Garden Court nominated in four categories for Bar Pro Bono Awards 2025

The Bar Pro Bono Awards celebrate the remarkable pro bono achievements of the Bar in England & Wales.

The awards are held annually to ensure that the brilliant pro bono work happening at the Bar receives the recognition it rightly deserves.

Garden Court Chambers is delighted to be nominated in four categories:

• School Inclusion Project (SIP) – Pro bono & Social Responsibility Initiative of the Year (UK)
• Marc Willers KC – Pro Bono KC of the Year
• Helen Curtis & Raza Halim – Junior Pro Bono Barrister of the Year
• Acland Bryant – Young Pro Bono Barrister of the Year

SIP – Pro bono & Social Responsibility Initiative of the Year (UK)

The School Inclusion Project (SIP) brings together lawyers, advisers and campaigners with expertise in the field of school exclusions and related issues, to address systemic discrimination in the education system. SIP is a forum coordinated by the Garden Court Chambers Education Law Team, Communities Empowerment Network, Coram Children’s Legal Centre and Law Centres Network.  Most of SIP’s communications are by email (via a GoogleGroup), with meetings throughout the year for SIP members to discuss topical issues. SIP is open to individuals and organisations that support children who have been excluded and/or discriminated against in school.  

SIP was launched in July 2021, and now comprises over 200 lawyers working, mostly pro bono, to represent those who have been unfairly excluded from school.  The key goals of SIP are to: 

• Facilitate referrals for legal representation in school exclusion hearings and related legal proceedings 
• Share knowledge and best practice 
• Identify and address systemic issues 

Marc Willers KC – Pro Bono KC of the Year
Marc Willers KC specialises in the following areas: environmental law and climate justice; planning law; administrative and public law; civil liberties, human rights and discrimination law; and Gypsy, Traveller and Roma law. Marc is recommended in the Chambers UK Bar Guide and the Legal 500 2025 in planning law, environmental law, civil liberties and human rights. He is also a member of both the Bar of Ireland and the Bar of Northern Ireland.

Marc led the legal team pro bono in the successful Privy Council case of Mussington and Frank. The appellants had challenged the Antiguan government’s decision to grant planning permission for a new airport on the island on Barbuda brought on environmental grounds. Their challenge was dismissed on grounds that they lacked standing to bring the claim. That decision was the subject of a successful appeal to the Privy Council. Marc presented the oral arguments when the appeal was heard in November 2023. Judgment was handed down on 27 February 2024 and the Board decided that the appellants did have standing and so remitted the case for trial before the Caribbean courts.

Marc also successfully represented the Swiss Senior Women, alongside our Richard Harvey, as part of an international legal team in the first climate litigation case heard by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. Marc was on the legal team that successfully represented campaigner Sarah Finch in the landmark Supreme Court case of Finch v Surrey County Council.

Marc won the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Award in 2011 and he was Joint Head of Garden Court Chambers between 2016 – 2020. Marc is the co-editor of Gypsy and Traveller Law (3rd edition, 2020 LAG) and he was recently appointed as a Visiting Professor at Goldsmiths University and as an Adjunct Professor at University College Cork. He was listed in The Lawyer Hot 100 2025.

Helen Curtis – Junior Pro Bono Barrister of the Year

Helen Curtis’ legal practice concentrates on mental health, mental capacity and mediation. She appears before Tribunals, Parole Boards and courts through to the Court of Appeal. Helen was an approved mediator on the Court of Protection Mediation Panel and her mediation skills are incorporated into her legal practice.

Helen’s commitment to pro bono work is primarily within her mental health and mental capacity practice and has a significant impact on the individuals or the families of those whose liberty or living circumstances are at stake.

Raza Halim – Junior Pro Bono Barrister of the Year

Raza Halim’s practice is dominated by work in judicial review and appellate proceedings in the areas of asylum and immigration, civil liberties, homelessness and national security. He has acted in many of the important test cases in these areas, and undertakes a substantial amount of urgent, interim relief work. The freezes, cuts and removal of legal aid have left many of his clients at the cliff-edge of removal/deportation, street homelessness, indefinite detention, or deprivation of essential medical intervention, without access to a lawyer. Raza consistently undertakes a significant amount of that work, pro-bono, in order to preserve and vindicate his client’s right to access justice. His pro bono work in the last 12 months includes cases concerning:

• Orphaned children from Gaza seeking entry clearance to the UK for urgent, life-saving medical treatment.
• The discriminatory exclusion of refugees accepted for resettlement to the UK, from UK evacuation efforts in Lebanon following Israel’s military campaign in that country.
• Delayed resettlement of Syrian refugees with acute disabilities and mental health issues.
• Honour killing and domestic violence in the asylum and immigration context.
• Advising international NGOs on the legal boundaries of dispensing humanitarian aid.

Acland Bryant – Young Pro Bono Barrister of the Year

Acland Bryant is developing a broad administrative and public law practice, specialising in cases that involve issues of environmental and climate justice. Acland has experience in representing a broad range of professional and lay clients and is known for his thorough preparation, strategic thinking, client care and articulacy.

Acland was on the legal team in the successful Court of Appeal challenge against Larne Lough gas cavern construction plans. He also acted pro bono for Stop Whitehead Oil Terminal (SWOT), where the High Court in Belfast ordered Mid and East Antrim Borough Council to quash its decision to grant planning permission  for redevelopment and expansion of the Cloghan Point Oil Terminal at Whitehead.

Alongside his practice at Garden Court, Acland is doctoral candidate, undertaking research in climate litigation, and is an Associate Tutor at the University of East Anglia. Prior to joining Garden Court, he was a lawyer at Friends of the Earth and worked on several high-profile judicial reviews.

The nominated candidates will find out if they have been shortlisted in early April. The 2025 Bar Pro Bono Awards are taking place on Tuesday 6 May 2025.

View the full list of nominees here.