Lodged multiple appeals
Former solicitor advocate Alan Blacker has been rejected in his second application to join Inner Temple, despite lodging three separate appeals.
Blacker, aka Lord Harley, has been trying unsuccessfully since February 2020 to become a member of Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of Court and a prerequisite for becoming a barrister.
In August that year he was deemed by the Inn’s Conduct Committee not to be a “fit and proper person” to be admitted to an Inn of Court. He applied unsuccessfully for this decision to be reviewed.
Three years later Blacker tried again, with the conduct committee holding firm in its position. He applied for this decision to be reviewed, and when that failed, took his claim to the High Court. After this was struck out on procedural grounds he journeyed to the employment tribunal.
Here Blacker alleged direct disability discrimination, indirect disability discrimination, and a failure to make reasonable adjustments. The latest ruling by the tribunal has, however, confirmed that it lacks jurisdiction to decide the issue, and that all of the claims are therefore struck out as having no reasonable prospect of success.
Blacker’s difficulty in joining an Inn of Court may have something to do with his checkered past.
The ex-solicitor first hit headlines back in 2014 following an incident with a Cardiff Crown Court judge who described his appearance as “like something out of Harry Potter” on account of a number of colourful ribbons attached to his robes. Two years later he was struck off for making “inaccurate and misleading” statements about his academic qualifications, amongst other things.
Since then he has been convicted of benefit fraud, banned from running a charity for 15 years, and prevented from gaining CILEx membership for at least ten years after failing to disclose his previous behaviour.
Whilst he was temporarily the recipient of the “Best Pro Bono Legal Services Practice 2024” and the “UK Legal Client Service Excellence Award 2024″, these were “officially revoked” soon after, with an employee of awarding body SME News said to have “missed” a note outlining Blacker’s history.
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