The Bar Standards Board has secured a twelve month suspension of barrister Mohammad Tayyab Khan following a disciplinary tribunal’s finding of six charges of professional misconduct, including a finding that he knowingly assisted his daughter Soophia Khan to breach a High Court injunction that prohibited her from exercising a right of audience.
The tribunal concluded on 8 June 2026, with the suspension announced on 12 June. The misconduct arose from Khan’s appearance as an advocate for the family of a deceased person at a pre-inquest hearing before the Coroner’s Court on 1 June 2022.
Soophia Khan, who accompanied her father to the hearing, was at that time subject to an injunction made by the High Court on 11 November 2021 preventing her from exercising a right of audience. The tribunal found that during the hearing Mohammad Tayyab Khan took instructions from Soophia Khan and read out her responses to the Coroner — thereby knowingly facilitating her active participation in proceedings she was injuncted from taking part in.
The Coroner described the process as completely unworkable, disjointed, time consuming and disruptive to the efficient working of the inquest. The tribunal found that Khan’s conduct lacked integrity, wasted the court’s time and was likely to diminish public trust and confidence in the Bar. Khan also made an inaccurate statement to the Coroner about the records held by the BSB in respect of his own status — a further finding of professional misconduct that compounded the severity of the overall conduct picture. Mohammad Tayyab Khan was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn in 1972.
A BSB spokesperson confirmed that barristers have a duty to assist the court and support the administration of justice, and that the tribunal’s sanction reflected the seriousness of Khan’s actions. The tribunal’s findings remain subject to appeal.
The case raises direct professional conduct implications for the Bar that extend beyond its specific facts. The tribunal’s finding that reading out instructions supplied by a third party who was prohibited from appearing constituted knowing assistance of an injunction breach — rather than mere procedural irregularity — sets a clear standard for how the BSB will treat similar conduct.
Barristers who appear alongside or at the instruction of individuals subject to court orders restricting their right of audience carry the same professional responsibility as if they had facilitated a direct breach themselves. For chambers management and barristers’ clerks the decision reinforces the obligation to check the status of any individual accompanying a barrister in proceedings before accepting instructions that involve that person’s participation. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has pursued comparable conduct standards in analogous situations involving solicitors and the Bar Council is expected to note the tribunal’s reasoning in its professional guidance.