Thu, 05 May 2016
No5 Chambers Barrister S Chelvan will be speaking at the FREEBAR launch event in Birmingham on Tuesday 17th May 2016. No5 along with a number of other Chambers have been working closely with Stonewall to establish a forum of barristers’ chambers, employers and individuals working at and for the Bar on supporting LGBT+ people.
FREEBAR is a new initiative aimed at promoting LGBT+ equality and inclusion across the Bar. This forum was first launched in London in February this year, and the event taking place at Pinsent Masons in Birmingham on 17th May 2016 will be the first launch of FREEBAR outside of London.
There is an ingrained fear amidst LGBT+ lawyers that biases like homophobia and transphobia still exist across the profession and to combat this lawyers have been bombarded with pro-diversity initiatives over the past few years. This has now lead to the LGBT+ networks being a commonplace amongst top solicitor firms and law organisations are now leading the way on the diversity front.
The aims of the FREEBAR forum include:
- Seeking to ensure that at the Bar “Acceptance without Exception” is real, tangible and a shared experience from the most junior to the most senior.
- Providing a forum of mutual support for all gender and sexuality minority barristers and people who work alongside them, together with their straight allies.
- Sharing best practice on workplace inclusion.
- Promoting and celebrating LGBT+ role models and allies.
Other speakers at this event include Brie Stevens-Hoare QC, barrister at Hardwicke, Chantal-Aimée Doerries QC, Chair of the Bar Council, Caroline Harrison QC, barrister at 2 Temple Gardens, Patrick Sarson, practice manager at Hardwicke and Dr Steven Vaughan from the University of Birmingham, who will be discussing the Barrister LGBT+ Survey.
If you are interested in attending this launch event on the 17th of May at Pinsent Masons, please click here. To find out more about the FreeBar please click here for the Legal Cheek website.
Click here to read about the launch event that took place in London on Wednesday 17th February 2016.
To view S Chelvan’s profile please click here.
