Dismay as only one solicitor takes silk
Only one solicitor made the rank of Queen's Counsel this year out of a record 121 appointments, taking the total number of solicitor QCs to eight against a backdrop of growing discontent with the QC system.
Geoffrey Williams, a regulatory advocate from Cardiff firm Geoffrey Williams & Christopher Green - who prosecutes many cases in the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal - was awarded silk in this year's list.
Ten solicitors applied, the second highest number in any year.
Since solicitors were allowed to apply for silk in 1996, 63 have done so, with a success rate of 12.5%; in the same period 17% of the 3,837 applicants in total have made the grade.
Mr Williams said: 'I've always hoped that the fact that solicitors do make silk would encourage other solicitors to have a go.
I'm sure there is a body of high-quality solicitor-advocates out there who could apply.'
Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva said: 'We hope that the Lord Chancellor's forthcoming consultation on the future of the QC selection process will consider how to increase applications from solicitors to the rank of QC and make the process more fair to all.
'We were disappointed, not only by the low number of solicitors being appointed as QCs, but by the few solicitors who applied.'
A draft Bar Council working party report recently said that QCs should be appointed on the recommendation of a small panel, chaired by a retired senior judge, and with a broad membership.
Meanwhile, in a letter to this month's edition of Counsel, the bar magazine, David Wolfe and Murray Hunt, both of ten years' call at Matrix Chambers, wrote of 'the growing number of barristers who think that the QC system should be abolished'.
They said they will not be applying for silk 'as the QC system cannot be justified as being in the public interest or promoting competition'.
The record number of 121 silks appointed came as the total applications dipped below 400 - at 394 - for the first time in ten years.
The 31% success rate was also a record.
There was a small drop in the number of women applying and a small rise in the number of barristers from ethnic minorities seeking silk.
See Editorial
Jeremy Fleming
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