Bar Council chief hits out at critics who say lawyers are enabling Vladimir Putin’s regime

The head of the Bar Council has claimed lawyers are being unfairly criticised as “facilitators and enablers” of Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Speaking at a service at Temple Church last night, Mark Fenhalls QC, chair of the body that represent barristers, hit out at critics of the lawyers who have worked for those with links to the Kremlin, as he argued oligarchs have a right to representation too.

“There have been many who have been very quick and wrong to criticise solicitors and barristers for being facilitators and enablers, and somehow complicit in what has gone wrong with the Russian regime,” Fenhalls said, according to the Law Society Gazette.

He added that UK lawyers operate under the “truly precious” rule of law, as he said the UK’s barristers and solicitors “will continue to act within the terms of those rules,” by offering representation.

The prominent barrister also called on his fellow lawyer to “stand by” their colleague, who have come under fire.

The comments came after Tory minister James Cleverly named and shamed two more City of London law firms as having sent legal threats to the Foreign Office, over the government’s sanctions regime.

Fenhalls comments also mirror statements made by Law Society president I. Stephanie Boyce, who said lawyers are being singled out and scapegoated for the horrors in Ukraine.