The Commercial Bar Association is holding an event to encourage and support women applying to the Commercial Bar.

If you are a woman applying or intending to apply to the Commercial Bar, and would like to know what Commercial chambers look for in pupillage candidates and hear preparation tips for a successful interview, this event will be of benefit to you.

Our panel of Commercial barristers are all either relatively recent applicants for pupillage or experienced in the pupillage application process.

Panellists:

Jessica Sutherland – 7 King’s Bench Walk

Emily McKechnie – Wilberforce Chambers

Gretta Schumacher – Essex Court Chambers

Andrew Lodder – One Essex Court

This online event will start at 5.30pm.

The event will run for one hour until 6.30pm with a Q&A chat function enabling questions to be taken by the panellists.

Please register here to receive the zoom link in due course.

The Equality & Diversity Committee of COMBAR is delighted to invite you to an event to launch the forthcoming Bar Council / COMBAR Report on

Gross earnings of members of The Commercial Bar Association by sex

All COMBAR members and practice managers of COMBAR member sets are welcome and encouraged to attend.  The experienced panel will discuss issues which affect all barristers, both women and men.

There will be a panel discussion and Q&A, followed by drinks, with the panel including:

Rachel Krys, Bar Council, Equality & Diversity Consultant

Sophie Lalor-Harbord, Stewarts, Partner in Commercial Litigation

Lindsay Scott, 39 Essex Chambers, Chief Executive Officer

The panel will take place in the International Arbitration Centre, from 5:30pm to 6.30pm.  Drinks will follow from 6.30pm onwards.

Address: 190 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2AG

The event is open to COMBAR members only and practice management teams of COMBAR member sets.

Please can late registration requests be sent direct to: admin@combar.com.  The event will be in-person only.

Hear from a panel of Commercial, Chancery and Construction barristers on the pupillage application process focussed specifically on these areas of practice. The panel are all either relatively recent applicants for pupillage and/or experienced in reviewing pupillage application forms.

If you would like to know what Commercial, Chancery and Construction sets look for in prospective pupils and would like some guidance on how to develop and hone your application this event will be of benefit to you.

Panellists:

Andrew Lodder – One Essex Court Chambers (Chair)

Sarah Walker – Selborne Chambers

Gretta Schumacher – Essex Court Chambers

David Horwich – Atkin Chambers

This online event will start at 5pm.

The event will run for one hour until 6pm with a Q&A chat function enabling questions to be taken by the panellists.

Please register here to receive the zoom link in due course:

This panel talk will take place at the International Arbitration Centre, from 6pm to 7.15pm, followed by an opportunity to meet the speakers over refreshments for those joining in person.  Tea and coffee will be available from 5.30pm. (Please note this is a change to the originally published 5pm).

Panellists:

Jamie White and Henry Goodwin – Prosperant LLP

Henry Fingerhut – Technology & Innovation Policy Manager, Bar Standards Board

David O’Mahony – 7BR and Bar Council Regulatory Review Panel

Address: 190 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2AG

The event will be hybrid and recorded. A Zoom link will be circulated closer to the event. If you intend to join in person, please register here.

The event is open to COMBAR members and their pupils only.

Hear from a panel of Commercial, Chancery and Construction barristers discussing their journeys to the Bar and the day-to-day practice of commercial, chancery and construction law.

What makes the Commercial, Chancery and Construction bar different from other areas? Why is practice at a specialist set different? How can you find out more and gain relevant experience?

Panellists:

Laura Hussey – Atkin Chambers

Lorraine Aboagye – Essex Court Chambers

Robert Harris – One Essex Court

Maud Millar – Maitland Chambers

This online event will start at 6pm.

The event will run for one hour until 7pm with a Q&A chat function enabling questions to be taken by the panellists.

Please register here to receive the zoom link in due course:

Rome is wonderful in May. The weather is warm, but not too hot, the light is golden, and city life spills out onto the streets late into the evenings.

This conference is the highlight of COMBAR’s year, bringing together commercial barristers of all seniorities with our guest Judges, top North American and offshore lawyers and legal leaders from Rome.

This year we will be joined by Lord Leggatt of the UK Supreme Court and Mr Justice Henshaw, Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court in London as our UK judicial guests of honour.

The conference will be based at The Westin Excelsior a historic grand hotel near the Villa Borghese Gardens, a short walk from some of Rome’s finest historical attractions and restaurants. We have arranged a highly preferential group rate for a block of rooms (starting at €390 per night (exc. taxes) for single occupancy and €420 per night for double occupancy).

The conference will be packed with sessions on recent commercial topics, debates, Q&As, interactive talks and lots of networking time and fun.  The programme will include an exclusive evening reception on the rooftop terrace of the Hassler Hotel (recently featured on the BBC) overlooking the Spanish Steps and the skyline of Rome.  We conclude with a gala dinner in the spectacular 16^th century  Chiostro del Bramante Rome, surrounded by modern art and with live music. The conference is designed for partners and families to join us for evening events and enjoy a special day out exploring the delights of Rome.

Junior COMBAR members are particularly encouraged to join us with a private breakfast organised between the Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court and junior barrister attendees.

Hotel bookings using the group rate can be made here (and are fully refundable until 26 April 2026).  Further details and links to registration will be published on the North America page soon.

Anna Boase KC and Georgina Peters, respectively the Chairs of the Equality & Diversity Committee and the Women’s Equality Working Group, are delighted to invite you to an event to launch the COMBAR Best Practice Guidance for Chambers: Fair Work Allocation, Earnings Monitoring and Reporting, Parental Leave and Retention and Progression

All COMBAR members are welcome and encouraged to attend.  The experienced panel will discuss issues which affect all barristers, both women and men.

There will be a panel discussion and Q&A, followed by drinks, with the panel including:

Helen Davies KC, Joint Head of Brick Court Chambers

Lucy Burrows, Chair of the Equality, Diversity and Wellbeing Committee of the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks

William Mackinlay, Chambers Director/CEO of South Square

The panel will take place in the International Arbitration Centre, from 5:30pm to 6.30pm.  Drinks will follow from 6.30pm onwards.

Address: 190 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2AG

The event is open to COMBAR members only and practice management teams of COMBAR member sets.

Please register here.  The event will be in-person only.

Africa Day at DAW: Arbitration & Africa’s Growth Sectors. Shaping the Future of Energy, Infrastructure, and Digital Transformation.”

Download the full programme here.

10:00 – 15:00 with lunch from 1400 – 1500

Venue: Ritz-Carlton DIFC Centre Cut Room

There will be a keynote and three panels:

• Fintech and Africa: Prospects for Growth and Potential Pitfalls
• Renewables in Africa: What Does the Future Hold? Challenges and Opportunities
• Data Centres: The New Frontier for Africa?  Practical Considerations Shaping Sector Growth

Further details on panellists to follow, please register to attend here.

The fourth in the COMBAR, Chancery Bar Association and TECBAR series of online events for aspiring pupils will be focussing on the pupillage year and early years of commercial, construction and chancery practice. Hear from a panel of very recent tenants about how to prepare for the pupillage year, what to expect and how to best approach it as well as what the early years in practice at the commercial, construction and chancery bar are like.

Panellists:

Caitlin Moore – Atkin Chambers

Dominic Li  – One Essex Court

Viktoria Winzer – 3 Verulam Buildings

Tim Foot  – Maitland Chambers

This online event will start at 6pm

The event will run for one hour until 7pm with a Q&A chat function enabling questions to be taken by the panellists.

A ZOOM link will be circulated to participants on the day.

please register your place here.

The COMBAR Annual Lecture 2025 will be delivered by:

Professor Sarah Green

on Thursday 6th November at 5.30pm, in Gray’s Inn Hall

on the subject of

“The Distinctiveness of Digital Asset Disputes”

Registration is now closed

The lecture is open to COMBAR Members and invited SBA Members.  Pupils welcome.

There will be a drinks reception following the lecture.

Professor Sarah Green was Law Commissioner for Common and Commercial Law at the Law Commission of England and Wales from 2020 to 2024. Her law reform work included the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023, Advice to Government on Smart Contracts, updating the Arbitration Act 1996, scoping reforms to the law on Intermediated Securities, and drafting guidance and a bill to ensure that English law is well suited to accommodate Digital Assets.

In 2023, she won both the International Chamber of Commerce’s Award for the Individual Who Has Made the Greatest Contribution to the Digitalisation of Trade and the Outstanding Achievement Award at the British Legal Technology Awards. In 2022, she was placed on the Women in Fintech Power List and on Bloomberg’s “Who to Watch” Crypto List.

Sarah is now an Independent Arbitrator and Mediator (specialising in Crypto and Blockchain Disputes) at Newmans Row, Professor of Private Law at the University of Bristol, a member of T3i Partner Network and a consultant to D2 Legal Technology. Sarah sits on the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, the International Jurisdiction Taskforce, the Digital Commonwealth, LegalUK, and the Trade Digitalisation Taskforce, as well as being an advisor to the APPG on Blockchain Technologies.

She was previously Professor of the Law of Obligations at the University of Oxford and a software consultant at Accenture. She has written books and articles on subjects such as blockchain, smart contracts, digital assets and intermediated securities, and her work has been cited extensively in Parliament, across several jurisdictions in appellate courts, and in US Congress.