Karen Safo-Barnieh

Early life

Karen Safo-Barnieh is British-Ghanaian and was shaped by formative years across the United Kingdom and Ghana. She was appointed Head Girl at The Holy Cross School and Richard Challoner Federation in 2007, and received the Academic Excellence Award for Minority Students from the Social Mobility Foundation the same year.^[1]

She studied law at the University of Kent, graduating with a 2:1 LLB. She was awarded the Dean's Fellowship Scholarship to study at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she focused on international law and human rights.^[2] She later completed postgraduate study at SOAS University of London, concentrating on the interplay between law, climate change and natural resource governance.

Career

At the age of 17, Karen Safo-Barnieh founded Youth Development Ghana, a grassroots campaign against unfair trade and child labour in Ghanaian communities.^[3] That early conviction, that the law belongs to the people it is meant to protect, has defined every stage of her career since.

She went on to work across international development, human rights and the legal sector, including roles at Save The Children International, the Home Office and Liberty. At Save the Children, she created and co-chaired Mosaic, a race equity network promoting the diversity and inclusion of BAME groups across the NGO sector, winning the Star Employee Award in 2018.^[4]

She co-founded Black Women on Wheels CIC (BWOW), a cycling club and community interest company featured in The Independent and on BBC News. BWOW has secured over 20,000 pounds in funding from local authorities and Sport England, runs a youth development programme in Ghana and contributed to a documentary on the unfair cocoa trade. She also founded Raw Strategy, a think tank providing innovative solutions to climate change.

She has written for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in the United States on issues of race, history and American civic identity,^[5] and has contributed commentary and analysis to the BBC, The Independent, Women's Fitness Magazine and other publications.^[6][7]

Legal background

Karen Safo-Barnieh is a barrister currently undertaking pupillage at the Government Legal Department. Her legal background spans planning, environment and public law, alongside equality, employment discrimination and public interest advocacy. Since 2019, she has worked as an independent employment discrimination and equality consultant, advising individuals and organisations on discrimination, harassment, victimisation and reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.

She has written for the Bar Council on the importance of inclusion and belonging at the Bar, arguing that "the real question is one of inclusion and belonging" beyond numerical representation.^[8][9]

Board and advisory roles

Karen Safo-Barnieh has served as a board member and legal adviser to several organisations. She was a Board Member and Executive Director of the Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice (2022-2024), where she provided legal consultation on employment, discrimination and charity law. She served as a School Governor at The Holy Cross School (2021-2022) and as a Council Member of Her Story Matters (2020).

She currently sits on Sport England's inaugural Black Women's Advisory Panel for the This Girl Can campaign, contributing to research and strategy on physical activity participation among Black women in the United Kingdom. She has also conducted inclusion workshop strategies with fintech startup companies, providing practical steps to workplace inclusion and diversity.

Upheld

Karen Safo-Barnieh is the founder of Upheld, a legal technology platform that puts employment, housing and contract rights directly in the hands of those who need them. Upheld guides users from initial assessment through to resolution, combining AI-powered case analysis with structured legal journeys, document generation and evidence management tools.

Speaking and engagements

Karen Safo-Barnieh has spoken at Bloomberg, Leigh Day, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Brighton Digital Festival, the Women in Dev Conference and the African Achievers Awards. In 2020, she delivered a keynote address to African Legal Connect Australia on effective networking in law. She has served as a UN Women UK Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women at CSW68 (2024) and CSW69 (2025).

She speaks and advises on AI governance, natural resource governance, climate justice and international development. She has been invited to Number 10 Downing Street in connection with her work in leadership and public service. Her writing on AI and the Global South has examined the environmental and human costs of AI supply chains, from cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo to water consumption in data centres.^[10]

She has contributed to the BBC, The Independent, Colourful Radio, Vox Africa and other broadcast platforms. In 2025, she was interviewed by The Student Lawyer on the importance of taking up space in the legal profession.^[11]

Awards and recognition

Publications and media

Karen Safo-Barnieh has been featured in and contributed to the following publications: