Kim Hollis QC receives Lifetime Achievement Award at Society of Asian Lawyers Ball 2015

Chambers warmly congratulates Kim Hollis QC on being  honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society of Asian Lawyers at its Ball on 21st November 2015.
Called 36 years ago, Kim has forged a formidable reputation in the domestic courts as well as overseas. At the age of 30, following the birth of first son, she established her own set of chambers. As early as 1990, Chambers & Partners named her as one of the most successful criminal lawyers of that year particularly in relation to her expertise in dealing in cases involving alleged sexual offences.
In 2002, she became the first female Asian barrister to be appointed Queens Counsel.  She was appointed a Master of the Bench of Grays Inn in 2008 and chaired the 25th anniversary of the Bar Conference in 2011.
Following her appointment as Queen’s Counsel, Kim became a leading specialist in honour crime, grooming cases and cases involving Female Genital Mutilation.  In 2009 she added international and national mediation work to her list of credentials and in more recent times has expanded her practice into India.   She joined 25 Bedford Row in 2003.
She has contributed significantly to the legal profession over the course of many years.  From 2004-2014, she was first Vice-Chair and then Chair of the Equality and Diversity Committee of the Bar Council.  She has been a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum, and in 2009 she acted as a facilitator at the Lord Chief Justice’s Conference entitled “A Judiciary for the 21st Century”.  She became Chair of the Association of Women Barristers in 2010 and, in 2013 she was appointed a Member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Diplomatic Excellence panel as the Diversity Adviser to its Legal Directorate.
She has undertaken extensive voluntary work.  She has contributed to the work of Children in Need International in India, working in villages amongst the poorest mothers there and visiting the project headquarters in Calcutta.  She is also a fully qualified volunteer with the Childline Schools Service, run by the NSPCC, and she visits primary schools to educate children about all types of abuse and grooming.
Since 2013 she has been a trustee of the Kalisher Trust, which was established to support talented students who might be unable to aspire to a career at the Bar due to their lack of means.
Members of 25 Bedford Row are delighted and extremely proud that Kim has received this well-deserved honour.