The merits of giving the best advocates a badge of excellence

The increase in the proportion of women and ethnic minorities on the new Queen's counsel list is something the MoJ should celebrate.

The MoJ found itself pretty much at sea on Tuesday when it named the newly appointed Queen's counsel. It described them as "Queens' council", thus spelling both words wrongly.

This was corrected after I had pointed it out on Twitter. But the ministry still listed the new senior lawyers alphabetically rather than in order of seniority, thus diminishing the achievements of those at the very bottom of the list who – having achieved the coveted rank early in their careers – must now be tipped for the very top of their profession.

The MoJ also failed to indicate which of the successful applicants for silk were barristers and which were solicitors. Nor did it list the inns of court of which the new barristers were members, making it harder to draw up the traditional league tables.

The chambers to which the new QCs belong were strangely reticent about announcing their success yesterday. That seems to be because they were told that the names would not be published until today. The QC appointments website says the appointments "will be announced on Wednesday 2 March" but it also says the appointments "were announced on Tuesday 1 March".

If chambers were told to keep the names under wraps until this morning, they may wonder why the MoJ circulated them yesterday with no request for an embargo and then proceeded to publish them on its website. Chambers marketing departments seem to have observed a government embargo that the government itself had broken.

Trying to pick out some of the noteworthy QCs myself, I was pleased to see the name of Julian Knowles, the extradition specialist at Matrix Chambers who was criticised by some readers of this blog last week for correctly predicting that Julian Assange would lose his extradition challenge.

Phillippa Kaufmann has reached the barristers' front row by specialising in the unfashionable and hardly very lucrative area of prisoners' rights. Her contemporary Kirsty Brimelow, a criminal defence lawyer, is another rising star from Doughty Street chambers.

David Lock, a new QC who practises from Birmingham, has the unique distinction of having been a junior minister in the Lord Chancellor's Department. He worked under Lord Irvine, the minister who tried to scrap the QC system in 2003.

Irvine's proposal went down badly with the legal profession, which regarded "silk" as a useful kitemark. It arranged to take over the selection process from the government, funding the lengthy assessment process from substantial fees paid by applicants.

Figures released yesterday indicate that 48% of the barristers who applied for silk were successful. The success rate for solicitors was 40% . That sounds good until you realise that only two solicitors were appointed of the five who applied. But one of them was David Price, who runs a well-respected media law practice based in Fleet Street.

Perhaps the most encouraging news is the steady increase in the proportion of women and members of ethnic minorities. However, the MoJ seemed strangely coy about celebrating their achievements, not referring to them in its press release.

We have surely moved on in the 20 years since Patricia Scotland became the first black woman QC, a groundbreaking distinction that the lord chancellor of the day felt it inappropriate to mention.

And why no plug for Philip Bennetts, a barrister on the staff of the Crown Prosecution Service and only the third "employed barrister" ever to become a QC?

Twenty-seven women appear in the new list. Though not a record in itself – 33 women were appointed in 2006, following the three-year Irvine hiatus – it means that women make up more than one in five of the new QCs. Two-thirds of the women who applied were successful.

Prof Dame Joan Higgins, who chairs the QC selection panel, accepted that relatively few female advocates were applying for silk. "But the markedly higher success rate for women applicants this year should send a positive signal to all suitably qualified women advocates, whether barrister or solicitor," she added.

Twelve of the 120 new QCs are from ethnic minorities – again, not a record but around twice as many as in recent years.

Cynics may argue that the only reason for appointing lawyers to the rank of QC is to enable them to charge higher fees. But in a profession of freelances, there is no harm in giving some of the best advocates a badge of excellence.

Despite Irvine's attempt to kill off the status that marked him out as a leader in his field, the rank of "Her Majesty's counsel learned in the law" still serves a useful purpose.

(Published by The Guardian - March 2, 2011)