One Crown Office Row (1COR) saw six of its barristers take silk in this year’s round of Queen’s Counsel (QC) appointments, as those selecting new QCs remain concerned at the low level of female applicants.
With this year’s 107 appointments marking a rise on last year’s round of 93, notable appointees included 1COR junior Marina Wheeler, the wife of Boris Johnson; Wilberforce Chambers barrister Tim Penny, a former member of the dissolved set 11 Stone Buildings; and 39 Essex Chambers’ Justine Thornton, the wife of former Labour leader Ed Miliband.
Wheeler was appointed alongside 1COR colleagues Henry Witcomb, Owain Thomas, Jeremy Hyam, Clodagh Bradley and Peter Skelton. The sextet’s practices span clinical negligence, inquests and public inquiries, civil liberties, environment, indirect tax and professional discipline. Wheeler, Hyam and Skelton are all members of the Attorney General’s A Panel, which works for government departments.
Other sets with multiple juniors making the cut included 39 Essex Chambers, No5 Chambers, Serjeants’ Inn Chambers, Blackstone Chambers, Wilberforce Chambers and Brick Court Chambers, with three appointments each.
However, the QC Selection Panel has repeated its concern that the number of female applicants still remains ‘stubbornly low’.
With appointments up, the Bar is still struggling with the issue of sluggish gender diversity rates at QC level as, according to Bar Standards Board figures, there remains a low number of women practising at the senior end of the Bar despite half of all new entrants being female.
A report from the Selection Panel on the 2015/16 competition showed there were 25 successful female applicants of the 48 who applied – the same amount as last year when 25 out of 43 female applicants were successful, although the success rate is high, the number of applicants is low.
| Set | No. of appointments | Silks |
|---|---|---|
| One Crown Office Row | 6 | Marina Wheeler, Henry Witcomb, Owain Thomas, Jeremy Hyam, Clodagh Bradley, Peter Skelton |
| Blackstone Chambers | 3 | Gemma White, Brian Kennelly, Shaheed Fatima |
| 39 Essex Chambers | 3 | James Ramsden, Derek O’Sullivan, Justine Thornton |
| No5 Chambers | 3 | Richard Kimblin, Paul Cairnes, Simon Fox |
| Serjeants’ Inn Chambers | 3 | Michael Horne, Katie Gollop, Bridget Dolan |
| Wilberforce Chambers | 3 | Tim Penny, Jonathan Davey, Jonathan Hilliard |
| Brick Court Chambers | 3 | Maya Lester, Thomas Plewman, Sarah Lee |
| Exchange Chambers | 2 | Nick Johnson, David Mohyuddin |
| 4 Pump Court | 2 | Terence Bergin, Alexander Hickey |
| Cornerstone Barristers | 2 | Michael Bedford, Richard Ground |
| Crown Office Chambers | 2 | James Maxwell-Scott, Kim Franklin |
| 20 Essex Street | 2 | Sudhanshu Swaroop, Julian Kenny |
| Serle Court | 2 | Andrew Moran, Daniel Lightman |
Duncan Matthews QC (pictured), joint head of 20 Essex Street, said one well-documented area holding female applicants back is what he described as the ‘confidence differential’ – the tendency of under-skilled males to think highly of their abilities and ‘have a go’, contrasting with the tendency of suitably skilled females to doubt their skills and hold back.
‘The twin attack on increasing the available pool and promoting the willingness of available candidates to actually apply will feed through into ensuring there is a larger number of suitable candidates and they do apply,’ he said. ‘I have no reason to doubt the appointments process now in place will then do the rest.’
Meanwhile, of the nine solicitor-advocates who applied, there were three successful candidates, a fall on 2014/15 when five were appointed. This year’s new QCs include Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan arbitration head Stephen Jagusch; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher international arbitration group co-chair Penny Madden; and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer London arbitration head Nigel Rawding.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk