Queen’s Counsel in England & Wales: 2014 to 2015
Her Majesty The Queen has approved the appointment of 93 new Queen's Counsel.
The full list in seniority order is attached.
Alongside the advocates being appointed QC, Her Majesty has also approved the appointment of 6 new Queen’s Counsel Honoris Causa (listed below).
The Lord Chancellor will preside over the appointment ceremony, where the rank will formally be bestowed upon successful applicants, at Westminster Hall on 16 February 2015.
Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling said:
I congratulate the 6 Honorary Queen’s Counsel on their appointment. They were nominated by their peers and this honorary appointment recognises their important contribution to the law in England and Wales, working to achieve beyond the domain of the court room.
I also would like to congratulate the 93 new QCs, on their appointment. This will no doubt be a great moment in their careers.
Professor Sir Ian McColl Kennedy
Professor Sir Ian McColl Kennedy is currently Chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. He has had a long career in the field of law and medical ethics and subsequently in the process and conduct of inquiries and in regulation. Sir Ian has been recommended for his ongoing excellent work in law and regulation, with over 100 articles and papers published alongside several major texts. He was Chair of the Nuffield Council of Bioethics between 1998 and 2002 and Chair of the Healthcare Commission from 2002 to 2009. As Chair of the Bristol Royal Infirmary Public Inquiry between 1998 and 2001 his reviews are widely regarded as having continuing implications for the NHS in promoting quality and safety for patients.
Professor Geraint Wynn Thomas
Professor Geraint Wynn Thomas is a barrister and legal academic. He is Emeritus Professor of Equity and Property Law at Queen Mary University of London. His nomination focuses on his published research contributing to the laws of jurisdictions in the UK and abroad and, in particular, in the areas of pension funds, powers and trusts, both nationally and internationally. His book ‘Powers’ is the sole practitioner text on the subject and has helped to shape the law in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and elsewhere. This book has been cited in many decisions in the superior courts of the UK and internationally, for example, Roadchef (Employee Benefits Trustees) Ltd v Hill (2014) EWHC 109 and Tasarruf Mevduati Sigorta Fonu v Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust Co (Cayman) Ltd [2011] UKPC 17, amongst many others. Geraint’s book ‘The Law of Trusts’ is also one of the leading texts on the subject and has also been cited in the courts of many jurisdictions.
Geraint was also the co-editor for several years of a loose-leaf encyclopaedia, ‘The International Trust’, which analysed and collated laws of different jurisdictions for judges and practitioners. Geraint’s nomination also focuses on his contribution to the teaching of law. He delivered the 10th Annual Nottingham Lecture at the International Trust and Tax Planning Summit in New York in 2007. He made changes to the management and culture of the Queen Mary University of London Law School when he became head of the department, resulting in the school being placed third in the UK in some league tables and also improving its rating from a 3 to a 5. Geraint has also enabled greater diversity of students studying law via his contribution over many years to the University of London’s External Bachelor of Laws programme and to the creation of the distance learning Master of Laws Degree, both of which have captured students from less privileged backgrounds and also those abroad, including from the Far East and Middle East.
Mr Ian Robert Ward CBE
Mr Ian Robert Ward CBE is a barrister. He has been recommended for a long career of providing sound legal advice in a highly pressured and demanding operational environment at the Ministry of Defence. Robert has led the legal advisers’ branch through a period of substantial change and expansion. He has participated in the development of national security law on a national and international basis, advising successive Heads of Department and contributing to policy development in a range of sensitive areas. In particular Robert has played a pivotal role in the development of legislative measures to prevent and disrupt terrorism and in the conduct of terrorism-related court cases, up to and including in the Supreme Court. Before joining the Ministry of Defence, Robert was a lecturer in law at the University of Cambridge and he is co-author of the leading textbook Rook and Ward on Sexual Offences.
Ms Camilla Mary Palmer
Ms Camilla Mary Palmer is a solicitor. She has been recommended for her work in the field of employment and equality law. She specialises in advising clients on discrimination, parental rights and flexible working. She founded and is CEO of an innovative charity, ‘Your Employment Settlement Service’, which resolves workplace disputes without litigation. She is a part-time Employment Tribunal Judge. She works with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to improve understanding of pregnancy/maternity issues (and assisted its predecessor, the Equal Opportunities Commission, in its Formal Investigation into Pregnancy Discrimination). She represented Miriam O’Reilly who was successful in her claim for age discrimination against the BBC and which led to the BBC and other media organisations reviewing their policies and practices. Her publications include Maternity and Parental Right and Discrimination Law Handbook both of which ran to several editions. She was a member of the Judicial Studies Board and wrote training notes on the Equality Act 2010, which were used to train the judiciary on the new Act. Her nomination also focuses on her pro bono work and advice as well as supporting charities including ‘Working Families’ and ‘Maternity Action’. She has been named as one of the top 50 women lawyers by Thomson Reuter’s superlawyers in 2013/14 and is described by the Chambers and Partners Directory as ‘a senior statesman’ and ‘the doyenne of discrimination claims’.
Professor Ewan Gordon McKendrick
Professor Ewan Gordon McKendrick is a legal academic and barrister. He has been recommended for his work as Registrar of the University of Oxford and for the work that he has conducted alongside this role. Ewan is widely published, for example, his textbooks on the law of contract’, his contribution of 5 chapters to the leading practitioner work Chitty on Contracts and a number of key articles on commercial law and the law of obligations. Ewan’s nomination also focuses on the lectures he has given to undergraduate and post graduate law students and to practitioners in many law firms in England [such as Herbert Smith Freehills LLP]. Ewan’s works have been cited over the years in a number of reported cases both in the UK and in the Commonwealth. He has also given evidence on English law to international tribunals where English law is the governing law. Ewan has participated in the work of a Study Group on a European Civil Code that produced the Draft Common Frame of Reference. Ewan has held many positions including Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University between 2006 and 2010 and Chair of the Law Board from 2004 to 2006. He is a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall and an Honorary Fellow of St. Anne’s College. He is a Bencher of Gray’s Inn.
Professor Robert Merkin
Professor Robert Merkin is Professor of Law at the University of Exeter. He has been recommended for his contributions to arbitration and insurance law over the past 20 years. He is widely published, for example, Colinvaux’s Law of Insurance (6th ed 10th editions 1994 to 2014), Sweet & Maxwell, amongst many others. Robert lectures globally on both arbitration and insurance law and is known as an expert in several jurisdictions, including China, New Zealand and Australia amongst others. His nomination also focuses on his being cited in the same week by three different judges, for example, in an insurance case by Mr Justice Field in Tokyo Marine v Navae Corporate [2014] EWHC 2105 (Comm). His works have been cited in well over 150 judgments in a number of jurisdictions. Robert has held many appointments, for example, Presidential Council, AIDA, 1991 to date, elected Vice-President May 2010 to date; Vice-President and then President, British Insurance Law Association, 2008 to 2012. He was the winner of the Australian Insurance Law Association prize 2010 for his contribution to Australian insurance law and is an Honorary Professor of the University of Auckland. In December 2014 he was Expert Adviser to the House of Lords Special Public Bills Committee on the Insurance Bill 2014.
Notes to editors
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The award of Queen’s Counsel honoris causa (Honorary QC) is made to lawyers who have made a major contribution to the law of England & Wales outside practice in the courts. The Ministry of Justice invited nominations for consideration as Honorary QC during the period July – September 2014. A small Selection Panel made its recommendations to the Lord Chancellor in December 2014. The Lord Chancellor accepted and passed the recommendations to Her Majesty the Queen in January 2015. The next round of nominations is due to open in the summer of 2015.
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The process for the appointment of practising Queen’s Counsel (QC) is administered by Queen’s Counsel Appointments (QCA), which is independent of both government and the professions. Applications for this round of appointments were open from 4 March to 15 April 2014. The QCA Selection Panel began its work as soon as applications closed. The Panel made its recommendations to the Lord Chancellor in December 2014. The Lord Chancellor accepted and passed the recommendations to Her Majesty the Queen in January 2015. The next appointment round may open in late February 2015. Details of the competency framework and the selection process can be obtained from the Queen’s Counsel Appointments website.
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A full statistical breakdown of the latest applications and appointments for practising QCs, along with equivalent figures from previous years, is attached.