Women’s rights barrister faces suspension for accusing judge of ‘boys’ club’ attitude

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Greater than 60 legal professionals, campaigners, politicians and teachers are backing a ladies’s rights lawyer who faces suspension after difficult a choose for having “a boys’ membership” perspective in a ruling on a home abuse case.

Charlotte Proudman, a household legislation lawyer who specialises in violence in opposition to ladies, vented on social media that Sir Jonathan Cohen downplayed home abuse to which her shopper claimed she had been subjected by her ex-husband.

She was angered by the choose referring to their relationship as “tempestuous” and his use of the phrase “reckless” to explain the alleged home violence.

The 35-year-old lawyer is now being investigated by the Bar Requirements Board, the regulatory physique for barristers in England and Wales, and faces shedding her licence for a 12 months, or having a nice imposed, over her feedback.

Within the tweet thread that triggered the disciplinary proceedings to be launched, Dr Proudman stated: “I don’t settle for the choose’s reasoning. This judgment has echoes of the ‘boys’ membership’ which nonetheless exists amongst males in highly effective positions.”

She was conscious Sir Jonathan belonged to the Garrick Membership – a personal members’ membership which has confronted ongoing criticism for refusing to simply accept ladies members – when she fired off the tweet thread in April 2022. Dr Proudman misplaced the household legislation case.

A number of high-profile supporters have now referred to as for the Bar Requirements Board to drop the disciplinary investigation. Labour MP Apsana Begum and girls’s rights activists Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and Dr Helen Pankhurst are amongst those that have signed the letter to the physique, solely shared with The Impartial.

The letter argues the accusations levied in opposition to Dr Proudman are “oppressive” and “unjust” and warns she seems to have been “focused unfairly by these in energy to silence dissent and keep management”.

It states: “We don’t imagine that Dr Proudman’s feedback a couple of judgement by Sir Jonathan Cohen undermine the integrity of the system or scale back confidence in it; on the contrary, we imagine it takes immense integrity to publicly defend a weak particular person from a choose who holds important energy.

“We ask the Bar Requirements Board to withdraw its misguided prosecution and to challenge a proper and public apology to Dr Proudman.”

The letter additionally voices “concern and dismay” that the board has launched disciplinary proceedings, arguing the “expenses undermine the rules of free speech and accountability by tamping down criticism”.

It additionally requires all judges and authorized professionals to cancel their membership on the “discriminatory” Garrick Membership in order that they “adjust to the rules of justice they’re sworn to uphold”.

“It’s not misplaced on us that a person who has been vital of the judicial remedy of girls is being bullied by the very establishment publicly claiming to finish it,” the letter states.

Dr Proudman, who has nearly 85,000 Twitter followers, denies all the costs in opposition to her.

Talking to The Impartial final 12 months, Dr Proudman hit out on the Bar Requirements Board for not taking motion in opposition to colleagues who verbally abused her in foul-mouthed rants on Twitter.

The lawyer reported greater than 50 barristers, who had been predominantly male, to the physique over a sequence of public messages. She believes the criticism is “an try and silence” her from talking out about violence in opposition to ladies and women.

However regardless of being acknowledged as “disagreeable and inflammatory”, the board stated it could not take motion as a result of the messages don’t meet the edge for regulatory motion.

Tweets despatched by presently practising and retired legal professionals, seen by The Impartial, model Dr Proudman a “c***t”, a “w*****”, a “narcissist”, and “dreadful” — in addition to accuse her of “idiocy”.

The Bar Requirements Board stated it doesn’t touch upon ongoing disciplinary proceedings.

The Impartial has contacted the judiciary press workplace for remark.