Barbara Mills KC was born in Ghana and came to Britain as a child after her family fled the country following a military coup, later studying law at the University of Hull before being called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1990.
Mills built her career as a leading international family law specialist, becoming joint Head of Chambers at 4PB, taking silk in 2020, and co-chairing the Bar Council's Race Working Group, which published the landmark Race at the Bar report.
In 2024 Mills was elected Vice Chair of the Bar Council, becoming the first Black person and first person of colour to hold the role, and the first specialist family law practitioner to do so in 35 years.
Mills took over as Chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales in 2025, becoming the first Black woman to lead the 131-year-old organisation representing the profession's barristers, before being nominated for a life peerage in July 2026.
You have, on the one hand, those who may be challenged by the fact that you're a first.
Barbara Mills KC's election as Chair of the Bar Council placed a Black woman at the head of one of the legal profession's most influential bodies for the first time, continuing a long, gradual widening of representation within English and Welsh law.
- 1990Called to the Bar by Inner Temple.
- 2020Takes silk, becoming a King’s Counsel.
- 2024Elected Vice Chair of the Bar Council, the first Black person to hold the role.
- 2025Becomes Chair of the Bar Council, the first Black woman in its 131-year history.
- 2026Nominated for a life peerage in the House of Lords.
- ★ First Black woman to chair the Bar Council of England and Wales
- ★ First Black person elected Vice Chair of the Bar Council
- ★ Co-chaired the Bar Council's Race Working Group behind the Race at the Bar report
- ★ Joint Head of Chambers at 4PB, a leading family law set
- ★ Nominated for a life peerage in the House of Lords, 2026