Distinguished friends

John Bowers

John Bowers KC is Principal of Brasenose College Oxford and practices part time from Littleton Chambers. He is a leading human rights and employment lawyer who also sits as a deputy High Court judge. He is an approved counsel for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and has written numerous books on human rights and employment law, including standard texts on whistleblowing.

He has been a Member of the Committee of the Industrial Law Society the Employment Law Association and Honorary Legal Advisor at Turnpike Lane Advice Centre where he carried out work for the Bar Pro Bono Unit. Between 2001-2003 he was a Member of Home Office Task Force on Human Rights. He was previously Honorary Legal Adviser Public Concern at Work, the whistleblowers charity. Between 2001-2005, John was a Member of Standard Board for England (Regulator of ethical standards in local government). Since 2003 he has been an Honorary Professor, University of Hull and since 2005 a Bencher of Middle Temple. He used to sit as a chair on Bar Disciplinary Tribunals and was for some years on the Bar Council’s Race Relations Committee. After attending Mathew Humberstone Grammar then Comprehensive School, John gained a scholarship to Lincoln College, Oxford and then did a BCL. He was called to the Bar in 1979 and took silk in 1998.