Sadiya Choudhury KC – Pump Court Tax Chambers, London

Sadiya Choudhury KC, who was appointed to silk in 2024, is the daughter of immigrant parents: Sadiya’s father – who came to this country with just £3 in his pocket at the age of 21 – went on to become the first person of Pakistani heritage to qualify as a chartered accountant in Bradford.  When Sadiya was 10 years old, the family moved back to Pakistan, where Sadiya continued her education, first taking the equivalent of GCSEs at a secondary school which no longer exists before attending the highly prestigious Kinnaird College in Lahore, Punjab, the oldest women’s college in the subcontinent.   There, she took the equivalent of A-levels followed by a BSc in Pure Sciences (First Class) – an intense two-year course covering Maths, Physics and Chemistry. There was, like for many of her peers at both school and college, a strong expectation that she would go on to qualify as a doctor or, perhaps, study for an MBA.  Sadiya, however, liked the idea of working in the legal profession.  She considers that her science education formed a great basis for studying the law, especially tax law, as the two disciplines have much in common in terms of the problem-solving and analytical skills involved.

The family moved back to the UK after ten years in Lahore, and Sadiya studied law at St Edmund Hall, Oxford from where she eventually graduated with a First. There was some pressure on her to apply to be a solicitor in one of the City law firms, but Sadiya had firmly set her sights on a career at the Bar, as she liked attending court and being a specialist advocate sounded more interesting to her than being a solicitor.  However, she needed to be very determined in her career goal as there were some people who – rather shockingly even 20 years ago – suggested that the Bar was “not for people like you”, implying, presumably, as a woman of Pakistani heritage. Sadiya was cautioned, perhaps more reasonably, that a career at the Bar was much riskier than the security offered as an employee of a big City law firm, as a self-employed barrister was dependent on getting clients’ instructions.  Sadiya was not to be thwarted and was determined to pursue a career at the Bar.

She took the one-year Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law, London with the assistance of a Denning scholarship from Lincoln’s Inn and did mini pupillages in various practice areas. Sadiya soon decided that crime (“too fact-based”) and family (“not cut out for it”) were not for her.  However, having done a mini pupillage in a Chancery set, Sadiya knew that she had found her vocation.  She relished the complexity and analytical side of the field.  Having been called to the Bar in 2002, Sadiya did her first six pupillage in a Chambers based in Lincoln’s Inn which specialised in chancery practice. She became a member of Pump Court Tax Chambers – where she remains to this day – following completion of her second six pupillage in 2003.  She did not need much encouragement to follow the suggestion that she should specialise in tax.  Her chartered accountant father was, not unexpectedly, extremely happy with her choice! (even if for the past several years he has been rather baffled as to why she takes cases for HMRC which has involved explaining the cab-rank rule to him.) The UK has the longest tax legislation code in the world and, naturally, undergoes change every year at each Budget, keeping Sadiya on her toes as you have to rapidly learn the new rules. It is, she says, a fascinating area of law with a wide span of interest covering such diverse areas as contract, divorce, insolvency and property to name but a few.  It is, she emphasises, “not about numbers” and she is keen that those coming into the profession are not put-off by such a misconception.  To that end, Sadiya has been proactive in encouraging more women into the Tax Bar, participating in a seminar organised by the Revenue Bar Association on Women In Tax to help dispel some of the myths about the speciality. Sadiya says that the speciality entails legal research and problem solving. Contrary to another misconception that tax barristers never go to court, it provides ample opportunities for advocacy (Sadiya has appeared in court about every three weeks for the past four years including remote hearings during lockdown).  On the other hand, if you were someone who was less keen on oral advocacy, there was plenty of scope to focus on advisory work.  Sadiya adds that “you never get bored”. She is extremely grateful that she never heeded those who questioned “is tax really the specialism for you?”

Sadiya soon became an in-demand tax expert, combining a broad advisory and litigation practice, and receiving instructions across all areas of direct and indirect tax law.  Before taking silk, Sadiya was a member of the Attorney General’s A Panel of Civil Counsel, having previously been a member of the B and C Panels. She regularly appeared on behalf of HMRC, the National Crime Agency and other government departments.

Silk was never particularly in Sadiya’s sights, even as a highly successful and in-demand senior-junior.  Sadiya says that this was linked to the thought that maybe silk was “not for people like me – as a brown single mum.” As she points out, of the 95 barristers appointed in 2024, 58 practise in civil law. Out of those 58, 14 are female and 4 are Asian/Asian British – and she is the only one who is both.   (Sadiya shared these statistics in a post on LinkedIn and got well over 600,000 views!)  However, in considering applying for silk, Sadiya received extremely strong encouragement from her Chambers, particularly from her new Senior Clerk who emphasised her credentials, not least her elevation through the ranks of the various Attorney-General Panels, ultimately to the A Panel.  At the end of 2022, she promised “to stop laughing and to think seriously” about applying for silk.   To that end, Sadiya studied the KC Application Form and Guidance and started to think carefully about her cases over the past three years and about whether they could provide the necessary evidence of excellence across all the competencies. It was not an easy thing for her to approach other barristers (many already in silk) and the judges to see whether they would be content for her to list them as a potential assessor.  But having taken her courage in both hands and done so, Sadiya said she found that all of those she approached said that they would be very happy to be named as a potential assessor. Sadiya emphasises that without her Senior Clerk “seeing through her various excuses”, she would never have applied for silk.

The competition is famously – and not unexpectedly – tough. As to advice to those considering applying for silk, Sadiya says it was vital not to underestimate the time an applicant would need to set aside for the application process. Identifying the 12 cases of substance takes time and a great deal of care to determine precisely which competency or competencies it will permit you – and particularly your assessors – to talk to at the high level of excellence required of the competition. A colleague helpfully recommended printing out the competency framework and to check the relevant section of the form against it to make sure all the competencies were covered. She “wrote and re-wrote” her application form until she was completely satisfied with it and asked a colleague to proof-read it before she sent it off.  Another challenge which Sadiya considers applicants should be aware of was, was how alien it felt to use the “I” word.  Sadiya says that she found it especially difficult to talk about herself.  Barristers were used to advocating for their clients, not for themselves.  But it was vital to overcome any in-built reticence to do so.

Having submitted her application form, Sadiya did her best to put the competition out of her mind.  Then, later in the year, she was delighted to learn that she was to be invited to interview.  Sadiya prepared for the interview by re-reading her application form several times and – because her most recent interview had been for pupillage back in 2001 – she obtained some assistance with competency-based interviewing. The advice of her brother, who is a management consultant, was to have extremely good and specific examples of how she had achieved a level of excellence on every relevant aspect of each competency which she would be able to refer to during the interview.  As a student, she always had a banana before an important exam, in the same way sportsmen and women do before important fixtures, so she had one before the interview and went in feeling prepared. Having had the interview, Sadiya says that she decided “not to second-guess myself” as to whether her answers were the ones the interviewers were looking for.  The rest now was out of her hands and for the KC Selection Panel to make its mind up, an attitude of que sera sera which helped her get on with her life and work during the long months waiting for the results.  She also kept in mind that it was her first attempt and if she was to be unsuccessful this time, she could consider applying again.

The announcement was delayed from an expected December date until mid-January, so it was a long wait to learn that she had been successful in the competition.   Sadiya was nevertheless pleased to hear that KC Appointments had at last persuaded the Ministry of Justice to agree to a fixed announcement date in January in future.   Following the announcement, Sadiya was overwhelmed by the outpouring of congratulations from family, friends and across the profession, including from people she did not know that well or at all, many delighted to see another woman join the ranks of silks (there have only been some 600 to date).

The KC Ceremony was wonderful, says Sadiya.  She was surrounded by family, friends and colleagues and, of course, her daughter – in fact by the people who had been so important in giving her “fabulous support” in her life and work over many years as an incredibly busy barrister and single mother, particularly her brother and sister-in-law and her Chambers’ colleagues.  The day included some solemnity and much history, including at the various court ceremonies where the newly appointed silks got to bow to their peers, to the junior bench and to the senior judges in ceremonies before the Lady Chief Justice and other senior judges, as well as one before the judges of the Chancery Division.  It was quite a remarkable, if daunting, experience, not least in getting the sequence of bows in the right order with all the new silks anxiously asking each other what to do before it was their turn!