New silks announced

Christmas came early for 119 barristers and solicitors this week when they discovered they are to be appointed Queen’s Counsel.

Of the new silks, however, only 32 are women (out of 50 who applied)—a comparable figure to the numbers in the previous round. The youngest is a mere 34 years old, while the oldest is 63. Some 21 of the new silks are over the age of 50 years. Five of the successful applicants are solicitor-advocates, including two partners at US firm Latham & Watkins, partners at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Stephenson Harwood, and Imran Khan, founding member of Imran Khan and Partners, who has acted in high-profile cases including representing the family of Stephen Lawrence during the public inquiry into his murder.

Sir Alex Allan, Chair of the Selection Panel, said: ‘The selection process is a rigorous and demanding one.

‘We collect confidential assessments from judges, fellow advocates and professional clients, who give freely of their time to provide evidence about an applicant’s demonstration of the competencies. We remain concerned that the number of female applicants remains comparatively low, but I am pleased that of those women who did apply, over 60% were successful. I was also pleased to note that 18 BAME applicants were appointed, a record number.’

Among those celebrating were four barristers at Garden Court Chambers: Clare Wade, Sonali Naik, Amanda Weston and Brenda Campbell. Essex Court Chambers also celebrated a quartet: Philippa Hopkins, Edmund King, Jern-Fei Ng and Professor Dan Sarooshi. As did Outer Temple Chambers with Tim Nesbitt, Nathan Tavares, Eliot Woolf and Sarah Crowther, with the chambers stating, 'This is a fantastic personal achievement for all four and very well deserved public recognition of their skill and expertise, especially given the highly competitive nature of the lengthy competition process.'

Some 187 of the initial 272 applicants were interviewed by the Selection Panel. The Silk Ceremony will be held on 26 February 2018.

Chair of the Bar, Andrew Langdon QC, said: ‘Becoming a Silk involves an extremely rigorous selection process and so I congratulate all of the candidates on their achievements. The award and the QC suffix it brings is acknowledged beyond our jurisdiction as a clear recognition of the exceptionally high standards of advocacy that can be expected of the Bar of England & Wales.

‘Despite more encouraging diversity figures from this year's intake, it is important that we continue to make progress. The Bar Council's Silk Mentoring scheme is just one initiative aimed at supporting barristers seeking Silk, irrespective of their background.’