Powered by
MOMENTUM
MEDIA
A veteran barrister who harassed a former colleague in a group chat by mocking her confidential mental health issues has been disbarred.
Mariam El-Sobky has been disbarred after harassing a former colleague by mocking her confidential mental health struggles in a group chat.
According to The Independent, El-Sobky reportedly made the comments in a WhatsApp group chat, where she suggested the former colleague should be placed in a “mental asylum”.
The barrister also reportedly referred to the woman as a “very sick young lady”, before writing in the group chat that the “best place for you I think is a mental asylum. No access to internet or Wi-Fi and restraints lol.”
The incident formed one of three cases heard by the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service over serious professional misconduct by El-Sobky, marking her second appearance before a disciplinary tribunal in just five years.
While the tribunal has yet to publish the full details of the case, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) has outlined the multiple other instances of serious professional misconduct by El-Sobky.
One of those incidents arose from her conduct during family proceedings between March and December 2021, when the BSB found that she had made unauthorised recordings of Family Court hearings on “at least three separate occasions”.
The BSB found that El-Sobky then sent the recordings to employees and asked them to transcribe the footage, despite not having obtained consent from either the parties involved or the judge.
Additionally, the tribunal found that the barrister breached client confidentiality by sending appeal papers to the personal email address of an individual she had employed to work on the case, without first requiring them to sign a confidentiality agreement.
El-Sobky was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2001 and went on to practise for more than two decades, appearing as a barrister at London’s historic Lincoln’s Inn.
The Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service found that her conduct involved “dishonest and/or misleading statements” to the court, concluding that she had failed to act with honesty and integrity and had ultimately misled the court.
As a result, El-Sobky was found to have committed multiple breaches of professional standards, with the seriousness of the misconduct ultimately leading to her disbarment.
A Bar Standards Board spokesperson has condemned El-Sobky’s conduct as falling well below the standards expected of barristers, pointing to the seriousness of her failure to meet the duties owed to the court.
“Ms El-Sobky failed to observe her duty to the court in the administration of justice,” the spokesperson said.
“This behaviour falls far below the standards the public rightly expect of barristers. The decision to disbar reflects the seriousness of the misconduct in this case.”
