Amanda’s role as CEO of Gatehouse Chambers is to take a lead in the strategic development and management of chambers and to implement its business plan. She takes a key role with colleagues in developing business and long-lasting relationships with clients. She takes responsibility for the recruitment of and career development of the barristers and her staff team.
Amanda was previously the Private Secretary to the Director of Public Prosecutions and a caseworker in the Crown Prosecution Service, handling cases such as the second and successful appeal of the Birmingham Six, and the first corporate manslaughter prosecution following the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise.
Amanda was awarded Legal 500’s prestigious Senior Clerk/Chief Executive of the Year Award 2019. She has sat on the panel of judges of the Women in Construction and Engineering Awards since 2018 and was featured in ADR ODR International’s Inspirational Women Series (2018). She won the Silver Award for Inspirational Woman of the Year at the 2015 Citywealth Power Women Awards and the Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Award 2013 (Non-Lawyer of the Year).
Amanda is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). She is a Trustee of the London Legal Support Trust (LLST), and an accredited ADR ODR mediator. In 2022 Amanda joined the Steering Committee of the Greener Litigation Pledge, an initiative to reduce the environmental impact of dispute resolution.
Amanda spends time mentoring and supporting people to increase their opportunities to access rewarding careers at or for the Bar. Amanda has spent many years building inclusive working environments to recruit and nurture talent. She supports FreeBar, a forum focused on LGBTQ+ people and their allies. She is a personal signatory to the ERA Pledge, a gender diversity initiative to promote equal representation in arbitration. Amanda is also an ambassador and mentor for the MB Diversity Leadership Foundation.
Outside work, Amanda and her husband split their time between central London and rural Suffolk, and spend their spare time and energy contributing to the politics and projects involving the environment, sustainability, food, farming and fun!
Professional associations
- Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD)
- Women in Property
- National Association of Women in Construction
- Legal Practice Managers’ Association (LPMA)
- Alumna of the Cambridge Judge Business School leadership programme
Awards
- Senior Clerk/Chief Executive, Legal 500 Bar Awards 2019
- Shortlisted Senior Clerk/Chief Executive, Legal 500 Bar Awards 2016
- Silver Award for Inspirational Woman of the Year at the 2015 Citywealth Power Women Awards
- Winner of Eclipse Proclaim Modern Law Award 2013 (Non-Lawyer of the Year)
Directory recommendations
- “The business and operational function is exceptional. CEO Amanda Illing has transformed the set into a real leader in a number of specific commercial areas, and she is a real superstar.” (Chambers UK)
- “The team is friendly and professional, and ultimately the set is led with great vision and purpose by CEO Amanda Illing” (Legal 500)
- “A number of experienced barristers who really know their chosen fields and is really efficient and excellently led by chief executive Amanda Illing” (Legal 500)
- ‘Trustworthy’ chief executive Amanda Illing is ‘the shining star of the team’; she has ‘taken chambers to a new level’ and ‘puts the quality of service at the heart of everything she does, while making sure we all feel like a member of her family’. (Legal 500)
- “Amanda Illing is chambers’ ‘excellent’ chief executive.” (The Legal 500)
Corporate social responsibility
Amanda enjoys creating opportunities for people who are under-represented in the legal profession and to recruit and mentor talented people to enjoy great and rewarding careers.
Amanda has been an organiser and public speaker on Corporate Social Responsibility for many years. She recently spoke at the launch of the Westminster Heart of the City programme to encourage SMEs to develop their own CSR programmes by reflecting on her own experiences.
Amanda has enjoyed many years of CSR collaboration with clients and organisations including Tower Hamlets Education & Business Partnership, Through the Looking Glass, the Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Programme and the Black Lawyers’ Directory.
Amanda is an active trustee of the London Legal Support Trust (LLST), a grant-giving organisation that supports law centres and legal advice agencies to help the most vulnerable in society by providing grants and other support. The most notable fundraising event of the LLST calendar is the annual London Legal Walk.
Amanda sometimes has an unconventional approach to creating opportunities and breaking down barriers, which over the years has included bringing a bouncy castle into one of the four Inns to welcome local school children, and creating a spin by hula hooping at any opportunity.
Amanda supports FreeBar, a forum focused on LGBT+ people and their allies working at and for the Bar.
Amanda is a local organiser for International Women’s Day and runs events in Suffolk.