We are delighted to announce that our Marc Willers KC was highly commended in the ‘Pro Bono KC of the Year’ category, and Acland Bryant was highly commended in the ‘Young Pro Bono Barrister of the Year’ category at the Bar Pro Bono Awards 2025.
The Bar Pro Bono Awards celebrate the remarkable pro bono achievements of the Bar in England & Wales. The 2025 Bar Pro Bono Awards were held on Tuesday 6 May 2025 at Lincoln’s Inn.
The awards are held annually to ensure that the brilliant pro bono work happening at the Bar receives the recognition it rightly deserves.
We are delighted to announce that our Marc Willers KC was highly commended in the ‘Pro Bono KC of the Year’ category, and Acland Bryant was highly commended in the ‘Young Pro Bono Barrister of the Year’ category at the Bar Pro Bono Awards 2025.
We are also delighted that Raza Halim of Garden Court was shortlisted for Junior Pro Bono Barrister of the Year and the School Inclusion Project (SIP) for Pro bono & Social Responsibility Initiative of the Year (UK).
Congratulations to all of the award recipients and to all those shortlisted.
Marc Willers KC – Pro Bono KC of the Year (Highly Commended)
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.
Acland Bryant – Young Pro Bono Barrister of the Year (Highly Commended)
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.
View the full list of shortlisted candidates here.
