Lord Chancellor welcomes promotion of new silks

Her Majesty The Queen has approved the appointment of 108 barristers and solicitors as new Queen’s Counsel (QC). The title of QC is awarded to those who have demonstrated particular skill and expertise in the conduct of advocacy.

Her Majesty has also approved the appointment of 6 new Honorary Queen’s Counsel (QC Honoris Causa). Their biographies are listed below. Honorary QCs are awarded to lawyers and legal academics that have made a major contribution to the law of England and Wales outside practice in the courts.

On 11 March 2019, the Lord Chancellor will preside over the appointment ceremony at Westminster Hall, where he will formally bestow the title of QC upon the successful applicants and award the honorary QCs.

Lord Chancellor David Gauke said:

I congratulate each of the 108 barristers and solicitors who are to become Queen’s Counsel and also the six Honorary Queen’s Counsel on their forthcoming appointments. The award of the title of Queen’s Counsel is a recognition of depth of expertise and eminence in their fields. It is this expertise that gives the English legal system its world-leading reputation.

Honorary Queen’s Counsel biographies

Professor Mads Andenæs

Professor Mads Andenæs is a leading academic and has been recommended for his work in the fields of comparative and international law, in familiarising academic and practising lawyers and the judiciary in this jurisdiction with other systems of law and by encouraging exchanges of views and approaches between common and civil lawyers. He has written many books on the subject and has established a series of annual seminars on pressing issues as seen from European Supreme Courts. This was inaugurated by a seminar in the UK Supreme Court with the participation of a number of leading UK practitioners and judges. He was also member and Special Rapporteur in the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and contributed to its report « Basic Principles and Guidelines » (2012). This report has been referred to in UK Supreme Court judgments.

Professor Sue Arrowsmith

Professor Sue Arrowsmith is the author of the principal treatise used by practitioners and academics in the field of public procurement law, which has been formally recognised as an authoritative work of reference by the courts. She also founded the Public Procurement Law Review in 1992 (and has remained General Editor since then), providing information and debate on legal developments for both practice and academia. She is Director of the Public Procurement Research Group at the University of Nottingham, the pre-eminent European centre for public procurement research and teaching, which she founded there in 1998. For more than 20 years she has organised a major international conference on procurement at Nottingham bringing together policy makers, practitioners and academics. She has made a substantial contribution to the reform work of many international committees on public procurement, including (for more than 20 years) the European Commission’s independent Advisory Committee, the UNCITRAL Expert Committee and the World Bank Advisory Group, and recently was appointed as Expert to the Task Force on procurement of the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport.

Professor Richard Fentiman

Professor Richard Fentiman is Professor of Private International Law at the University of Cambridge where he was formerly Chair of the Faculty of Law. He is internationally acknowledged as a leading scholar in his field and is recognised especially as an expert on the law and practice of international commercial litigation. He is the author of two major works, International Commercial Litigation (2015) and Foreign Law in English Courts (1998), and of numerous other publications. His work, which emphasises the law’s practical context, has contributed both to legal scholarship and to the law’s development. His writings are frequently cited in the courts of England and other common law jurisdictions and he has been extensively involved in law reform in England and internationally. His expertise and distinction have been recognised by invitations to give evidence to Parliamentary committees and advise public bodies in the UK, including the Financial Markets Law Committee, and to represent an English law perspective in the work of international institutions such as the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the European Commission and the European Parliament. Through his work on international co-operation in civil justice he has promoted understanding of English law beyond the UK, particularly within the European Union.

Jonathan Jones

Jonathan Jones is the Treasury Solicitor and Permanent Secretary of the Government Legal Department (GLD). He has brought together all Government legal teams to establish a unique legal shared service for the GLD. He has played a critical personal role in providing legal advice to the Government under the exceptional circumstances of Brexit. He has also demonstrated great drive to improve diversity and inclusion, both within the GLD; across the wider civil service as its most senior Health & Wellbeing champion, where he has championed initiatives to improve the working lives of all civil servants; and in the legal profession, where he plays an active role in legal training for new barristers. He also contributes to the education of barristers in his role as a Bencher of his Inn.

Professor Charles Mitchell

Professor Charles Mitchell is one of the outstanding and most respected academic authorities on the law of unjust enrichment and the law of trusts. He has written books on subrogation; on contribution and reimbursement; on unjust enrichment; and on trusts. His work on the most recent editions of Goff and Jones: The Law of Unjust Enrichment has proved invaluable in cases which have come before the Supreme Court. He has shown dedication to bridging the gap between theory and practice, through his development and clarification of the law, including particularly difficult areas of law where conflicting authorities make underlying principles hard to discern.

Professor Thomas Glyn Watkin

Professor Thomas Glyn Watkin is an academic who has also served the Welsh Assembly Government as its first principal Legislative Draftsman. His book, The Legal History of Wales, published in 2007, is the first comprehensive history of law in Wales from the Roman invasion to devolution. He is the general editor of the University of Wales series The Public Law of Wales. He was centrally involved in establishing and building the legislative drafting capacity of the Welsh Government – in both English and Welsh - in the initial years of primary legislative devolution for Wales. Prior to that, he was the founding head of the Law School and first Professor of Law at the University of Wales, Bangor.

Notes to editors

• The list of 2018 to 2019 Queen’s Counsel appointments
• The 108 Queen’s Counsel (QC) (also known as silks) appointments includes:
  • 30 women applicants of the 55 that applied. Last year, 32 out of 50 female applicants were successful
  • 13 applicants who declared an ethnic origin other than white of the 30 that applied. Last year 18 such applicants out of 33 were appointed
  • 19 applicants aged over 50 were appointed. Last year 21 such applicants were appointed. The youngest successful applicant is 38-years-old and the oldest is 61
  • 4 solicitor advocates of the 5 who applied. In the previous competition 5 solicitor advocates were appointed.
• QCs are appointed by The Queen, on the advice of the Lord Chancellor. He is in turn advised by an independent Selection Panel which receives and considers each application and makes recommendations as to appointment.