An attorney representing a mother in a Family Court case has the audacity to call the judge out for his “boys’ club” ruling switching custody to the abusive father.
Now the Old Boys are coming after her.
Charlotte Proudman is facing suspension of her license to practice law and, meanwhile, the Boys have been trolling her despicably on social media with misogynistic slurs.
The funny part? The judge is actually a member of a literal Boys Only club! And this club happens to boast as members most of the male judges and powerful Old Boys in the UK.
Charlotte is perhaps the most well-known attorney in the UK for representing mothers in custody cases. Seeing up front and center how mothers are systematically discriminated against and oppressed has caused her to be a long-time critic of the Family Court system.
The last straw for the Old Boys with Charlotte (or perhaps the opportunity they were waiting for?) was when she had the temerity to post a 14-tweet thread about a case she had just lost. In it she referred to Judge Jonathan Cohen’s ruling, which gave the abusive father custody, as having “echoes of the boys’ club”.
I lost the case. I do not accept the judge’s reasoning. This judgment has echoes of the “boys’ club” which still exists among men in powerful positions.
Soon after she tweeted this thread, the Bar, also infested with Old Boys, initiated disciplinary proceedings with 5 charges against her.
Not surprisingly, another Old Boy was assigned to hear Charlotte’s disciplinary proceeding: Judge Philip Havers. Amusingly, he is a member of the same, literal Old Boys club! Charlotte requested his recusal and he recently agreed, perhaps because of the publicity her case is getting.
Charlotte was verbally abused in tweets posted by a ton of lawyers. They’ve branded her a cunt, whore, narcissist, dreadful, and an idiot. Charlotte has reported more than 50 lawyers for this abuse and asked the Bar to take action. She says this onslaught has seriously affected her well-being. She is now fearful and has to work with colleagues who’ve been allowed to verbally attack her.
But the Bar minimized the Boys’ attacks on her as just “unpleasant and inflammatory”. They refuse to take action because the messages supposedly do not meet the threshold for regulatory action.
There is a long history of Old Boys retaliating against attorneys who represent mothers well.
Source: (18) Attorney Calls Out Judge for “Boys Club” Ruling: Now She’s Facing Suspension