Solicitor General appointed as Queen’s Counsel.

(CNS): Cheryll Richards and four other members of the Cayman Islands legal community have been appointed as Queen’s Counsel. Along with the solicitor general, Langston Sibblies, General Counsel to the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority; Justice Angus Foster, former Partner of Walkers and Acting Grand Court Judge; Kenneth Farrow, formerly Partner at Quin & Hampson and now Counsel at Mourant du Feu & Jeune; and Neil Timms, former partner of Maples and Calder, and now from his own Chambers in George Town have also been awarded their ‘silks.’

The appointments were made after consultation with the UK secretary of state and the governor, Stuart Jack, who effected the appointments by signing the Warrants of Appointment this week.  The recommendations for these new admissions to the Inner Bar of the Cayman Islands were made by Chief Justice Anthony Smellie following consultation with the other members of the Judiciary.  Smellie said these appointments were made “with regard to the needs of the jurisdiction for QCs,” noting that there are only two other Silks in active practice in the Cayman Islands.  Other holders have either moved out of the jurisdiction, retired, or channelled their service into the local judiciary. It will be the chief justice who will conduct a formal ceremony of admission of the five new Silks to the Inner Bar of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

QCs are recognised as the most eminent members of the Bar and bestowed in line with a 400-year-old tradition originating in the UK but now observed in Commonwealth countries. Queen’s Counsel, or King’s Counsel (KC) during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent  to be one of "Her Majesty’s Counsel learned in the law".

“The recognition of Queen’s Counsel comes with an understanding that appointees will do a fair amount of public interest or pro bono work,” said the CJ.

Historically, as well as giving counsel to the monarch, it was envisaged that Queen’s Counsels’ roles would extend to cases involving claims by ordinary people against even the King or Queen of the day, the Chief Justice said, alluding to the public-spirited nature of service expected of QCs.

According to the criteria in the UK, the award of Queen’s Counsel is for excellence in advocacy in the higher courts. It is made to experienced lawyers, both barristers and solicitors, who have a right of audience in the higher courts and who have demonstrated the competencies to a standard of excellence.

The Queen’s Counsel tradition began, the chief justice noted, on the public side of the administration of justice, and in the UK, where it had its genesis, attorneys general and solicitors general of England and Wales are automatically made QCs.  This, he said, is by virtue of the fact that the achievement of such status obviously implies eminencein the law.

Solicitor General Richards, who has been practising law since 1986, joined the Chambers of the Attorney General of the Cayman Islands in 1996, serving as Crown Counsel Criminal and later as Senior Crown Counsel International before her appointment as Solicitor General in 2005. As Solicitor General she acts for the Attorney General in his absence and appears in the Grand Court and the Court of Appeal in matters of importance.

Sibblies who has over 34 years experience at the Bar came to the Monetary Authority in September 2000 and was appointed Chairman of the Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission in July 2006.  He was appointed the first Executive Director of the Secretariat in the Portfolio of Finance in 1999 and has represented the Cayman Islands over the years at such forum as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), and the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD), among others.

Justice Foster has had a long-standing record of service as a lawyer and has been admitted to the Bar in the Cayman Islands for over 28 years and has appeared in many of the most significant cases before the Courts, not only in the Grand Court but also the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council. He has been acting as a judge in the Grand Court for just over two years.

Kenneth Farrow, who was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn, London, in 1966, was admitted as an attorney-at-law in the Cayman Islands with Quin & Hampson, dealing with corporate, commercial and trust litigation and corporate (including Cross-Border) insolvency, trusts and probate.  He became a Partner at Quin and Hampson in 2004 and Counsel at Mourant du Feu & Jeune in 2007. Neil Timms, who was called to the Bar in England and Wales in 1974 was first admitted as a Cayman Islands attorney in 1989, when he was engaged by Maples and Calder. For the past three years he has been in sole practice as an attorney, largely in the areas of commercial, trust and insolvency referrals.  He has also acted as an arbitrator.

Jack thanked the new Silks for their commitment to the public and noble service that he said this new honour denotes, and wished them continued success.