As the representative of Her Majesty the Queen, His Excellency
the Governor, Nigel Dakin CMG, proudly announces the appointments
of Messrs. Oliver Smith QC and David Cadman QC, to the Inner Bar.
A fitting award for their sustained and consistent approach to
upholding the highest possible standards in an exacting
profession.
Your Ladyship, and your esteemed colleagues of both Bench and
Bar,
I sit next to you, in your Ladyships Court, as the representative
of Her Majesty the Queen. Today, the 4th November 2021, is the
69th year of the reign of the second Queen Elizabeth, and we are
gathered here to admit Mr Oliver Smith QC and Mr David Cadman QC,
to the Inner Bar.
Four hundred and twenty four years ago, in 1597, the very first
Queen’s Counsel, Sir Francis Bacon, was appointed in the 64th
year of the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth. Those present
will be relieved to hear that time does not permit us to review
over 400 years of history, and the development of the role, but
from the outset - and to this day - it is the formal recognition
of a person steeped in their legal craft - and as a result the
rank of Queen’s Counsel is recognized and respected throughout
the world as a mark of quality in legal practice.
Days such as today, in any profession, are important. We would
all do well, whatever our walk of life, spending a little more
time - than we do - celebrating sustained success rather than
criticizing momentary failure. Over the last two years I’ve seen
far more here in TCI that I want to rejoice over, with regard to
peoples achievements than I would ever have wished to criticize,
so let’s make sure, if nothing else, Oliver Smith QC and David
Cadman QC – and their family, friends and colleagues - leave
these proceedings knowing how much we respect and rejoice in
their achievement.
The professional backstories of – if I may - Oliver and Philip
have already been captured by your Ladyship and their now peers
in the Inner Bar so, rather than repeat their exemplary records,
I’ll simply say to them “thank you”. Thank you for being the
people you are. Thank you for being the professionals you are.
Thank you for upholding the very best traditions of your chosen
calling and thank you for being of a standard that those who
selected you, had no hesitation in doing so.
You are becoming a QC, as those who proceeded you did, not
through any single act of brilliance but far more importantly,
and in a much harder sense, through a sustained and consistent
approach to upholding the highest possible standards in an
exacting profession. You pursued “excellence” not just as a
destination - but as a journey - and it seems to me, today, we
recognize that your journey has reached an extremely important
way-point, but a way-point nonetheless.
Let me, if I may, now turn my attention to our Chief Justice in
her Court. Your Ladyship todays ceremony is important in and of
itself because the two Queens Counsel we admit today are here
because of a new process that you spearheaded and sit within a
wider framework of modernizing our judicial processes.
The appointments we celebrate were made through the
implementation of the Supreme Court (Appointment of Queen’s
Counsel) Rules. This removed the privately conducted selection
process by which your predecessors received ad hoc applications,
after which your learned predecessors may or may not have made a
recommendation to the Governor for appointment - with the result
that only a former Chief Justice would know definitively, why or
why not a recommendation was made.
These new Rules required Mr Smith, Queen’s Counsel, and Mr
Cadman, Queen’s Counsel, to demonstrate their eligibility though
codified criteria. The competencies they were required to
demonstrate include being learned in the law, skilled in court
advocacy, trusted by the Bench and service oriented through the
free sharing of their talent with their community and actively
advancing their profession.
The importance of these Rules, which makes access to Queen’s
Counsel more transparent, can be seen by taking a short walk back
into England’s more recent history where the system of
appointment to Queen’s Counsel by the Lord Chancellor after
‘secret soundings’ with senior judges, and others, was scrapped
just 17 years ago, in 2004.
The selection process in England was the subject of suspicion and
perceived discrimination, crowned by a public statement of the
then Commissioner for Judicial Appointments, Sir Colin Campbell,
that the private sounding system was unacceptable. The Lord
Chancellor even suspended the application process and there was
vigorous debate over whether Queen’s Counsel should be abolished
altogether. We know today, which side of the debate prevailed.
Your Ladyship’s proactivity has removed the chance for this kind
of controversy in TCI and for that, all present are grateful. The
celebrants now before the Court are the fruit of these new
Queen’s Counsel Rules, referred to me by the Queen’s Counsel
Selection Panel, and I sincerely congratulate them for their
demonstrated achievement, commitment to their profession and
their service which we recognize today.
On that, Mr Oliver Smith - Queens Counsel - and Mr David Cadman -
Queens Counsel - on behalf of Mr Majesty the Queen, through my
own Office, a very warm welcome, to a very well deserved place,
at the Inner Bar.
