The new chair of the Black Solicitors Network (BSN), Cordella Bart-Stewart, has launched a scathing attack on the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), calling for an independent review of appointment processes.

Bart-Stewart has refused to take part in what she calls ‘marketing exercises’ such as JAC roadshows. ‘The judiciary is too clubby,’ Bart-Stewart, a solicitor and fee-paid immigration judge, told the Gazette. ‘They do not understand our ambitions. We are not looking at being just JPs but at higher reaches of the judiciary.’

The JAC said it would hold a workshop in February on application procedures for BSN members. There are no minority ethnic Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, Heads of Division or Lords Justices of Appeal. Only 3% of High Court judges and 3% of circuit judges are black or minority ethnic.