Could we soon be saying bye-bye to barristers’ wigs?

What a complete load of rubbish. I know several Afro-Caribbean members of the Bar and they have never once complained that a wig is incompatible with their hair any more than women with big hairstyles. They just tie or clip it back.

The wig and robe is important. It anonymises advocates, provides a level of seriousness to proceedings, and stops fashion statements being made by counsel (particularly in jury trials). Leslie Thomas KC’s comments on wigs are rather absurd given the entire exclusionary nature of the Bar evidenced by the astonishingly small acceptance rates and the disproportionate number of Oxbridge graduates. A wig does very little to impact upon or increase the exclusion already present at the Bar.

I am, however, a big fan of senior members of chambers contributing toward a newly qualified barristers wig, or at very least providing a loan to be paid back on receipt of their first significant brief fee. Circa £600 fresh out of the gates is a lot.

If this is correct, why do so many Common Law jurisdictions in Africa
and the Caribbean retain them for use in Court?

As a female non-white barrister from a non-traditional background, I love the wigs – I think it has the effect of levelling the playing field in court so that people see all the barristers in the same way rather than focusing on their differences – I think that is the “point” of the wig, which Leslie Thomas KC apparently cannot see. For someone like me, who struggles to “look” like the public’s imagined quintessential barrister (white, male), the wig is very helpful in making clear who and what I am in court. I think the effect of ditching wigs would potentially be to disadvantage female and ethnic minority barristers in favour of white men who look like the traditional 19th century barrister. I am the first member of my family ever to have gone to higher education – I have worked hard for the right to wear the wig and I am proud to do so. I think it would be hugely unfair for everyone to lose the right to wear their wigs because a very small number of people find it hot and annoying – there is nothing culturally insensitive about a wig, any more than there is anything culturally insensitive about a suit (traditional European dress) – should we all turn up to court in the traditional dress of our ancestors then? And wouldn’t just draw even more attention to the differences between us (making it more likely that those ethnic minority backgrounds are likely to be seen as different and inferior to their white equivalents). This is all absurd and I can’t believe anyone is taking it seriously.