Updated 30 October 2026. Rules checked against the Bar Standards Board's transparency rules page (last updated by the BSB on 22 December 2025).
A good barrister profile website in England and Wales does two jobs at once: it meets the Bar Standards Board's transparency rules (the "regulated by the Bar Standards Board" wording, a link to the Barristers' Register, your pricing models, complaints and Legal Ombudsman details), and it shows a solicitor or clerk, in under a minute, which work you do, how good you are at it and how to instruct you. Most chambers pages cover the first job and skip the second. This guide gives you both: the compliance checklist, the sections that win instructions, worked examples for three types of practice, and the mistakes to avoid.
What must a barrister's website include by law?
If you are self-employed, the BSB transparency rules decide the minimum, and they have applied since 1 July 2019. According to the BSB's transparency rules page, your website must:
- say on the homepage that you are "regulated by the Bar Standards Board" (the exact wording for a sole practitioner);
- link to your entry on the Barristers' Register on the BSB website;
- say that professional, licensed access and lay clients can contact you for a quotation, and give your contact details;
- state the pricing models you most often use, such as fixed fees or hourly rates;
- state your most common areas of practice and describe the services you most often provide;
- explain the factors that can affect how long those services take;
- explain your complaints procedure, the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, how to complain and the time limits, and link to the Legal Ombudsman's decision data.
The information must be prominent, accurate and kept up to date, and you must be able to give it in another format, such as a factsheet, when someone asks. Your professional emails and letterheads must carry the "regulated by" wording too.
If your chambers' website already carries these items on your profile, you are covered there. A personal site is a second front door, so it needs them as well.
What extra do Public Access barristers need?
If you take any Public Access work, you must also link to the BSB's Public Access guidance for lay clients. For certain Public Access services you must publish more: indicative fees and when they change, whether VAT is included, likely extra costs, and the key stages of the service with a rough timescale for each. The BSB lists these services as:
- Employment Tribunal cases for ordinary unfair or wrongful dismissal only;
- financial disputes on divorce where joint assets are under £300,000;
- First-tier Tribunal immigration appeals (not asylum);
- Inheritance Act 1975 claims where the estate is under £300,000;
- business premises licensing;
- fast-track personal injury claims (generally up to £25,000);
- summary-only motoring offences;
- winding-up petitions.
Check the BSB page before you publish, because the list and thresholds are the regulator's to change.
Which sections win instructions?
Solicitors read a barrister profile to answer three questions: can you do this case, have you done it before, and how quickly can I reach your clerks? Build the page in that order.
| Section | What to put in it | Why a solicitor cares |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | Call year, practice areas in plain words, courts you appear in | Tells them in one line whether to keep reading |
| Practice areas | Three to five areas, each with two lines on the work you actually do | Shows you are not a generalist claiming everything |
| Selected matters | Five to ten anonymised or reported cases, each with court, issue and outcome | Proof you have done it before |
| Directory and reported cases | Neutral citations and links to judgments you appeared in | Lets them check you independently |
| How to instruct | Clerk's name, phone, email, typical turnaround for advice | Removes the friction of finding a contact |
| Fees | Your pricing models and what affects time and cost | Required by the BSB, and it saves an email |
| Regulatory | "Regulated by the Bar Standards Board", Register link, complaints, Legal Ombudsman | Required, and it builds trust with lay clients |
Keep each selected matter short. A good pattern is: court, the legal question, what you did, the result. For example: "Employment Tribunal, five-day hearing. Represented the claimant in an unfair dismissal claim with a disputed redundancy pool. Claim succeeded." Only use cases that are reported or that you are free to describe, and keep client details out.
Three worked examples
These are Kitefolio's own examples, written to show the pattern. They are not real barristers.
Employment junior, eight years' call. Headline: "Employment barrister appearing for claimants and respondents in the Employment Tribunal and EAT." Practice areas: unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing. Selected matters: four tribunal hearings and one EAT appeal with a neutral citation. Public Access: yes, so the page lists a fixed fee for an ordinary unfair dismissal hearing, says whether VAT is included, and sets out the stages from first advice to the hearing with a timescale for each.
Commercial silk. Headline: "King's Counsel in commercial and banking disputes in the High Court and arbitration." Practice areas: banking, civil fraud, international arbitration. Selected matters: reported judgments only, each with a one-line summary. No Public Access, so no fee table, but the pricing models (hourly rates and brief fees) are still stated, as the rules require.
Family barrister doing Public Access. Headline: "Family barrister for financial remedy cases, instructed by solicitors and directly by the public." Because financial disputes on divorce under £300,000 are on the BSB's list, the page carries indicative fees, likely extra costs such as court fees, and the key stages with a timescale. It links to the BSB's guidance for lay clients and explains in plain words what a barrister can and cannot do without a solicitor.
Chambers profile or your own website?
Use both: the chambers profile is where clerks send solicitors, and your own site is where people land when they search your name or your niche. A chambers page is written to a house format, often with a long list of past cases and little room to explain what kind of work you want more of. Your own site lets you lead with the work you want, write a longer article on a point of law, and keep a dated record of reported cases.
| Chambers profile | Your own website | |
|---|---|---|
| Who controls it | Chambers and clerks | You |
| Cost | Usually covered by chambers | Free to low cost, depending on the builder |
| Found by searching your name | Often | Yes, if it has your name in the title |
| Room for articles and opinions | Limited | As much as you want |
| BSB transparency items | Usually handled by chambers | You must add them yourself |
Before you launch a personal site, tell your senior clerk. Clerks manage your diary and fees, so the "how to instruct" section should send people to them, not to a personal mobile.
Mistakes that cost barristers instructions
- A list of every area of law. It reads as "no specialism". Pick the areas you want more work in.
- No call year. Solicitors use it to judge seniority and fees.
- Case lists with no outcome. A matter without a result tells the reader nothing.
- Hidden regulatory wording. The BSB wants it prominent. Put it on the homepage, not three clicks deep.
- Claims you cannot prove. The BSB Handbook forbids misleading advertising, so "leading" or "top" needs a source, such as a directory ranking you can name.
- An out-of-date page. If your last reported case is from 2019, readers assume you stopped. Add something every few months.
A 20-minute checklist before you publish
- Homepage says "regulated by the Bar Standards Board".
- Link to your Barristers' Register entry works.
- Contact details and a line saying clients can ask for a quotation.
- Pricing models stated.
- Practice areas and common services described.
- Factors affecting timescales explained.
- Complaints procedure, Legal Ombudsman rights, time limits and a link to its decision data.
- Public Access: link to the BSB's lay client guidance, plus fees and stages where your work is on the BSB's list.
- Call year, courts and three to ten selected matters with outcomes.
- Clerk's name and contact under "how to instruct".
- Page title starts with your name and "barrister".
- A date somewhere on the page showing when you last checked it.
FAQ
Do barristers need a website?
No, the BSB does not require a website, but if you have one it must carry the transparency information, and if you have none you must give the same information in another format when asked.
What does "regulated by the Bar Standards Board" have to say exactly?
A self-employed sole practitioner's homepage must say "regulated by the Bar Standards Board"; chambers say "barristers regulated by the Bar Standards Board", and BSB entities say "authorised and regulated by the Bar Standards Board".
Do I have to publish my fees?
You must publish the pricing models you most often use, such as fixed fees or hourly rates; you only have to publish indicative fees for the Public Access services on the BSB's list.
Can a barrister's website list past cases?
Yes, if the cases are reported or you are free to describe them, with client details kept out and outcomes stated truthfully.
Do the transparency rules apply to employed barristers?
No, the rules apply to self-employed barristers, chambers and BSB entities, not to employed barristers.
Build yours in an afternoon
You can start from a page that is already written for the Bar. Our barrister portfolio page shows the sections above filled in with sample text you replace with your own. Two designs built for barristers and lawyers are free to try in the gallery: Barrister, a brief tied in pink tape, and the quieter Brief. If you already have a CV, our guide to turning a CV into a portfolio website gets you most of the way, and using your own domain name makes the site easy to find by name. Kitefolio's Basic plan is free, and every word on the page is your own work, not a generic AI site. Start free.
Have something useful to say about practice at the Bar or building a legal career? Write a guest post for the Kitefolio blog.