Law Soc, Bar Council seek QC selectors

The search for lay members of the selection panel that will choose the first group of QCs to be appointed under the new scheme was launched last week.

A joint Law Society and Bar Council advertisement sought “applications from all sections of the community” for the three lay positions on the panel. The majority of the panel, however, will be nominated directly by Law Society president Edward Nally and Bar Council chair Guy Mansfield QC.

Nally and Mansfield are responsible for choosing the lay chair of the panel as well as the legal members – a senior retired judge, two senior solicitors and two senior barristers. They will also nominate two members of the three-strong appointments panel, which will oversee the applications for the selection panel, with those two members picking the third.

Next year it is hoped the selection panel will be chosen entirely by open competition.