Paul Barber

Paul Barber read Law at Jesus College, Cambridge, won an Exhibition to the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar in 1992. He practised in the ecclesiastical and civil courts, and taught law at Sussex University, King’s College, London and Westminster University, where he was also a Visiting Fellow. He also holds law degrees from London (MA Canon Law) and KU Leuven (JCL) and is a Judge of the Southwark Metropolitan Tribunal.

Paul has been engaged with education policy and legislation at national level for more than two decades and has held governorships in a range of educational institutions. He is a Fellow and founding Council Member of the Chartered College of Teaching and, in 2019, was elected President of the International Education Office (OIEC) for a three-year term.

Paul sits on the Legal Affairs Commission of COMECE (Episcopal Conferences of the EU) and the Legal Advisers’ Group of CCEE (Episcopal Conferences of Europe). He is a member of the Council of the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge, a member of the Editorial Board of the Christian Law Review “Law and Justice” and a committee member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society.

He was Director of Education for the Diocese of Westminster for over ten years and has been in his present post since 2013.