UK's first solicitor QC reaches Court of Appeal

The first solicitor ever to be directly appointed to the High Court bench, Mr Justice Lawrence Collins, has been promoted to the Court of Appeal.

Judge Collins, who in 1997 also became one of the first two solicitors to take silk, was appointed to the High Court as a deputy judge the same year.

The former Herbert Smith partner qualified as a solicitor in 1968 and became a fully fledged Chancery Divison judge in 2000.

As a solicitor-advocate, he acted on many high-profile cases including representing the Government of Chile in the case to extradite General Pinochet.