17-07-2025
Cordella Bart-Stewart: ‘Advocates assume my clerk is the judge'
A s a black, female solicitor who studied at a polytechnic, Cordella Bart-Stewart is 'frustrated' to keep reading that she is 'of a demographic' least likely to become a judge.
The 67-year-old has been a part-time immigration and asylum tribunal judge for 25 years and is troubled by the 'woeful under-representation' of black judges in England and Wales.
While the number of female judges and those from other ethnic minorities has risen in recent years, the figure for black judges has remained at a 'resolutely stubborn' 1 per cent — compared with 4.4 per cent of the working-age population.
She is among seven black female judges on the steering committee of the UK Association of Black Judges, which launched at the Supreme Court this month to support existing black judges and lawyers looking to join the bench.
