2011-12 Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION Wednesday 9th March 2011
APPOINTMENT AS QUEEN’S COUNSEL: 2011-12 COMPETITION ANNOUNCED

The Selection Panel which makes recommendations for the appointment as Queen’s Counsel has announced today that it is inviting applications for appointment as Queen’s Counsel from barristers and solicitors with Higher Courts rights of audience from Wednesday 9th March 2011.

From Wednesday 9th March 2011, the application form and guidance for applicants will be available on the Selection Panel’s website www.qcapplications.org.uk .

The deadline for receipt of applications is 5pm on Wednesday 20th April 2011. On current expectations the outcome of the applications is likely to be announced in the early part of 2012.

All applicants are assessed against the common competency framework and a common standard of excellence. There are no quotas, and the Panel treats all applications in the same way. The Selection Panel will be looking for applicants who demonstrate  competencies to a standard of excellence. The competencies are:
A – Understanding and Using the Law
B – Oral and Written Advocacy
C – Working with Others
D – Diversity
E – Integrity

The award is for excellence in advocacy in the higher courts and equivalent tribunals, and arbitrations. Advocacy includes both oral and written advocacy. There is no minimum amount of advocacy required for an applicant to be successful, provided there is enough evidence for the Selection Panel to reach a conclusion as to excellence.

To be appointed an applicant must demonstrate the competencies to a standard of excellence. Applicants are required to provide a summary description of their practice, a self assessment as to how they meet the competencies and the names of assessors who have recently encountered them at work – judges or arbitrators, fellow practitioners
and professional clients or client proxies. The Selection Panel will consider the evidence from the summary description of practice, self assessment and assessments and decide on the strength of the available evidence which applicants justify an interview.

The Selection Panel has ten members for the current competition, with a substantial lay (i.e. non-lawyer) membership. It is also chaired by a non-lawyer. The Selection Panel is independent of the legal professions and Government. The Selection Panel’s recommendations will be passed to the Lord Chancellor, who will put recommendations to The Queen. The Lord Chancellor has no power to veto names or to add names of his own. The Scheme is funded entirely by fees from applicants.

Ends
Notes to Editors:

1. Further information from David Watts, Head of QC Appointments Secretariat 020 7831 0020.
2. Professor Dame Joan Higgins DBE (Chair), Sir Colin Budd, Lord (Alex) Carlile of Berriew QC, Sir David Keene, Helen Pitcher, Jean Ritchie QC and Razi Shah will continue to be members of the Selection Panel during the 2010-11 competition. Sir Alistair Graham, Felicity Huston, and Linda Lee are new Panel members.
3. The document setting out the principles and mechanics of the process was agreed in 2004 and modified in 2006 by the Bar Council, Law Society and the (then) Department for Constitutional Affairs. A copy of this and other information is available on the QCA website at www.qcapplications.org.uk.
4. The scheme is entirely self-financing. To cover the costs of the process applicants have to pay an application fee of £1,950 (+ VAT). This is an 11% reduction from last year’s fee of £2,200 (+ VAT). There will be a further appointment fee of £3500 (+ VAT) paid by successful applicants only

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MONDAY 7th MARCH 2011

THREE NEW MEMBERS APPOINTED TO THE QC APPOINTMENTS SELECTION PANEL

Two new lay members and one new solicitor member have been appointed to the QC Appointments Selection Panel. Felicity Huston, the Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland, and Sir Alistair Graham, Chairman of PhonepayPlus and formerly Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, are the two new lay members of the Appointments Panel. Linda Lee is the new solicitor member of the Appointments Panel. She is currently President of the Law Society. She will be stepping down as President (in July 2011) before assuming an active role as a Panel member.

Commenting on the appointment, Desmond Hudson, the Chief Executive of the Law Society, and David Hobart, the Chief Executive of the Bar Council, said: ‘We are very happy to welcome three new members to the QC Appointments Selection Panel.

All three are distinguished professionals in their respective fields and their knowledge and skills will yet further strengthen the QC Appointments process. We look forward to another successful Silk round as we proceed with the 2011-12 competition.’
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Notes to editors:
1. Current members of the Selection Panel are:
• Professor Dame Joan Higgins DBE (Chair – appointed 2009, appointed lay Panel member 2005)
• Sir Colin Budd KCMG (lay member – appointed 2009)
• Lord Carlile of Berriew QC (senior barrister member – appointed 2009)
• Sir David Keene (retired senior judicial member – appointed 2010)
• Helen Pitcher (lay member – appointed 2009)
• Jean Ritchie QC (senior barrister member – appointed 2006)
• Lucy Scott-Moncrieff (senior solicitor member – appointed 2005)
• Razi Shah (senior solicitor member – appointed 2009)
• Karamjit Singh CBE (lay member – appointed 2005)

Lucy Scott-Moncrieff and Karamjit Singh are standing down from the Selection Panel after 5 years’ service.

2. The Selection Panel is made up of a retired senior judge, senior lawyers (including both barristers and solicitors) and distinguished lay (not legally qualified) people. The work of the Panel is shared equally between lay and legally qualified members. The Panel Chair is always a lay member. Five years is the normal maximum term. The Process agreed between the professions provides for a minimum of 9 Panel members. Two outstanding candidates were identified in the competitive selection process to fill the lay member vacancy. Exceptionally it has been agreed that for the 2011-12 competition the Panel membership should be strengthened through the appointment of an additional lay member. The way in which applications are considered will not be affected.

3. Felicity Huston is the Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland and has held the post since 2005. She is a director in Huston Ltd, Tax Consultants based in Belfast – a practice she runs jointly with her husband Adrian. Before moving to the private sector, she was an HM Inspector of Taxes. She has a wide and varied experience of public life, serving on amongst other organisations the Northern Ireland Consumer Committee (as Chair) and the Lords Appointments Commission. She is currently a Trustee of Assisi Animal Sanctuary in Newtownards.

4. Sir Alistair Graham was, until April 2007, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. He is currently Chairman of PhonepayPlus, an agency of Ofcom which regulates premium rate telephone services. Previously, Sir Alistair held amongst other positions the chairmanship of the Police Complaints Authority and of British Transport
Police Authority. Following twenty years as a civil service trade union leader, from 1986 to 1991, Sir Alistair was Chief Executive of the Industrial Society (now the Work Foundation). Between 1997 and 2000, Sir Alistair was Chairman of the Parades Commission for Northern Ireland, for which services he was awarded a knighthood in
2000.

5. Linda Lee became President of the Law Society in July 2010, having previously been a Law Society Council member since 2003. She is former chair of the Representation Board and of the Legal Affairs and Policy Board. A specialist in clinical negligence and coronial law, she trained in a trade union firm, Hopkins in Mansfield, before moving to Shoosmiths in Northampton. She subsequently worked at AvMA, a charity promoting better patient safety and justice for people affected by medial accidents. She lectures in clinical negligence and coronial law. She has undertaken extensive pro bono work for the Road Victim’s Trust in Bedford.