Graduate to sue Bar Council for “anti-White” intern programme

A White graduate and journalist has filed an Equality Act lawsuit against the Bar Council and an internship programme for Black aspiring lawyers, alleging racism.

Sophie Corcoran – who has appeared on GB News and has written for the DailyExpress and ConservativeHome - applied to a scheme run by the Bar Council and the 10,000 Interns Foundation called 10,000 Black Interns. The scheme offers paid six-week placements with chambers and legal organisations, allowing interns the opportunity to gain hands-on experience at the Bar.

The Bar Council’s landing page for the scheme says that applicants must be over 18, Black or of Black heritage (including mixed heritage), and currently studying in the UK or a recent graduate in the UK.

Corcoran filed her suit under sections 158 and 159 of the Equality Act 2010, allowing for positive action for persons who share a protected characteristic and have suffered a disadvantage connected to that characteristic in connection with recruitment. According to her CrowdJustice page, Corcoran considered training as a barrister due to a desire to “contribute to society by helping ensure that justice is accessible to ordinary, decent people”. She cites challenges she faced including dyslexia and ADHD, which she says she worked hard to overcome in order to reach university and the workplace – leading her to “find it particularly troubling when institutions suggest that opportunity and disadvantage can be judged solely on the basis of race”.

The Bar Council confirmed on 30 April that it had been served with a claim under the Equality Act relating to the 10,000 Black Interns programme. It said it denied all of Corcoran’s allegations and would vigorously contest the claim.

Corcoran has turned to Branch Austin McCormick, a central London firm. She says she was “shocked to discover that the scheme is restricted to applicants of a particular racial background” and that she found it “difficult to believe that in modern Britain a professional opportunity connected to the legal profession could be limited in this way”.

The Bar Council’s Pupil Survey Report 2026, released last month, reveals that 27% of pupils saying they had experienced bullying, harassment and/or discrimination cited racial discrimination.

In 2024, the Bar Council also released a follow-up to its Race at the Bar report 2021 and Race at the Bar progress report 2022. While finding the overall diversity at the Bar was improving year by year, it said that there was much more work to do, “particularly in relation to the experience of Black barristers and Black aspiring barristers, students and pupils”.

The Council says it had not made significant advances in the previous three years relating to the success rates of Black applicants in pupillage, nor in silk or judicial appointments, and that Black barristers faced a disproportionate experience of bulling and harassment.

The report showed that Black pupils made up only 5.2% of all pupils at the Bar in 2023, and just 1.4% of all King’s Counsel in the same year. It also said that Black and Asian barristers were earning less than their White colleagues at all stages of career at the Bar.