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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: THURSDAY 21st FEBRUARY 2008
APPOINTMENT AS QUEEN’S COUNSEL:
2008 COMPETITION ANNOUNCED

The Selection Panel for appointing Queen’s Counsel has announced today that it is inviting applications from barristers and solicitors with Higher Courts advocacy rights for appointment as Queen’s Counsel from Thursday 21st February 2008.

From Thursday 21st February 2008, 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 5 pm on Thursday 3rd April 2008. On current expectations the outcome of the applications is likely to be announced in early 2009.

The Selection Panel will be looking for the same skills and attributes as in the last competition. However, the Selection Panel will look both at the preparatory and the resolution (in court or otherwise) aspects of advocacy. The competencies are:
A. Understanding and use of the law
B. Oral and written advocacy
C. Working with others
D. Diversity
E. Integrity

Referees have been renamed assessors to better reflect the role they play in the process. References are therefore to be known as assessments. To be appointed an applicant must demonstrate the competencies to a standard of
excellence. Applicants are required to provide a summary of their practice and 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 of practice, self assessment and assessments and decide on the strength of the available evidence which applicants justify an interview. The Selection Panel of nine members is chaired by Sir Duncan Nichol CBE and is independent of the legal professions and Government. The Selection Panel includes a substantial lay (i.e. non-lawyer) membership.

The Bar Council and the Law Society are pleased to announce the appointment of the Right Honourable Sir Paul Kennedy as the retired judicial member of the Selection Panel, in place of Baroness (Elizabeth) Butler-Sloss GBE, who is standing down. The Selection Panel’s recommendations will be passed to the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, who will put the 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. Members of the QC Selection Panel are:
Sir Duncan Nichol CBE (Chairman)
Roy Amlot QC
Ruth Evans
Professor Dame Joan Higgins
Sir Paul Kennedy
Jean Ritchie QC
Lucy Scott-Moncrieff
Karamjit Singh, CBE
Christopher Woolley.
3. Sir Paul Kennedy was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1960 and took Silk in 1973. He served as a Justice of the High Court, assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division, from 1983 to 1992. He was Presiding Judge of the North Eastern Circuit from 1985 to 1989. He served as Lord Justice of Appeal from 1992 to 2005 and also as Vice-President of the Queen’s Bench Division from 1997 to 2001. He was appointed Interception of Communications Commissioner in 2006. He chaired a working group to review Bar Council representation from April 2006 to May 2007

4. 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).

5. The Scheme is entirely self-financing. To cover the costs of the process applicants have to pay an application fee of £2500 (+VAT). There will be a further appointment fee of £3500 (+ VAT) paid by successful applicants only.

The second round of appointments as Queen’s Counsel was announced today. These appointments are made under the successful and transparent arrangements by which an independent Selection Panel recommends who should receive this highly sought-after award. All those appointed have demonstrated excellence in advocacy in
the higher courts.

Sir Duncan Nichol, Chairman of the QC Selection Panel said today:

Queen’s Counsel have always been highly regarded for their forensic and advocacy skills. These appointments maintain the high standards expected of a Silk. All our decisions have been based solely on the evidence before the Selection Panel. Each applicant was considered on his or her own merits, regardless of their field of practice or professional background. There were no quotas, nor did we give special treatment to particular groups of applicants. The list is composed in this way because that is where the evidence led us.

I should like to congratulate the new QCs. I also have an important message for those applicants who were not successful on this occasion.

The QC award is for excellence in advocacy in the higher courts. The Selection Panel is not carrying out an appraisal of an applicant’s practice or personal standing, but making a decision based upon the evidence provided in the
application form, references and (if called) interview, and then considering that evidence against the competency framework. The standard for appointment is very high. If you have not been appointed that
does not mean that you are not a valued and perfectly competent advocate.

He added We are publishing a short report giving further information about this year’s competition, with statistical information relating to successful and unsuccessful applicants. It will be available on our website. The Selection Panel would also like to express its warm appreciation of the contribution at the 2000 people who provided a reference on one or more applicants, and without whom the process could not have worked effectively.

The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Rt Hon. Jack Straw MP, announced today (under embargo) the names of 98 Queen’s Counsel from 333 applicants.

This compares with 175 appointments from 443 applications in 2006. Prior to this no QC appointments had been made in the three years from 2003. The 98 (29% of all applicants) appointed this year include:

• 20 (39%) of the 51 women applicants. (Previous high was 33 appointments
(49%) in 2006).
• 4 (18% of 22 applicants) declared an ethnic origin other than white. (Previous
high was 7 appointments in 2002 (36.8%), 2003 (30.4%) and 10 (42%) of 24
applicants in 2006.)
• 1 of 6 solicitor advocates who applied (17%) was successful. (Previous high
was 2 appointments in 1997 (33%) and 2002 (25%). In 2006 4 appointments
were made (33%) from 12 applicants.)
• 3 appointments were made from the 5 applicants who declared a disability.
This compares with 1 appointment from 5 applicants in 2006 (20%)
• 8 appointments were made from applicants aged 55 or over at the date of
closure for submission of applications.

Ends
Notes to Editors
1. Queen’s Counsel are appointed by The Queen, on the advice of the Lord
Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He is in turn advised by an
independent Selection Panel which receives and considers each application and
makes recommendations as to appointment.
2. The members of the independent Queen’s Counsel Selection Panel are:
Sir Duncan Nichol CBE (Chairman)
Roy Amlot QC
Baroness Butler-Sloss GBE
Ruth Evans
Professor Joan Higgins
Lucy Scott-Moncrieff
Jean Ritchie QC
Karamjit Singh CBE
Christopher Woolley.
The Panel is supported by its own Secretariat.

3. The new scheme was developed by the Bar Council and the Law Society, with the support of the (then) Department for Constitutional Affairs, and approved by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State (Lord Falconer) in November 2004. Refinements to the scheme were similarly agreed in 2006 building on experience of the first year. A copy of the agreed Process and further information is available from the Queen’s Counsel Appointments website: www.qcapplications.org.uk

4. Applications closed on January 29th 2007 and the Selection Panel delivered its recommendations to the Secretary of State for Justice on 26 October 2007. Each applicant has been considered against five competencies:
• Understanding and using the law
• Oral and written advocacy
• Working with others
• Diversity
• Integrity

259 of the 333 applicants were interviewed by the Selection Panel. All unsuccessful applicants are receiving personal and general feedback on their applications.

5. The new Queen’s Counsel announced today will formally become Silks at the ceremony on Friday 28 March.

6. Copies of the Selection Panel’s report are also available on the QCA website.

Further information can be obtained from David Watts, Head of QC Appointments
Secretariat 0207 831 0020.