Record year for ethnic minorities in latest silk round but number of female applicants falls

Clydes, HSF, Freshfields and White & Case arbitration partners among new QCs

A record 22 applicants from ethnic minority backgrounds have been elevated to Queen’s Counsel (QC) in the latest round from a total 114 taking silk. But while the overall number of new silks is up 6% from 108 last year, the number of female applicants fell slightly.

Singapore-based Sapna Jhangiani (pictured) from Clyde & Co was among only five solicitors appointed silk – all with an international arbitration focus and practising in jurisdictions outside the UK.

Jhangiani told Legal Business: ‘I’ve been very blessed to be able to pursue a career that I love. I look forward to continuing to build internal advocacy referrals within my firm and I hope that being a QC will give clients even more confidence that we can offer them a top-level service.’

With 22 non-white applicants out of 42 appointed as QCs, the success rate is up to over half (52%), while last year 13 out of 30 non-white applicants (43%) were successful. ‘Having more ethnic diversity in the appointments can only be a very good thing,’ added Jhangiani.

Jhangiani is also one of 30 successful female candidates taking silk this year – the same number as last year – although the number of women applying to become QC fell from 55 to 52 in the 2019 round, meaning the share of total female applicants fell from 51% to 46% year-on-year.

‘It’s disappointing that more women don’t apply for silk, but we must not forget that, on the whole, women have a higher success rate than men in the competition,’ says Jhangiani. ‘This year the success rate for female applications was a robust 60%. There are a healthy number of women silks in the field of international arbitration, but that does not mean that there is not room for improvement.’

Elsewhere, Paris-based Andrew de Lotbinière McDougall from White & Case and Jason Fry from Clifford Chance, along with Nigel Blackaby from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Washington and Simon Chapman from Herbert Smith Freehills in Hong Kong were also appointed QC.

Chapman told Legal Business: ‘It’s a great accolade, especially as there are still relatively few solicitors who take silk. The QC badge can be quite important for clients in Asia – it is often something we are asked about in mainland China, for example, but also in other jurisdictions across the region. There are very few law firms that can offer a practising QC based full-time in this part of the world, so that’s a great selling point for us.’

The appointment of arbitration solicitors, particularly practitioners based outside of London, says a great deal about the development of the practice area and the role solicitors play in international arbitration, according to Chapman. ‘A number of firms that conduct their own advocacy in arbitration cases have made that a hallmark of their practice in the last five to ten years.’

Among the most successful individual sets, Fountain Court Chambers had a record year following the appointment of six new QCs: Robin Barclay, Chloe Carpenter, Edward Levey, Ben Lynch, Tamara Oppenheimer and Giles Wheeler. This was a stark contrast to last year’s QC list where only one barrister from the ‘Magic Circle’ set, Nicholas Medcroft, was appointed, while three made the silk round in 2017. Other notable chambers, including Essex Court Chambers, 4 Pump Court and One Crown Office Row, did not have any successful candidates in this year’s silk round.

Levey told Legal Business: ‘The fact that we’ve got six is a tribute to the system – that they don’t choose based on your chambers. It demonstrates that the system is fair, and it may be that in another year other sets will get lots and we won’t get so many.’

All appointed QCs will formally become silks at a ceremony on 16 March.

muna.abdi@legalease.co.uk