Honours: top lawyer at the Royal Air Force and parliamentary counsel are recognised

Solicitors across the profession - from the Royal Air Force and parliamentary counsel to justices' clerks and private practice - were recognised in last weekend's Queen's birthday honours.


Air Vice-Marshall Rick Charles, director of the RAF's legal services and prosecuting authority since 2002, was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). He was commissioned into the legal branch of the RAF after qualifying as a solicitor at Attwater & Liell in Harlow in 1978.


John Sellers, who practised at City firm Freshfields before joining the Parliamentary Counsel Office in 1983, also became a CB. He is one of 16 parliamentary counsel, seven of whom have the same honour.


There were further CBs for barrister Stephen Wooler, chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, and Chief Land Registrar Peter Collis, a non-lawyer.


Philip Freedman, a partner at central London firm Mishcon de Reya, was awarded a CBE for services to property law. Among many appointments, he is a member of the Law Society's conveyancing and land law committee, and chaired the government-sponsored joint working group on commercial leases in England and Wales, which produced the commercial lease code.


Malcolm Gammie QC, who was a senior tax partner at City firm Linklaters and chairman of the Law Society's revenue law committee before moving to the bar in 1997 at One Essex Court, became a CBE for services to tax policy. He is a VAT tribunals chairman and deputy special commissioner.


Solicitors Neil Clarke and William Tildesley, formerly justices' chief executives for Northamptonshire and Leicestershire respectively, both received OBEs, as did Janet Meek, head of the trials unit at the Crown Prosecution Service Leicestershire, for work with witnesses.


There was an MBE for Tony Spiers, a partner at Exeter firm Michelmores, for services to the legal profession and to the community in the west country.


Mr Spiers, a member of the Law Society's wills and equity committee, was previously regional chairman of the Royal Society of Arts, a founder member of the west of England branch of the Society of Trust and Estates Practitioners and has been honorary secretary of the Devon & Exeter Law Society for a decade. He is also heavily involved in local charities.


He said: 'It was a bolt from the blue when I received the letter telling me of my award. I am obviously very honoured personally but I am pleased that it recognises the legal profession as well.'


Barrister John Grainger, deputy legal adviser at the Foreign Office, became a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).