Lucy Barnes - taking the leap, changing the bar
When Lucy Barnes arrived at the University of Surrey to study law, she was looking for more than a degree. Having grown up in foster care, Lucy has spoken openly about feeling “like an alien” during her teenage years, without a stable family or place to call home. Surrey, she has said, became “the closest thing” she had felt to home, giving her friendship, confidence and a new beginning.
Now a Surrey Law School graduate, barrister, TEDx speaker and care-experienced advocate and national voice for care experience in the legal and social work sectors, Lucy has been named the recipient of the University of Surrey’s 2026 Vice-Chancellor’s Alumni Award for Alumni Achievement. The award recognises a journey defined not only by resilience, but by her determination to make the legal profession more accessible for others.
For Lucy, the news was deeply emotional. “I cried,” she said. “Oh my goodness, I couldn’t believe it.” What moved her most was not personal acclaim, but what the award represents: recognition of care-experienced leadership, talent and service. “It’s about representation for me,” she explained. “Being recognised in leadership as a care-experienced person is huge because it sets the bar on how we should be perceived.”
Finding her voice at Surrey
Lucy graduated from Surrey in 2018 with an LLB (Hons). During her time at the University, she threw herself into student life and the School of Law, later describing Surrey as the place where she began to integrate her past into her present and feel accepted by people who did not judge her background.
Her student experience was not without difficulty. Lucy worked two part-time jobs alongside her studies and extra-curricular commitments, with no family safety net to fall back on. She has also spoken about the challenge of trying to enter a profession where networks, unpaid work experience and informal guidance often favour those with family connections in law.
But Surrey also gave Lucy room to breathe. She built friendships, developed her advocacy skills and began shaping the sense of purpose that would later define her career. A TEDx talk at Surrey became, in her words, a “massive moment”, helping her realise the strength in vulnerability.
From Surrey Law School to the Bar
After Surrey, Lucy built her own path into the profession. She became a barrister-at-law, completed a Master of Laws and created a niche freelance paralegal practice supporting barristers. She was called to the Bar in November 2021 and received a prestigious scholarship from The Honourable Society of Middle Temple Inn to fund her Bar course studies.
Today, Lucy practises as a barrister and brings both professional skill and lived experience to her work. Her care experience, she says, is not separate from her advocacy: it gives her perspective, compassion and a deeper understanding of the people she represents.
For Lucy, storytelling is at the heart of persuasion. Law may involve facts and legal principles, but advocacy is also about helping decision-makers understand a client’s story. “It’s not just about compassion,” she said. “It’s the perspective.”
Creating Lawyers Who Care
Lucy’s impact extends far beyond her own practice. She is the co-founder and former inaugural CEO of charity Lawyers Who Care, the UK’s first mentoring organisation for care-experienced aspiring lawyers. It was created to address a gap Lucy knew intimately: the lack of long-term mentoring, professional networks and tailored support for people from care backgrounds entering law.
At its core, Lawyers Who Care matches care-experienced aspiring lawyers with trained mentors from the legal profession. Lucy designed trauma-informed training so mentors understand care experience before they are matched with mentees. The organisation also offers workshops, opportunities and community events, creating what Lucy calls a sense of belonging.
The results have been powerful. In just over two years, the organisation built 126 mentoring relationships, with many more care-experienced aspiring lawyers on the waiting list. Just as importantly, it has helped shift the language of the profession. Lucy has noticed courts, chambers and legal organisations increasingly using the term “care experience” rather than “looked-after child” - a change she sees as part of making care-experienced people visible in the sector.
Reframing care experience as talent
A central thread in Lucy’s work is challenging stigma. She has argued that care-experienced people are too often defined by background rather than talent. Her message is simple and powerful: lived experience is not a deficit. It can be a source of strength, perspective and leadership.
That belief also drives her public speaking. Lucy has presented keynotes and TEDx talks around the discussion of social mobility, inclusion and equality. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and in The Times, and was recognised as one of Universities UK’s 100 faces of graduates who were first in their families to go to university.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Alumni Award, she hopes, will shine a light on care experience, talent and leadership capacity. “We should be celebrated,” she said. “The leadership that we can bring forth into the world, and that passion and energy that we bring, that’s a really beautiful thing.”
Giving back to the next generation
Lucy has been a passionate supporter of Surrey’s Forever Surrey Scholarship, which provides up to £16,000 of support for undergraduate students meeting widening participation criteria, including care-experienced and care-leaver students. Although Lucy did not receive the scholarship herself, she has said such support would have made “the world of difference”, reducing the need to work multiple jobs and enabling her to be proud of her background sooner.
She describes giving back as an investment in potential. “It’s knowing it’s life changing,” she said. “If it’s for the care-experienced people, you can actually say it’s life changing.”
As part of the SurreyLeaders programme, Lucy has continued to build her relationship with the University, returning to campus to speak to staff and students. She describes the network as empowering, not only because of the leadership development it offers, but because it is rooted in giving back.
“Take the leap”
Asked what she would say to a care-experienced young person considering university or law, Lucy’s advice is clear: “Take the leap.”
“It’s not going to be easy,” she said. “But we have made it easier. You are going to bring something to the profession that is going to be truly incredible.”
For Lucy, access to the legal profession is also access to justice. The law needs people from different backgrounds because clients need to feel seen and understood. Through her practice, public speaking, philanthropy and pioneering work with Lawyers Who Care, Lucy is not only taking her place in the profession - she is holding the door open for others.