For years, Samreen Akhtar embodied the legal profession’s favourite narrative. The daughter of a Huddersfield mechanic from a Pashtun family, she was showcased by the Bar Council as a social mobility advocate and hailed as one of the brightest new criminal barristers on the circuit, building a career defending clients accused of serious offences.
Now, at 37, Akhtar faces a significant prison sentence and the probable destruction of the career she spent years constructing. The offence for which she has been convicted carries a maximum statutory penalty of life imprisonment.
Misusing Professional Contacts
The criminal barrister was found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of intentionally encouraging or assisting grievous bodily harm with intent, after prosecutors alleged she used her professional contacts to help a gangland client identify the man who had tried to kill him and to organise a violent revenge attack. Following her conviction, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) moved swiftly to suspend her from practice pending an urgent review by its Independent Decision‑Making Body.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service and media reports, Akhtar spoke by telephone on 15 September 2021 with her client, Huddersfield gangster Tabish Ali, just one day after Ali survived a shooting in a West Yorkshire drugs feud.
Prosecutors allege that, during this call and subsequent communications, she helped him trace and target the gunman for serious injury. These allegations were put before a jury in a week‑long trial; the court did not hear a clear explanation of why the barrister became involved.
Akhtar, who studied law at the University of Huddersfield and began her career with the Crown Prosecution Service, had been repeatedly presented as a model of social mobility within the Bar. In 2020 she was selected by the Bar Council as one of ten advocates for its #IAmTheBar campaign, which highlighted barristers from state‑school and disadvantaged backgrounds as role models for aspiring lawyers.
Having completed her pupillage and early practice with the CPS, Akhtar later returned to West Yorkshire and established her own criminal practice, Aventus Chambers, based in Huddersfield, focused on serious crime.
But prosecutors say that her professional relationships crossed a line. At her trial in Manchester, jurors heard that Akhtar used her contacts to identify the man who had shot Ali and then assisted in plotting retaliation, blurring the boundary between advocate and accomplice. Ali himself has been jailed for life for his role in the shooting of a rival drug gang member in Huddersfield in 2020, a background that formed part of the wider picture of the feud.
Following the conviction, the BSB confirmed that Akhtar has been suspended from practice by the Chair of its Independent Decision‑Making Body, with an interim suspension that will be considered by a panel within weeks. That process could ultimately result in her being disbarred, permanently ending her ability to practise as a barrister.
The downfall is particularly striking given the trajectory of Akhtar’s career. Once promoted as evidence that the Bar was becoming more accessible and diverse, she now finds herself at the centre of a case that feels less like a legal success story and more like a cautionary script about how quickly a professional narrative can unravel.
