Lawyers Who Care – with Lucy Barnes

In an inspiring and personal conversation with Activist Lawyer host Sarah Henry, Lucy Barnes reflects on her remarkable journey to becoming a barrister and her mission to open the legal profession to others who have experienced the care system.

Lucy Barnes is a pupil barrister at East Anglian Chambers and the Co-Founder and CEO of Lawyers Who Care, the UK’s first organisation dedicated to supporting care-experienced aspiring lawyers through mentoring, community-building, and legal opportunities. Lucy, who is proudly care-experienced herself, is also a vocal advocate for social mobility.

“I would definitely describe my journey into law as unconventional, to say the least!”

Lucy grew up across various council estates in Colchester and Essex. As one of six children raised by a single parent in what she describes as a dysfunctional family setting, Lucy entered foster care at the age of 13. Despite the instability and trauma of her early life, Lucy stood out academically—a strength quickly recognised and supported by her foster family. With their encouragement, she began to thrive at school, even while continuing to face challenges in her personal relationships.

At 16, Lucy faced what she calls falling off the “care cliff,” as support from local authorities came to an end. Under the care of the state, which assumes the role of a “corporate parent,” Lucy found herself in a period of significant turmoil. It was during this difficult time that her foster dad stepped in to help her think about the future, identifying her passion for acting and her deep desire to help others navigating the care system. That pivotal moment ultimately set Lucy on the path to becoming a barrister.

Now a pupil barrister focusing on family, civil, employment, and discrimination law, Lucy brings her lived experience into her legal work.

“Of course, given my lived experience there's a natural pull to family law because there’s this notion of understanding things like trauma and understanding the care system from a lived experience perspective which I find is really helpful in my work.”

In 2025, Lucy was named Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Champion of the Year at the Women and Diversity in Law Awards. She was taken aback by the recognition:

“Just getting nominated was an honour.”

To Lucy, the award is a celebration of her wider community and a significant moment of visibility for care-experienced women. She remains conscious of the ongoing stigma associated with growing up in care, but notes that since opening up about her own experience, many legal professionals have reached out to thank her—sharing that they, too, have a care background but still find it too difficult to talk about publicly.

This drive to support others is what led Lucy to co-found Lawyers Who Care.

“Lawyers Who Care was set up as a passion project.”

After meeting Kate Aubrey-Johnson, a youth justice specialist and author of the Dare to Care Guide—the first publication to help legal practitioners understand care experience—Lucy felt the time was right to “come out” publicly about her own care background. With her pupillage secured, she was ready to make a difference.

“It was a beautiful meeting of minds,” she recalls, describing the decision to launch an organisation aimed at making the legal profession more inclusive.

“This is how we reach a more equitable and diverse profession.”

Together, Kate and Lucy brought others on board, forming a steering group that reflects the diversity and intersectionality of the care-experienced community.

“It’s not just me as a care experienced person speaking on behalf of the community.  As an organisation we listen to other voices and the diversity and intersectionality within those voices as well because that’s really important to us. It was born from that idea and I am just still positively overwhelmed at how far it’s grown.”

In just one year, 132 legal organisations have signed up to support Lawyers Who Care, with 80 individuals already matched with mentors. The initiative continues to grow through training, webinars, events, and dedicated support for aspiring lawyers from care-experienced backgrounds.

“We just knew that there had to be an organization like ours because we had to flip the script. It was no longer fair that people saw care leavers and care experienced people in a limiting sense. I knew that we shared characteristics that actually made us better lawyers. The resilience, the time management, the sheer compassion and empathy, which is a real strength through really knowing pain. And, in overcoming that pain, you know, there's a real lightness of touch. You have personal skills and maturity, particularly if you were like a parent figure to younger siblings, which cuts across quite commonly in the care experience. So there’s so much that we’ve got to bring – it was just untapped talent!”

This episode is an essential listen for anyone interested in social justice, representation in law, and the transformative power of lived experience. Download it here to hear Lucy’s story in her own words.

Lucy Barnes - CEO Lawyers who Care

More About Lucy Barnes

Lucy has been widely recognised for her leadership and advocacy. In 2024, she was named one of the 100 Faces of the Universities UK campaign, celebrating first-generation university students. She is a TEDx speaker, a Major Scholar of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, and has been featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, The Times, and Counsel Magazine.

She is also committed to trauma-informed legal practice, having completed the Scottish Law Society’s ‘Trauma-Informed Law’ accreditation in 2023. Lucy co-designed and delivered the UK’s first Care Aware and Trauma-Informed training course for Lawyers Who Care—a key element of its mentorship programme. She authored the Bar Council article Raising the Bar: care-experienced people belong here (June 2024), making the case for their inclusion in the legal profession.