Samreen Akhtar

Introduction

Samreen Akhtar is a barrister who campaigned for social mobility at the Bar — and who now holds the opposite of the reputation she once cultivated. According to a report by Jamie Hamilton published by RollOnFriday on 18 September 2026 under the headline “Social mobility barrister jailed for turf war hit help”, she was found guilty of helping career criminal Tabish Ali after he was shot in West Yorkshire during a feud between rival drug gangs in 2021. She was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of encouraging or assisting the infliction of grievous bodily harm with intent, and sentenced to three years in prison. The professional consequences began immediately: although she remains a barrister for now, the Bar Standards Board has suspended her from practice.

This page recounts what the published record establishes about her case — and, just as importantly, flags the points on which that record is silent.

Background Information

Before her conviction, Akhtar’s career profile was an orthodox one, at least on its face. She was a barrister for the CPS and later established her own criminal defence practice. On top of her practice, she carried a public profile as a champion of access to the profession: the article calls her “a poster girl for diversity in the profession”, and records that this prominence saw the Bar Council appointing her as a Social Mobility Advocate in its #IAmTheBar campaign.

That is, in substance, everything the record says about who she was before the case. It does not state when she was called to the Bar, which courts she worked in, how large her practice was, or any personal details beyond her professional roles.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

The incident that upended her public standing took place in 2021. Tabish Ali, described in the article as a career criminal, was shot in West Yorkshire during a feud between rival drug gangs. Akhtar had represented Ali. And the day after he was attacked, she was recorded phoning him up and proposing a plan to find the hitman and take revenge.

That recorded telephone call is the pivot of the whole story: a serving barrister, one day after her former client had been shot, recorded putting forward a scheme to locate the gunman and retaliate. The article does not reproduce the call’s contents beyond that summary, and it does not state how the recording came to the attention of prosecutors.

Akhtar was prosecuted and, after trial, found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of encouraging or assisting the infliction of grievous bodily harm with intent. She received a sentence of three years’ imprisonment. The record does not state when the trial took place, how long it lasted, what defence was run, whether Ali survived the shooting, or whether Akhtar has appealed against either the conviction or the sentence.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The reaction captured on the RollOnFriday page combines grim humour with open hostility to what commenters saw as hypocrisy. The article itself sets the tone in its opening line: “From Bar to bars.” It is tagged “bad barrister”, placing her in the site’s gallery of disgraced members of the Bar, and a related item on the same page — headlined “Diversity champion barrister suspended for plotting gangland hit” — covers the affair from the suspension angle.

Beneath the piece, anonymous readers left a short run of comments, none of them sympathetic:

• “well well well” — 17 up-votes, 6 down-votes;
• “It is ALWAYS the self-promoting diversity barristers in the profession. Daniel Jennings to the rescue?” — 17 up-votes, 5 down-votes;
• “Good heavens. Just imagine […]” — 13 up-votes, 5 down-votes;
• “Of course, when you’re self-promoting using diversity, that’s because you have nothing else to offer.” — 13 up-votes, 6 down-votes.

Several of those comments seize on the same tension the article highlights: a barrister celebrated for social-mobility campaigning who ended up recorded proposing revenge in a drug-gang feud. The consequences on the record are concrete rather than rhetorical — a three-year prison sentence and suspension from practice by her regulator.

Current Status

As of the article’s publication on 18 September 2026, Akhtar remains a barrister for now, although the Bar Standards Board has suspended her from practice. The Board’s position, as quoted in the article, is that the suspension lasts “until we or a Disciplinary Tribunal have concluded or disposed of the matters that prompted her referral”. On the face of the quotation, her status therefore sits between two unfinished processes: she is at once a jailed prisoner and a barrister under suspension, with disciplinary matters yet to conclude. The record does not state whether a Disciplinary Tribunal hearing has been scheduled, what its possible outcomes are, or whether her conviction is under appeal.

RollOnFriday’s own assessment of where this leaves her is brief: “ROF rates her chances as: low.”

Impact on Their Career/Life

The disjunction between the two halves of her public story could hardly be sharper. The same person who was a Bar Council Social Mobility Advocate in the #IAmTheBar campaign — “a poster girl for diversity in the profession”, in the article’s phrase — was convicted of encouraging or assisting the infliction of grievous bodily harm with intent and sentenced to three years in prison. The suspension means she cannot practise while the Bar Standards Board’s process runs, and the prison sentence means she cannot practise in any ordinary sense in the meantime. What the record does not state is what has happened to her own criminal defence practice, or whether any return to the Bar is realistically available to her once the disciplinary process concludes. On her prospects as a whole, the article offers a one-line verdict: “ROF rates her chances as: low.”

Sources

• RollOnFriday, “Social mobility barrister jailed for turf war hit help”, September 18, 2026. source