Black History Month 2026 celebrates the achievements, contributions and history of Black people in Britain. This year’s theme is “Honouring Our Communities”. To mark the event, Oluwapelumi Amanda Adeola of Trinity Chambers asked colleagues from across the law what BHM means to them. Here she speaks to Andrew Powell KC
Andrew Powell KC, 4PB
How has your work helped build trust and improve access to justice for families from diverse communities, particularly where cultural perception of family and parenthood may differ?
I read social anthropology as an undergraduate and have always been fascinated by how family life is shaped and constructed. For me, honouring communities means recognising that families take different shapes and forms. My surrogacy practice has afforded me the opportunity to represent individuals whose experiences of parenthood and family life do not always fit neatly within traditional legal concepts.
Questions surrounding genetic, gestational and social parenthood and the role of the family often carry cultural as well as legal significance. A bit like an anthropologist, one of the key things a lawyer must do is to listen without judgement or making assumptions, and create an environment in which people feel able to explain their family. In my view, trust is vitally important to allow the client to know that I am not simply trying to find a legal solution, but also acknowledging the human reality that is at the heart of their case. I try, I hope (!) to use my legal expertise with empathy and accessibility, particularly where the law is uncertain or does not easily reflect people’s lived realities.
Ultimately, my appointment has given me a more prominent platform to advocate for clients. But I think it is important to also remember that access to justice does not simply mean seeing a lawyer and going to court, it is also about the client feeling they are being heard, respected and understood.
Surrogacy often involves navigating complex legal, cultural and personal issues. In your experience, what are some of the unique barriers that people from Black and other ethnically diverse communities face when building families through surrogacy, and how can the legal profession better support and empower those communities?
There are practical barriers, but there are also barriers of perception and confidence. Surrogacy itself can be difficult to navigate because the law does not always reflect the reality of how families are created. For people from Black and other ethnically diverse communities, that can be compounded by cultural expectations around parenthood, genetics and the role of the wider family. There may also be different understandings within families and communities about surrogacy, assisted reproduction or same-sex parenting. These topics can sometimes reflect a wider cultural taboo, which requires sensitivity in how best to approach it. From a practical perspective, people may, for example, go to their country of origin and embark on a surrogacy arrangement with the expectation that their parental status in that jurisdiction is automatically recognised here, only to find out that they are legal strangers to their much-wanted child.
We hear repeated cries for the legal profession to look like the society it serves to garner public confidence and trust. People are understandably more likely to feel confident seeking advice about something as intimate as creating a family if they feel that their lawyer understands their background or, at the very least, is genuinely interested in understanding it.
It goes without saying that the answer is not to assume that every Black or ethnically diverse client has the same experience. I think it is important that, as lawyers, representation starts with asking rather than presuming: What are the concerns of their wider family? Are there cultural or religious considerations that matter to them? What are they worried the legal process might mean for their child or their family?
The profession can do more through better education, greater diversity within the profession, and making specialist advice more accessible. We also need lawyers who are prepared to explain complex legal concepts in a way that clients can understand rather than simply expecting clients to navigate an unfamiliar system.
For me, empowering diverse communities means making sure that people are not made to feel that they have to choose between their identity and their family. The law should be capable of accommodating the diversity of the families it exists to serve.
Your recent appointment as a silk (Kings Counsel) is a significant professional milestone and an inspiration to many. What does “Honouring our communities” mean to you personally and how do you hope your leadership in the legal profession will encourage the next generation of Black lawyers and reassure diverse families who seek legal support?
Taking silk was an enormous personal milestone, but I recognise that its significance extends beyond me. I am conscious that for many young Black lawyers, particularly those who may not have close links to the profession, seeing someone from a similar background reach senior positions can make the possibility feel more real. Representation does not solve every barrier, but it can change what people believe is possible.
For me, “Honouring our communities” means recognising the people and communities who helped me get here, but also recognising the responsibility that comes with having reached a position of greater influence. I want to use that position to make the profession more welcoming, more representative and more open to talent from backgrounds that have historically been under-represented. I mentored students and young lawyers before taking silk and that will continue.
“Honouring our communities” also means recognising that people rarely belong to just one community. I am Black and I am gay, and I know what it can feel like to be a minority within a minority. That experience has made me alive to the importance of creating spaces where people don’t feel they have to leave part of themselves at the door or code switch.
Visibility is also important. I want young Black lawyers to see that they do not have to change who they are in order to succeed. They can be ambitious, excellent lawyers and leaders while retaining their own identity and connection to their communities.
That connects directly with my surrogacy practice. Families come to lawyers at some of the most important and vulnerable moments in their lives. I want diverse families to feel reassured that the legal profession is there for them, that their families are legitimate and worthy of respect, and that they will receive the same quality of advocacy and commitment as anyone else.
If my career can achieve two things — encouraging the next generation of Black lawyers to believe that senior positions in the profession are genuinely open to them, and helping diverse families feel that the justice system belongs to them too — then that, to me, is what honouring our communities means. As a friend of mine often says, “you cannot be what you do not see”.
Oluwapelumi Amanda Adeola is a barriter at Trinity Chambers and a member of Resolution’s EDI committee
Read the full article in The Review
