A message from The Law Society:
Dear Members,
The Ministry of Justice has launched the 2019/20 round of Queen’s Counsel honoris causa (honorary silk) awards by inviting nominations. All practitioners and members of the public are free to make nominations (including self-nominations if they qualify) direct to the Ministry of Justice.
In addition, The Law Society is participating in this process, as in previous years, by seeking to make nominations itself of members of The Law Society (solicitors). The office holders are securing coverage for The Law Society’s role as nominator by means of publicity in Professional Update, local law societies, and The Law Society website (see External Appointments) inviting nominations. To that end, we are inviting people to nominate themselves, or others, to us. The office holders will then select those who will go forward as nominees of The Law Society.
The way in which to make a nomination for this process is by providing basic personal details of the nominee (or yourself) and the following:
· Legal qualifications and legal experience to date
· What significant contribution have they made to the law in England and Wales other than in Court
· Their major contribution – beyond what might normally be expected for someone in their position
· Why you think this person should be nominated by The Law Society as an honorary QC
Please do this by downloading and completing a copy of the standard nomination form which you can find on the Ministry of Justice website at the link below.
Please then send your completed form to appointments@lawsociety.org.uk to arrive no later than 12 noon on Monday 29 July 2019 if you wish your nomination to be considered by The Law Society for submission to the Ministry of Justice. Nomination by The Law Society is subject to our own internal discernment process and is, of course, no guarantee of ultimate success in the competition. As mentioned above, you are free to nominate yourselves or anyone you wish direct to the Ministry of Justice in any event.
Further details about the honorary QC process can be found on the Ministry of Justice website: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/honorary-queens-counsel-nominations-deadline-tuesday-13-august-2019
Please circulate this to your members; we are seeking the highest quality members of our profession for nomination.
Regards
Simon Davis
President
The Law Society