Kirsty Brimelow KC elected Vice Chair of the Bar Council

Doughty Street Chambers is delighted to announce that Kirsty Brimelow KC has been elected Vice Chair of the Bar Council for 2025.

Kirsty will join Barbara Mills KC and Lucinda Orr next year to make up the first all-female officer team for the Bar Council in its 130-year history.

Kirsty has a distinguished career in criminal law, with particular expertise in homicide, fraud, sexual offences, drugs and torture cases, child rights and vulnerable witness cases and the law of peaceful protest.

Together with her extensive public and international human rights practice, Kirsty has the distinction of having appeared before many different courts and tribunals for both defence and prosecution and leading in both Criminal and Civil Courts of Appeal, the Supreme Court, Privy Council and the European Court of Human Rights. She has defended before Courts Martial, the Court of Appeal in the British Virgin Islands, the High Court in Gibraltar and an Impeachment Tribunal in Trinidad and Tobago.

Kirsty has worked in shaping the law, legal professions and policy throughout her career; specific successes include the introduction of Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders and child rights projects in Nigeria for UNICEF. In 2018 she was awarded the First 100 years Inspirational Women in Law Barrister of the Year Award. She was the first female Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee, is a Bencher of Gray’s Inn and trainer in Advocacy and ethics.

In 2021-23 Kirsty led the Criminal Bar Association – serving as Vice Chair and then Chair – during the criminal Bar action and negotiations with government that secured the increase in legal aid fees.

Kirsty says:

“I am delighted to be elected as Vice Chair of the Bar Council, starting in January 2025. I am conscious that I have been given an opportunity to serve the Bar. I will take the opportunity with leadership and teamwork, laced with ideas and implementation of those ideas for the justice system, the barristers delivering that justice across all jurisdictions, those seeking to access justice, and for our global home which is the planet.”

James Whiting, CEO of Doughty Street Chambers says:

‘Members and staff at Doughty Street Chambers are proud of Kirsty Brimelow KC's election as Vice Chair of the Bar Council. She is a trailblazer, a first-class barrister and very much one of the Doughty Street family. We know that her expertise and success in affecting change through new policy, legislation and negotiation will be an invaluable asset to the Bar Council and to the members it serves'.

Kirsty remains in practice at Doughty Street Chambers, whilst she is Vice Chair of the Bar Council, from January 2025.

Read The Bar Council’s press release here.