Anu Mohindru

Introduction

Anu Mohindru is a King’s Counsel, a member of Foundry Chambers and the chairman of Essex County Cricket Club, who was disbarred from the legal profession after a Bar Standards Board tribunal found he had lied about studying medicine at the University of Oxford — and who then won his appeal against that sanction at the High Court in July 2026. The case became a rolling cancellation story in reverse: a senior barrister publicly stripped of his profession over a decades-old fabrication, then reinstated by a judge who held that dishonesty alone does not compel the ultimate penalty.

Background Information

Mohindru built a career at the criminal Bar, becoming a KC described in reporting on the appeal as “brilliantly successful”, and serving as a member of Foundry Chambers and as chairman of Essex County Cricket Club. The events behind the case date back to 2013, when — as a practising barrister — he applied to join the specialist criminal set 23 Essex Street. In his interview he told the panel that he had studied medicine at Oxford University, and he repeated the claim in his CV. He also claimed to have played cricket for the Bar, for Lashings Cricket Club and for MCC, and to hold a cricketing blue for representing Oxford in a varsity match against Cambridge.

The application unravelled for a distinctly Essex reason: two of his interviewers were “keen cricketers”, and “something about his account” gave them “doubts about what he was saying”. Finding that the dates he claimed to have been at Oxford did not add up, they had a “heated” phone call with Mohindru, and he withdrew his application. Their subsequent enquiries of the university and the medical school found that neither “had any record” of him. The Bar Standards Board opened an investigation after receiving an anonymous letter signed with a fake name which no one has admitted sending.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The underlying findings were made by a BSB tribunal on the civil standard; the High Court subsequently overturned the sanction on appeal. The disbarment no longer stands. This page records both stages.

Before the tribunal, Mohindru faced two charges of professional misconduct: falsely claiming that he studied medicine at Oxford University, and claiming that he was a qualified doctor. The tribunal cleared him of the claim to be a doctor, but disbarred him for telling his 23 Essex Street interviewers a “reckless, foolish and completely unnecessary lie” about studying at Oxford, and because he “doubled down” by repeating the claim in his CV. The disbarment — the Bar’s ultimate sanction — removed him from practice.

Mohindru appealed to the High Court. Mr Justice Johnson overturned the expulsion, holding that it “would be wrong to impose the ultimate sanction merely because dishonesty is present”. The judge found that the Bar tribunal “proceeded on the basis that it was not permitted to give any material weight to the passage of time and the exemplary conduct of Mr Mohindru’s professional career for over a decade since the dishonesty”. The dishonesty at issue had occurred in a 2013 job interview and had never been repeated.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The appeal ruling set out the principle on which Mohindru’s reinstatement rests: “The public is capable of understanding the difference between a practitioner who has recently acted dishonestly, or whose dishonesty forms part of a continuing pattern, and one whose misconduct occurred many years ago, has not been repeated, and whose subsequent conduct has demonstrated a sustained record of integrity”. In such a case, the judge said, public confidence may be maintained by a sanction which marks the gravity of the dishonesty without permanently excluding the practitioner. RollOnFriday’s report of the outcome ran under the dry headline “Barrister disbarred for lying that he studied at Oxford wins appeal”, with a wry caption musing on “a little massaging of the facts between bazzas”.

The practical consequences were real while they lasted: Mohindru had been expelled from the profession he had reached its top rank, over a lie told more than a decade earlier, surfaced by an anonymous letter. The tribunal’s original decision and the High Court’s reversal together made the case a reference point for how the Bar weighs old dishonesty against later career.

Current Status

As of the July 2026 ruling, Mohindru’s disbarment has been overturned and he can return to the legal profession. The High Court’s judgment does not erase the underlying findings — the tribunal’s conclusion that he lied about Oxford in 2013 and repeated it in his CV stood unchallenged on appeal, while the claim that he held himself out as a doctor was cleared — but the sanction of record is no longer expulsion.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The episode cost Mohindru his place at the Bar for the duration of the disbarment and attached a public dishonesty finding to the name of a serving King’s Counsel — before the High Court restored him, reasoning that a sustained record of integrity after long-past misconduct can justify a sanction short of permanent exclusion. For a barrister whose public identities included the chairmanship of Essex County Cricket Club, the scrutiny also reached the embellished cricketing CV he had presented in 2013, claims the report treats as part of the same overstatement. The case now stands as the leading recent example of a cancelled senior barrister winning his way back.

Sources

• RollOnFriday, “Barrister disbarred for lying that he studied at Oxford wins appeal”, 3 July 2026. source