Ministry of Justice

Queen's Counsel in England and Wales 2010

26 February 2010

Statue of Justice, the Old Bailey, London

Her Majesty the Queen has approved the appointment of 129 new Queen's Counsel.

The full list (broken down in order of seniority and alphabetical order) is attached.

Alongside the advocates being appointed QC, Her Majesty has also approved the appointment of five Queen’s Counsel honoris causa (honorary silk) – an honorary appointment recognising a major contribution to the law of England and Wales outside of practise in the courts.

Peter John Freeman is a solicitor and Chairman of the Competition Commission, co-founder and former chair of the Regulatory Policy Institute and legal academic. He is recommended for his work as Chairman of the Competition Commission and his academic work in the field of competition law.

Professor Norman Ernest Palmer CBE is a barrister, Chairman of the Treasure Valuation Committee, member of the Spoliation Advisory Panel and legal academic. He is recommended for his work both academic and advisory on the law of property applied to art and historical artefacts, and his publications in the field of bailment law.

Peter James Richardson is a non-practising barrister and editor and author of practitioner texts. He is recommended for his editorship of Archbold Criminal Pleadings and Practice and for founding and editing Criminal Law Week.

Professor Sarah Elizabeth Mary Worthington is a legal academic, Fellow of the British Academy and Professor of law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is recommended for her academic work in the field of corporate and commercial law together with her work advising government.

Professor Graham John Zellick CBE is a barrister, legal academic, Honorary Professor of law at the University of Birmingham and Visiting Professor of law at Queen Mary’s, University of London. He is recommended for his work developing prison law and prisoners rights both as an academic subject and in practice.

The Lord Chancellor will preside over the appointment ceremony, where the rank will formally be bestowed at Westminster Hall on 22 March 2010.


Notes to editors

  1. The interim scheme for the selection of practising Queen’s Counsel was established following the Government’s consultation in 2003, Constitutional reform: the future of Queen’s Counsel. In light of the consultation, Ministers concluded that they should no longer carry out the task of identifying individual Queen’s Counsel, and the legal professions in England and Wales and Northern Ireland agreed to take over that responsibility. They jointly devised a new selection process during 2004, using a framework of defined competencies aimed at identifying excellence in senior advocates. Separate Selection Panels for England and Wales and Northern Ireland were established in early 2005. These are independent of both government and the professions.
  2. Awards of honorary QC were in abeyance while the interim scheme for the substantive rank was being developed and operated. A small selection panel now consider nominations made by the legal professions and make recommendations to the Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor’s role is to satisfy himself that the panel’s recommendations are consistent with the high standards of the honorary QC rank, and pass the recommendations to Her Majesty. This is the fourth round of appointments since that scheme was announced in July 2006.
  3. Applications for this round of appointment as practising Silk were invited in England and Wales on 19 March 2009 and the Panel began its work as soon as applications closed on 23 April 2009. The Ministry of Justice invited nominations for consideration as Honorary QC in June 2009 and closed for nominations in September 2009. The QC Selection Panel and Honorary QC Selection Committee made their recommendations to the Secretary of State in December 2009 and the Secretary of State, accepting the panel’s advice, made his recommendations to Her Majesty in February 2010.
  4. A full breakdown of the latest applications and appointments for practising silk, along with equivalent figures from previous years, is attached. It should be noted that, because the system of appointments used before 2003 was very different from the current one, meaningful statistical comparisons are unlikely to be possible.
  5. The award ceremony in Westminster Hall is invitation-only.
  6. The Ministry of Justice is working together with the Queen’s Counsel Selection Panel to work towards annual competitions. It is anticipated that the application window for the 2010-11 round will open sometime in March 2010 when the application form and guidance to applicants will be available for download from the Queen’s Counsel Appointments website.
  7. The practising scheme is known as an ‘interim scheme’ because the future of the Queen’s Counsel rank has not yet been finally determined. Although the aim of the 2003 consultation was to decide whether the rank should be retained, there was not enough evidence in the responses to allow a decision to be made. A Ministry of Justice study of quality marks in the legal services market has found that further research needs to be carried out, looking at the value of the QC rank in the international market for legal services, before a final decision can be taken. The new oversight regulator, the Legal Services Board, may wish to undertake research in this area.
  8. Details of the competency framework and the selection process for practising Silks can be obtained from the QC Appointments website
  9. The award of Queen’s Counsel honoris causa is made to lawyers who have made a major contribution to the law of England & Wales outside practice in the courts. It is not a ‘working’ rank and cannot be used by the holders in practice as an advocate.
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