Greater than 60 legal professionals, campaigners, politicians and teachers are backing a ladies’s rights lawyer who faces suspension after difficult a decide for having “a boys’ membership” angle in a ruling on a home abuse case.
Charlotte Proudman, a household legislation lawyer who specialises in violence in opposition to ladies, voiced issues 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 troubled by the decide 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 dropping her licence for a 12 months, or having a superb imposed, over her feedback.
Within the tweet thread that triggered the disciplinary proceedings to be launched, Dr Proudman mentioned: “I don’t settle for the decide’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 non-public members’ membership which has confronted ongoing criticism for refusing to just accept ladies members – when she posted 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 susceptible particular person from a decide who holds important energy.
“We ask the Bar Requirements Board to withdraw its misguided prosecution and to concern a proper and public apology to Dr Proudman.”
The letter additionally voices “concern and dismay” that the board has launched disciplinary proceedings, arguing the “costs 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 so 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 important of the judicial therapy of ladies is being bullied by the very establishment publicly claiming to finish it,” the letter states.
Dr Proudman, who has nearly 85,000 Twitter/X 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/X.
The lawyer reported greater than 50 barristers, who had been predominantly male, to the physique over a collection of public messages. She believes the criticism is “an try to silence” her from talking out about violence in opposition to ladies and ladies.
However regardless of being acknowledged as “disagreeable and inflammatory”, the board mentioned it might not take motion as a result of the messages don’t meet the edge for regulatory motion.
Tweets despatched by at present practising and retired legal professionals, seen by The Impartial, model Dr Proudman a “c***t”, a “w*****”, a “narcissist”, and “dreadful” — in addition to accusing her of “idiocy”.
The Bar Requirements Board mentioned it doesn’t touch upon ongoing disciplinary proceedings.
The Impartial has contacted the judiciary press workplace for remark.