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📣 A Note from the President – June 2025
To our members, supporters, and everyone who applied to join next year’s committee:
Firstly, thank you, sincerely, for your patience, and for continuing to believe in Queen Mary Bar Society. I know many of you have been waiting for an update on the future of the society and the next committee. I’m writing now to be fully transparent about what’s been going on behind the scenes.
Earlier this year, the Queen Mary Law Department made the decision to transfer all law-affiliated societies — including ours — under the governance of the Queen Mary Students’ Union (QMSU). This was not something we requested; it was a mandatory restructure. We followed the process and submitted all required documentation to QMSU, including our application for continued recognition.
To our disbelief, QMSU rejected our application, claiming that the society was “too niche” or overlapped with existing groups. As the only barrister-focused society on campus, this reasoning was (and remains) inaccurate and deeply disappointing. We submitted a formal appeal immediately and also raised the matter with the Law Department. Since then, however, we have received no further communication or decision from QMSU regarding the status or future of our society.
This delay — coupled with some personal challenges— is the reason we haven’t held interviews or moved forward yet for 2025/26.
To those who sent in CVs and expressed interest in committee positions: thank you.
We’ll be reaching out to you shortly for a candid conversation. If we are permitted to continue, I will ensure a full and proper handover takes place later this year. I remain a QM student until at least August, and I do not believe it would be responsible or fair to hand over the society while its status is still in limbo.
This situation is frustrating — not just for me personally, but for the future of student-led access to the Bar at Queen Mary. We’ll keep pushing for answers, and I’ll continue doing everything I can to protect what we’ve built.
Many thanks,
Dan Shiers
President 24/25, Queen Mary Bar Society
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CHAMPIONING DIVERSITY AT THE BAR
At Queen Mary Bar Society, we are committed to make the Bar represent and reflect our student population (that 91% of us are from state schools; 62% are BAME; 42% are the first into Higher Education in their families; and 27% are from households where the annual taxable income is less than £15,000 per annum); inclusivity is one of our fundamental core values, it is intrinsic to who we are.
