seminar held by COMBAR to launch the BPG in November 2025, certain chambers spoke of having mandated all opportunities for unallocated work, including led work within chambers, to be allocated through the clerking team. This avoids the situation whereby certain silks repeatedly lead their ‘junior of choice’, to the exclusion of a wider pool of juniors within chambers.
In addition to fair work allocation, the BPG encourages chambers to ensure regular practice reviews which cover discussion of barristers’ immediate and longer-term ambitions. Such practice reviews should include the quality and quantity of work obtained; advocacy opportunities, including cross-examination of witnesses; the balance of led and unled work; earnings; the variety of types of work or practice areas; and support for applications for silk or judicial appointments.
The BPG recommends that chambers implement an effective written parental leave policy which is to be reviewed annually. A model parental leave policy is included at Annex B to the BPG. The policy applies to all barristers who become parents through pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy.
The BPG emphasises, in particular, the importance of financial relief during parental leave to alleviate pressure on barristers to return to practice earlier than they would otherwise wish within any 12-month period of parental leave, and to seek to ensure that chambers’ financial requirements are structured in such a way as to facilitate barristers returning to practice following leave, rather than leaving the profession.
Given the diverse financial models operated by individual chambers, the BPG does not propose a blanket policy. It instead recommends that during the period of leave, a barrister should be entitled to up to 12 months of appropriate relief which, at a minimum, reflects the Bar Council Maternity and Parental Leave Guidance.
The BPG also emphasises the specific support which women may need. It encourages chambers to offer appropriate adjustments and support for pregnancy-related health issues. Fertility treatment, miscarriage (at any stage), stillbirth and related experiences can have a profound physical and emotional impact. The BPG specifically recognises the impact of these events and recommends that chambers should provide appropriate support, sensitively and in confidence, to barristers affected.
Finally, the BPG sets out a practical framework for pre-leave planning and post-leave return, and makes detailed provision for the active planning and management of a barrister’s return to practice.
The BPG recommends that chambers implement systems to monitor and report on gross earnings at all levels of seniority by reference to sex, race, ethnicity and disability (so far as those characteristics are known by chambers), using the Bar Council Earnings Monitoring Toolkit.
Chambers are encouraged to implement a procedure whereby any significant earnings discrepancies are discussed with the relevant member. The BPG includes suggestions for information which may be provided to members to enable them to assess their earnings relative to others within their call or PQE band, while taking into account the fact that many chambers do not have earnings transparency. The process should enable any member to discuss the possible causes for any earnings discrepancy, as well as appropriate remedial action.
COMBAR is committed to ensuring the BPG is part of a wider programme to effect tangible change. As part of this, a series of events is being held to improve female recruitment, retention and progression at the commercial Bar. Such events range from pupillage seminars targeted at female candidates, to a series of ‘speed networking events’ between female COMBAR members and leading solicitors practising in commercial and corporate litigation. COMBAR welcomes engagement from all chambers on these and any other similar initiatives.
COMBAR’s Best Practice Guidance is available on its website at tinyurl.com/yc4c8hh3.
Bar Council/COMBAR Report on Gross Earnings by Sex
COMBAR Best Practice Guidance for Chambers
Far-ranging month for the Chair of the Bar
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Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs
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In this wide-ranging interview, Professor Jo Delahunty KC, Family Law KC of the Year, talks to Anthony Inglese CB about the values that shaped her, the moment she found her vocation and, in an intensely personal call to arms, why time is running out for the legal aid Bar
Is the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office process fit for purpose? Women barristers’ experiences of bullying are not being reported or, if they are, they are not making it through the system, says Tana Adkin KC
Thomas Roe KC and Andrew O’Kola respond to an article by Dr Leonardo Raznovich (Counsel , October 2025) – ‘Privy Council colonialism? Piercing the constitutional veil’
Chair of the Bar reports back
The client’s best interests could be well-served by sharing the advocacy with junior counsel more often than you might think – Naomi Cunningham and Charlotte Eves explore some less orthodox ways to divide the speaking role
