Bar Standards Board goes head-to-head with Charlotte Proudman, who accuses them of gender discrimination and double standards
High-profile family law barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman faced a disciplinary tribunal yesterday over five charges of professional misconduct after she criticised a judge’s ruling on a case she was instructed on.
Proudman took to Twitter in April 2022 to criticise High Court judge Jonathan Cohen’s judgment on a family law case she lost. In the 14-part thread, Proudman told her followers, “I do not accept the Judge’s reasoning. I will never accept the minimization of domestic abuse.”
She went on to claim, “This judgment has echoes of (t)he ‘boys club’ which still exists among men in powerful positions,” referencing Cohen’s membership of the Garrick Club — a London private member’s club which counts at least 160 senior legal professionals and members of the judiciary among its 1,500 members and reportedly voted to admit female members for the first time in its 193-year history earlier this year.
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) alleges that Proudman’s statement amounts to professional misconduct as it “inaccurately reflected the finding of a judge on a case in which she was instructed” as well as featuring “seriously offensive, derogatory language which was designed to demean and/or insult the judge”. Proudman denies all the charges against her.
Supporters met Proudman outside the Bar Tribunal and Adjudication Service in central London yesterday, carrying placards emblazoned with the slogans “Let Her Speak” and “Blatantly Sexist Board” along with other messages of support.
During the hearing, Mónica Feria-Tinta, for Proudman, claimed:
“A robust judiciary would welcome a level of criticism which actually makes democratic society healthier and the rule of law more robust.”
She went on to argue that Proudman was the victim of a double standard, claiming in written submissions that historically “The Bar Standards Board concluded that male barristers who called Dr Proudman a ‘cunt’, mentally ill, and a ‘wanker’ did not use gendered language or breach the code of conduct.”
The panel also heard that Proudman has dedicated her working life to women’s rights. Mark McDonald, also representing Proudman, recalled Proudman writing to him to complain about the lack of female portraits in the Lincoln’s Inn hall when she was a mentee of his. The portraits are now more diverse — “That’s an example of how Dr Proudman has led the charge to change things,” McDonald told the tribunal.
Proudman’s Twitter activity first made headlines in 2015 when she criticised a senior male solicitor who referred to her LinkedIn profile picture as “stunning” in a private message. She has since attracted controversy for her comments on a culture of “transactional sex for pupillages” at the bar in an interview with the Times and, more recently, for her tweets on court procedure for rape victims which were criticised as “misleading” and “inaccurate”.
The hearing is expected to last four days.
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