Two black law students awarded £30,000 scholarships for Bar training in 2026
11KBW and 39 Essex Chambers have joined forces to expand a scholarship programme designed to address the underrepresentation of Black barristers at the Bar. The chambers announced that from 2026, the newly combined “11KBW / 39 Essex Chambers Scholarship” will offer two annual awards of £30,000 each to Black students undertaking the Bar Practice Course.
The initiative builds on the original scholarship launched by 11KBW in 2021, which was created in response to concerns about the low representation of Black pupils and barristers, particularly within the civil and commercial Bar. The chambers referenced findings from the Bar Council’s “Race at the Bar” report, which called on the profession to accelerate efforts to improve diversity and inclusion.
In addition to financial support covering tuition fees and maintenance costs, the scholarship programme includes mentoring during Bar training and pupillage, assessed mini-pupillages and wider professional development support. The chambers said the expanded scheme is intended to encourage more talented Black students to pursue careers at the Bar and to help reduce barriers linked to qualification costs and lack of representation within the profession.
Alongside the launch of the joint initiative, the chambers confirmed that Kofo Boboye and Oluwatoni Adewole have been selected as the first recipients of the combined scholarship for 2026. Boboye studied law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she received the Dean’s Award for second-best overall performance, before completing a Master of Laws degree at Harvard Law School.
During her studies, she volunteered with the Harvard Tenant Advocacy Project and the School Exclusion Project. She intends to practise at the public law Bar. Adewole obtained his law degree from the University of Cambridge and plans to specialise in clinical negligence, personal injury and medical inquests. He currently works as a clinical negligence paralegal and previously founded Homerton College’s first debating society.
The recipients were selected from what the chambers described as an “exceptional field” of applicants by a panel that included members of both chambers and external assessors Maggie Semple and Paul McFarlane. Daniel Stilitz, alongside Charlie Cory-Wright and Richard Harwood, said the collaboration aimed to make “a real difference” in improving access to the Bar for aspiring Black barristers.