Knighthoods for two high-profile solicitors and a CBE for a former Law Society President lead the way in the New Year's Honours list.

Robert Finch and Digby Jones were knighted for services to the City of London and business respectively. Mr Finch, a partner at City giant Linklaters, was Lord Mayor of London in 2003/04. Mr Jones is director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, having formerly been a partner at Birmingham firm Edge Ellison (as was).


Michael Napier, who became president in 2000, received a CBE for services to law and to pro bono work. Mr Napier, senior partner at national firm Irwin Mitchell, is the Attorney-General's pro bono envoy.


Napier: services to law

David Brummell, the legal secretary to the Law Officers since 2000, becomes a Companion, Order of the Bath. He qualified at City firm Simmons & Simmons in 1973 before a career first in local government and then central government.

Barrister David Seymour, legal adviser to the Home Office and Northern Ireland Office, received the same honour.


The president of the Family Division, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, received the highest award in the Order of the British Empire - the Dame Grand Cross (GBE).


Several lawyers received OBEs: former CMS Cameron McKenna partner Pamela Castle, chairwoman of the Thames Environment Protection Advisory Committee and the Business and Community Safety Forum, was recognised for services to the environment (she also chairs the Environmental Law Foundation); Keith James, the former chairman of Eversheds, for services to business and the community in Wales; solicitor Nazir Afzal, sector director for west London at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS); barrister Sue Hemming, the head of the CPS branch with responsibility for conducting terrorist casework; barrister Robert Hutley, justices' chief executive for Devon and Cornwall, for services to the administration of justice; and leading transsexual rights campaigner Dr Stephen Whittle, a reader in law at Manchester Metropolitan University, for services to gender issues.


Two solicitors received OBEs in the overseas list: Law Society Council member Stephen Jakobi, who runs Fair Trials Abroad, was recognised for services to British prisoners abroad; and Michael Hutchings, for services to international and comparative law.