Women in silk
And other tales from the courts
More than 350 women KCs gathered at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this week to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first women to be appointed King’s Counsel.
Helena Normanton and Rose Heilbron both took silk in 1949. Heilbron was the youngest since 1783. When her daughter Hilary was awarded the rank in 1987, she was only the 29th woman silk.
Hilary Heilbron KC said:
I am extremely proud to join with so many others in tonight’s celebration of the achievements of my mother, aged only 34, and Helena Normanton in breaking the mould 75 years ago by being the first women to take silk.
As a strong and vocal supporter of women’s rights and opportunities for women in the law, my mother would have been delighted to learn of the progress that has been made, slow though it has been: even as late as 1969, she was the only female QC practising at the bar in the country.
Eleanor Platt KC, who became the 19th woman to take silk in 1982, keeps a list of every woman appointed. When the successful applicants are announced each year, she writes a personal message of congratulations to each of them, letting them know how many have gone before. Her list now has 641 names.
The lady chief justice, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill — who became the 147th woman to take silk in 2003 — told those attending the reception on Monday night:
Women are generally well represented in the legal professions but we still see fewer women in the top positions. And although progress has been made in improving the prospects for women in the law generally, the path is much harder for some women than others. We must focus on how intersectionality can impact representation, where gender combines with other protected characteristics. As an example, there are relatively fewer women from minority ethnic backgrounds in silk…
A modern judiciary should reflect the society it serves. Not only does this build confidence in the courts and the justice system but it is just the right thing to do. So the Judicial Diversity Forum is really important, co-ordinating efforts across the board.
I work with the lord chancellor and leaders of the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Legal Services Board, CILEX, the Bar Council and the Law Society in co-ordinating efforts to ensure, amongst other things, that there is a pipeline of great talent from all backgrounds. The silk milestone can be an important part of that journey.
Appointment as King’s Counsel recognises excellence in courtroom advocacy. All living Queen’s Counsel became King’s Counsel on the death of the late Queen. They are called silks because the gowns they wear in court are slightly shinier than those worn by junior counsel.
Legal executive on the bench
Congratulations to Nick Hanning, the first chartered legal executive to be made a recorder — effectively a part-time circuit judge who may sit in the Crown court, the family court or the county court. Hanning, who celebrates his 60th birthday today, has been a deputy district judge since 2020.
CILEX lawyers, as they are now called, have been eligible since last year to apply for posts as recorders and judges of the Upper Tribunal. Hanning will have to complete a series of courses in the spring before he can sit in the family court.1
Chris Bones, who chairs CILEX, said:
We congratulate Nick on this major landmark, one achieved purely on merit. He has been a pioneer for the profession in many ways and has all the attributes needed for an appointment like this. Increasing the diversity of professional background and perspective on the bench is one of the reasons the government changed the law last year.
Hanning encouraged CILEX lawyers to build the experience they would need for judicial appointment:
I’d suggest that one of my strengths is a varied background which has helped me develop empathy and objectivity, whether serving on the boards of CILEX and CILEx Regulation or volunteering for a variety of pro bono charities. There are plenty of opportunities out there in the profession to gain experience beyond the confines of practice.
Update 14 November: Hanning was sworn in yesterday by the lady chief justice:
Top judge off the bench
Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers KG has confirmed that he is not seeking to extend his term a a judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. He told The Times that he was leaving for “personal not political reasons”.
Phillips, who became the first president of the UK Supreme Court when it started work 15 years ago, has served four three-year terms in Hong Kong. A Knight of the Garter, he was awarded the territory’s Gold Bauhinia Star last year.
His departure leaves only two British judges sitting in Hong Kong: Lord Hoffmann, a former law lord, and Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, a former president of the Supreme Court. Two of their UK colleagues resigned in June.
When justice miscarries
On 5 October 1974, 50 years ago this weekend, the IRA detonated two bombs at pubs in Surrey that were popular with local military personnel. Four soldiers and one civilian were killed. A year later, four people — the Guildford Four as they were known — were wrongly convicted of the murders. Two of the four were also wrongly convicted of murders arising from an explosion at a pub in Woolwich, south London. They were cleared after serving 15 years in prison.
Less than seven weeks after the Guildford bombings, bombs left at two pubs in Birmingham killed 21 people. Six men were wrongly convicted the following year. The Birmingham Six spent more than 16 years in prison before they too were cleared.
The former MP Chris Mullin investigated the cases as a young journalist, exposing the failings of the police and managing to track down some of the real bombers. At 8pm on BBC Radio 4 this Saturday night, he presents an hour-long edition of Archive on 4, explaining how these and other cases proved to be the most challenging miscarriages of justice our legal system had faced — until the Post Office scandal emerged.
One of those taking part in the documentary is Ros Franey, co-author with Grant McKee of Time Bomb — a book that was central to reopening the case. The book was first published in 1988 and an updated version, with important new material, has just been released.
A Lawyer Writes will not be published tomorrow or on Friday.
An earlier version of this piece suggested that other CILEX lawyers had been appointed and would be named in due course. That was based on a misunderstanding — though it may prove to be correct.
With every respect to Kate Graves- who of course has a point- it REMAINS very important for those in authority to keep re-asserting these unarguable and undilutable principles. Just let us remember the chilling dismissal incorporated in the words of for example Liz Truss as Justice Secretary and the “Enemies of the People” headline, etcetera.
Many congratulations to Mr Nick Hanning. I often say that my own Legal Executive with little doubt was a better lawyer than me.
One creditable memory of Lord Phillips is of his masquerading as an offender sentenced to unpaid work so as to experience for himself the nature and value of THAT species of sentence. All praise to him for that- ideally every holder of senior political office should be required to consumer test prisons, tagging, house arrest and- for example- weekend custody.
As to the Guildford Four, one of my all time heroes and I am proud to say a good and close friend is Alastair Logan, who as a solicitor in general practice -after first having declined- then took on the defence of those accused, at a time when to have done so had invited the deepest opprobrium, then took on the case, which changed him into a dedicated seeker of truth and doughty fighter for human rights.
As to the Birmingham bombings Yvonne and I had been just up the road at a CBSO Concert in the Town Hall at the time of the detonations. The following morning on my way into my office in Brum City Centre I passed the one demolished pub. The atmosphere at the time was febrile and vengeful towards anyone of an Irish extraction. At Longbridge car factory management turned back any such at the entry gate since makeshift gallows had been erected for them. I myself represented the piper at McDade’s Coventry funeral since an experienced colleague had implored me to take it off him because of his “strong feelings”. Minor charge though it had been, I still checked the underneath of my car before driving away from the Court after his hearing. Such was the spirit of the time.
When you and I started, Joshua - around 1968 (+/-) - we had managing clerks. They knew knew everything about how courts worked, if not always much about the underlying law. Around then they became legal executives. I worked with a legal executive in Bristol who had started as an 'office boy' in 1933 aged 14. When he came back to Bristol after the war to return to EJ Watson, Cox & Counsell, he thought, was the worst thing he had ever done. Maybe. But I am sure that what George Jones did not know about divorce law and procedure (and how Bristol County Court and District Registry worked) was not worth knowing.
Now CILEX and judges. George would have made an excellent - if a little impatient - judge. I have a short series of recollections of his about law and lawyers in Bristol, penned some years after his retirement. He entitled it 'Not entirely without prejudice'.