Barrister accused of transphobia threatens Jolyon Maugham for defamation

Update 02/04/2026: The BSB has rejected our complaint about Sarah Phillimore’s conduct. You can read about the BSB’s decision here. We will be seeking an independent review of that decision.

Last summer Good Law Project published a blog about the ongoing appalling harassment by the barrister Sarah Phillimore of a young trans woman, who we referred to as Kate (not her real name). You can read that blog here. It says:

“According to Kate, the onslaught has been led by Sarah Phillimore, a barrister and gender-critical activist with over 40,000 followers on X.

From March 2024 to August 2025, Phillimore has written more than 50 posts across multiple social media platforms that refer to Kate, frequently in derogatory terms. At first Kate tried to respond, but after a few weeks she decided to keep quiet because whatever she said “wouldn’t get through or wouldn’t help”. Almost half of Phillimore’s posts about Kate were published after the UK Supreme Court “definition of a woman” ruling earlier this year.

Phillimore has repeatedly misgendered, deadnamed and shared photos of Kate, and used graphic language about her genitals.”

And

“Kate says the online attacks shattered her confidence, particularly around her appearance, and left her too scared to leave the house for weeks. She called the police multiple times, including when her address was shared online, but they took no action.

Eventually, one night she tried to take her own life. ‘It was the fact that I knew it wouldn’t end,” Kate says. “I knew that the transphobia would not stop.’”

We published that blog because we were referring Ms Phillimore to her professional regulator, the Bar Standards Board. We didn’t take that step lightly – this is the first complaint to the BSB either Good Law Project or I have ever made. And we took advice from Counsel, including leading Counsel, about harassment and about whether a referral of Sarah Phillimore was justified.

And, in accordance with our normal principles of transparency, we published the complaint.

I have been publicly very critical of the use of baseless complaints to the regulator as a tactical, political game and the time they take away from the regulator’s ability to perform its important function of safeguarding the public from professional misconduct. In those circumstances I thought it was important that Good Law Project be transparent about the actions it is taking.

I also tweeted (on X and in similar terms on Bluesky) as follows:

“A barrister, Sarah Phillimore, led a campaign of harassment of a trans woman so wicked that she sought to take her own life. JK Rowling saw Phillimore could be punished for that conduct, which jeopardized life, and offered to pay her legal costs. That’s where Rowling now is.”

The reference to the author JK Rowling is a reference to the fact that, confronted with the BSB complaint and our blog, Ms Rowling’s reaction was to direct Ms Phillimore towards the website of the JK Rowling Women’s Fund, which purports, “to offer legal funding support to individuals and organisations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.” It was reasonable to infer from Ms Rowling’s post, and I did infer, that she was offering that her fund would financially support Ms Phillimore in meeting the BSB complaint.

Ms Phillimore read the blog and responded by continuing relentlessly to harass and misgender ‘Kate’ on her X account and in her Substack posts. This has caused immense further distress to Kate, who is vulnerable.

Ms Phillimore has since written that the BSB is, we would say rightly and understandably, taking our complaint seriously:

“The Good Law Project’s complaint of August 2025 was not, as I hoped, rejected at first sift, but has been referred on to the Investigations and Enforcement Team at the Bar Standards Board, who will ‘review’ the case file in early January 2026.”

Nevertheless, through her solicitor Elliott Hammer at Branch Austin McCormick Ms Phillimore has threatened to sue me, although not Good Law Project, for defamation and has raised almost £40,000 from a crowdfunding page to do so.

We will not be publishing his letter which gratuitously perpetuates her campaign of harassment of ‘Kate’ but, in accordance with our transparency principles, we are publishing my response. Needless to say, we will defend any claim she brings against me.

Should you wish to contribute to the costs of defending her claim, or our work defending the right of trans people to live dignified lives free from harassment, you can do so below.

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