My not-so-learned friends: an epidemic of puffed-up Twitter famous barristers

many areas of public policy.

SOCIAL media contains a contradiction. It is by nature enormously democratic and levelling: everyone has access to the same platform, has the same number of characters in which to express themselves and has the same potential to be seen by the general public. Yet at the same time that inherent equality tends to confer advantage on those who can boast some expertise. They have the specialist knowledge and the status to stand out from the multitude.

One group which has fought its way into the spotlight recently is members of the Bar of England and Wales. One of the most high-profile of this new online legal elite is Jolyon Maugham KC, a tax law specialist with 425,000 followers on Twitter who founded the Good Law Project in 2017. The GLP is an activist group which seeks to achieve policy change through the courts. It has been supporting a case by transgender activists Mermaids to challenge the designation of the LGB Alliance as a charity; the case was dismissed last week because Mermaids has no standing. The GLP described this as a “technical ground”, though it is one of the most fundamental elements of a case.

Maugham is not the only barrister out there practising advocacy beyond the courtroom. Steven Barrett, who specialises in commercial and financial services, has been writing for The Spectator and tweeting since 2020, mainly on political, parliamentary and constitutional issues. He is especially supportive of Brexit and Boris Johnson, acts as a consultant to Johnson cultist the Conservative Democratic Organisation, and is a Conservative councillor in the Chilterns. He has been very exercised by the House of Commons Committee of Privileges’ inquiry into

Johnson’s lying to Parliament, criticising the committee, which is not a court, for not acting like a court.

From the family Bar comes Dr Charlotte Proudman, another Twitter grandee with nearly 80,000 followers. She acts for victims of male violence against women, and alongside her legal practice is a fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge, in law and sociology, with a doctorate in the law and policy on female genital mutilation. Proudman has written extensively on sexism in public life, particularly as it is reflected in the law.

I am not a lawyer, and am generally very cautious in commenting on, let alone challenging legal experts on, matters of law. Where I reluctantly but firmly do push back against learned friends is in exploiting professional status in general matters of public debate. I refer to the specialisations of the barristers named above because lawyers mostly have their own bailiwicks. From chancery to admiralty law, these practice areas are discrete and often technical. But there is a growing trend for counsel to roam beyond their natural hunting ground and campaign on