The Selection Panel

Introduction
The agreed Process provides for an independent Selection Panel, comprising a retired senior judge, senior barristers, senior solicitors and lay (not legally qualified) members. The Panel is chaired by a lay member.

Joan Higgins appointed Chair of the Queen's Counsel Selection Panel

It was announced on Thursday 7 May 2009 that Professor Dame Joan Higgins has been appointed as the new lay Chair of the Queen’s Counsel Selection Panel, replacing Baroness Butler-Sloss who had acted as interim Chair in the 2008-09 competition. Joan Higgins has been a member of the Selection Panel since 2005.

Baroness (Elizabeth) Butler-Sloss, Roy Amlot QC, Ruth Evans, and Christopher Woolley have stood down from service on the Queen's Counsel Selection Panel after three competitions.

On Friday 15 May the appointment of two new lay members and a solicitor member to the QC Appointments Selection Panel was announced. Sir Colin Budd, former Ambassador to the Netherlands, and Helen Pitcher, the Chief Executive and Deputy Chair of IDDAS, a company which specialises in mentoring and advisory services to senior executives, are the two new lay members. Razi Shah is the new solicitor member of the Appointments Panel.

It was also announced on Thursday 9 April that Lord Carlile of Berriew QC (Alex Carlile) has also been appointed to the Queen's Counsel Selection Panel, in place of Roy Amlot QC, as a barrister member.

Paul Kennedy, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, Jean Ritchie QC and Karamjit Singh continue as members for the Queen's Counsel Selection Panel.

For information about a member of the Queen's Counsel Selection Panel please click on relevant name:

Chairman

Members