A 1903 caricature of Robert McCall KC (formerly QC) wearing his court robes at the Bar of England and Wales. For court, he wears a short wig, and bands instead of lace at the collar, but he retains the silk gown and court tailcoat worn on ceremonial occasions.

Queen's Counsel (postnominal QC), known as King's Counsel (postnominal KC) during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law. Membership exists in various Commonwealth jurisdictions around the world, while in some other jurisdictions the name has been replaced by one without monarchical connotations, such as "Senior Counsel" or "Senior Advocate". Queen's Counsel is a status, conferred by the Crown, that is recognised by courts. Members have the privilege of sitting within the Bar of court.

As members wear silk gowns of a particular design (see court dress), the award of Queen's or King's Counsel is known informally as taking silk, and hence QCs are often colloquially called silks. Appointments are made from within the legal profession on the basis of merit rather than a particular level of experience. However, successful applicants tend to be barristers, or (in Scotland) advocates, or solicitor advocates with 15 years' experience or more.

History[link]

England and Wales[link]

Historical background[link]

The Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, and King's Serjeants were King's Counsel in Ordinary in the Kingdom of England. The first Queen's Counsel Extraordinary was Sir Francis Bacon, who was given a patent giving him precedence at the Bar in 1597, and formally styled King's Counsel in 1603.^[1][2]

The new rank of Queen's Counsel contributed to the gradual obsolescence of the formerly more senior Serjeant-at-law by superseding it. The Attorney-General and Solicitor-General had similarly succeeded the King's Serjeants as leaders of the Bar in Tudor times, though not technically senior until 1623 (except for the two senior King's Serjeants) and 1813 respectively.^[3] But the Queen's Counsel only emerged into eminence in the early 1830s, prior to when they were relatively few in number. It became the standard means of recognising that a barrister was a senior member of the profession, and the numbers multiplied accordingly.^[4] It became of greater professional importance to become a QC, and the serjeants gradually declined. The QCs inherited not merely the prestige of the serjeants, but their priority before the courts. The earliest English law list, published in 1775, lists 165 members of the Bar, of whom 14 were Queen's Counsel, a proportion of about 8.5%. As of 2010^[update] roughly the same proportion existed, though the number of barristers had increased to about 12,250 in independent practice (i.e., excluding pupil barristers and employed barristers).^[5]

Restrictions on Queen's Counsel[link]

Queen's Counsel and serjeants were prohibited, at least from the mid-nineteenth century, from drafting pleadings alone; a junior barrister had to be retained. They were also not permitted to appear in court without a junior barrister, and they had to have chambers in London.^[4] From the beginning, they were not allowed to appear against the Crown without a special licence, but this was generally given as a formality. This was particularly important in criminal cases, which are mostly brought in the name of the Crown, with the result that, until 1920 in England and Wales, King's and Queen's Counsel had to have a licence to appear in criminal cases for the defence. These restrictive practices had a number of consequences: they made the taking of silk something of a professional risk, because appointment abolished at a stroke some of the staple work of the junior barrister; they made the use of leading Counsel more expensive, and therefore ensured that they were retained only in more important cases, and they protected the work of the junior bar, which could not be excluded by the retention of leading Counsel. By the end of the twentieth century, however, all of these rules had been abolished one by one, so that appointment is now a matter of status and prestige only, with no formal disadvantages.^{[citation needed]}

Modern reforms[link]

Queen's Counsel were traditionally selected from barristers, rather than from lawyers in general, because they were counsel appointed to conduct court work on behalf of the Crown. Although the limitations on private instruction were gradually relaxed, QCs continued to be selected from barristers, who had the sole right of audience in the higher courts. However, in 1994 solicitors of England and Wales became entitled to gain rights of audience in the higher courts, and some 275 were so entitled in 1995. In 1995, these solicitors alone became entitled to apply for appointment as Queen's Counsel and the first two solicitors were appointed on 27 March 1997, out of 68 new QCs. These were Arthur Marriott (53), partner of the London office of the American law firm of Wilmer Cutler and Pickering, and Dr Lawrence Collins (55), a partner of the City law firm of Herbert Smith who was subsequently appointed as a High Court Judge and ultimately Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.^[6]

The first woman appointed King's Counsel was Helen Alice Kinnear in Canada in 1934. The first women to be appointed as King's Counsel in the United Kingdom were Helena Normanton and Rose Heilbron in 1949.

The appointment of new Queen's Counsel was suspended in 2003, and it was widely expected that the system would be abolished. However, a vigorous campaign was mounted in defence of the system, including those who supported it as an independent indication of excellence valued by outsiders (especially foreign commercial litigants) who did not have much else to go on,^[7][8] and those who contended in a letter to The Times that it was a means whereby the most able barristers from ethnic minorities could overcome prejudice.^[9] The Government's focus then switched from abolition to reform and, in particular, reform of the much-criticised "secret soundings" of Judges and other establishment legal figures upon which the old system was based, which was said to be inappropriate and unfair given the size of the modern profession, a possible source of improper Government patronage (since the final recommendations were made by the Lord Chancellor, who is a member of the Government), and discriminatory against part-time workers (especially women) and ethnic minorities.

In November 2004, after much public debate in favour of and against retaining the title (see for example Sasha Wass QC),^[10] it was announced that appointments of Queen's Counsel in England would be resumed but that future appointees would be chosen not by the government but by a nine-member panel, chaired by a lay person, which would include two barristers, two solicitors, one retired judge and three non-lawyers. Formally, the appointment remains a royal one made on the advice of the Secretary of State for Justice, but he no longer comments on individual applications, and merely supervises the process and reviews the panel's recommendations in general terms (satisfying himself that the process as operated is fair and efficient).

Application forms under the new system were released in July 2005 and the appointment of 175 new Queen's Counsel was announced on 20 July 2006. A total of 443 people had applied (including 68 women, 24 ethnic minority lawyers and 12 solicitors). Of the 175 appointed, 33 were women, 10 were from ethnic minorities, and 4 were solicitors. Six people were also appointed QC honoris causa.^[11] On 16 October 2006, a couple of weeks after the beginning of the legal year, the successful candidates made a declaration and received their letters patent from the Lord Chancellor in Westminster Hall.

Further appointments were announced on 22 January 2008 and 23 February 2010, and the process is now again annual, with the last appointments to date announced on 29 February 2012. Further information can be found at the Queen's Counsel Appointments website.^[12]

Scotland[link]

In Scotland, where the independent Bar is organised as the Faculty of Advocates and its members known not as barristers but as advocates, the position of Queen's Counsel was not recognised before 1868. Initially the status was reserved first for law officers (Lord Advocate and Solicitor General for Scotland) and soon after for the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. In 1897 a petition by the Faculty of Advocates for the establishment of a Scottish roll of Queen's Counsel was approved and the first appointments were made later in that year.

There are now over 150 QCs in Scotland.^[13] The appointment of Queen's Counsel is made on the recommendation of the Lord Justice General to the First Minister of Scotland, formerly the Secretary of State for Scotland. In the 1990s, it became possible for solicitors with rights of audience in the Court of Session or High Court of Justiciary to apply for appointment, and two or three have done so. A solicitor advocate who is so appointed is correctly designated as Queen's Counsel, Solicitor Advocate.

Northern Ireland[link]

The title of QC remains, but in 1998 two Northern Irish barristers (Seamus Treacy - now Mr Justice Treacy - and Barry Macdonald) opposed the requirement of swearing an oath of allegiance to the Crown (Queen Elizabeth II during her reign). The Bar Council (the body which represents barristers' interests) had agreed (in the Elliott report) that the royal oath should be dropped and replaced by a more neutral statement. It suggested that, instead of declaring their services to Queen Elizabeth, barristers should "sincerely promise and declare that I will well and truly serve all whom I may lawfully be called to serve in the office of one of Her Majesty's Counsel, learned in the law according to the best of my skill and understanding".^{[14][dubious – discuss]}

In 2000, the Northern Ireland High Court ruled in the barristers' favour, and after considerable wrangling the men were permitted to make "a more neutral statement".^{[15][dubious – discuss]}

In 1997, the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Carswell, wrote "I have little doubt myself that this is all part of an ongoing politically-based campaign to have the office of Queen's Counsel replaced by a rank entitled Senior Counsel, or something to that effect".^[16]

Nigeria[link]

Nigeria replaced the QC nomenclature with the new title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria with appointments restricted to fewer than 30 lawyers a year, made by the Chief Justice of Nigeria on the recommendation of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee which is made up of senior judges and lawyers. The qualification requirements are almost identical to those required for appointment as Queen's Counsel. They are entitled to wear silk gowns and enjoy similar privileges as the Queen's Counsel.

Hong Kong[link]

In Hong Kong, the rank of Queen's Counsel was granted when it was a crown colony and British dependent territory. A practising barrister may be appointed as Queen's Counsel in recognition of his or her professional eminence by Crown Patent on the advice of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong.^[17] As Hong Kong severed ties with the United Kingdom in 1997, barristers are no longer appointed Queen's Counsel (QC), but as Senior Counsel (SC). Those appointed before the change were renamed Senior Counsel.

Today[link]

Queen's Counsel are retained in several Commonwealth Realms where Queen Elizabeth II is head of state. In jurisdictions that have become republics, the office of Queen's Counsel has been replaced with an equivalent, for example, Senior Counsel in South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, Senior Advocate in Nigeria, India and Bangladesh, and President's Counsel in Sri Lanka.

Australia[link]

The Commonwealth of Australia at the federal level and most state and territory governments commenced replacing the title Queen's Counsel and appointment by letters patent with the title Senior Counsel (SC) as an honorific conferred by the legal profession itself. New South Wales was the first and Queensland followed in 1993. Most other states and the Commonwealth Government followed over the next 15 years. Those appointed before the change in the relevant jurisdiction may retain the old title. The only state or territory to retain the Queen's Counsel is the Northern Territory.

• The NSW Government replaced the office of Queen's Counsel with the office of Senior Counsel in 1993. All existing appointees could choose to continue to be called Queen's Counsel or change to the newer title of Senior Counsel. All new appointees were called Senior Counsel.^[18]
• The Supreme Court of Queensland replaced the title with Senior Counsel in 1994.^[19]
• The Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory effected a moratorium on appointment of Queen's Counsel in its own jurisdiction in 1995 in preference to appointing Senior Counsel.^[20][21]
• The Supreme Court of Victoria replaced the appointment of Queen's Counsel with Senior Counsel in 2000.^[22][23]
• The Supreme Court of Western Australia replaced the appointment of Queen's Counsel with Senior Counsel in 2001.^[24]

New Zealand[link]

In 2006, the title was renamed Senior Counsel, with the final appointments of Queen's Counsel occurring in 2007, after which the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (which made the change) came into force. However in June 2009, Attorney-General Hon Christopher Finlayson announced that the title of Queen's Counsel would be reinstated,^[25] and a bill to implement the restoration was introduced into Parliament in March 2010, with new conferences during 2010 and 2011 to the position.^[26]

Canada[link]

The practice of appointed Queen's Counsel continues in a number of Canada's provinces; appointments ceased in Ontario in 1985, and the federal government ceased the practice in 1993. No substitute distinctions have been implemented in these jurisdictions as it is felt that the practice is a form of political patronage and is best discontinued entirely. However, title holders continue to use the Q.C. postnominal letters. In Manitoba, it was proposed that the title would be replaced by Senior Counsel (S.C.) in 2001. Appointments were to be made by the Law Society of Manitoba.^[27] However, the practice was never adopted.

In Alberta the Lieutenant Governor in Council appoints the Queen’s Counsel recipients. Traditionally, the appointments are made every second year. The honorary title recognizes outstanding expertise, work and contributions in a lawyer’s public life.^[28]

In New Brunswick, the Lieutenant Governor appoints Queen's Counsel recipients on the advice of a committee comprising the Chief Justice of New Brunswick, the Attorney General, and the president of the Law Society of New Brunswick.

In British Columbia the practice continues; Queen's Counsel recipients are appointed by the provincial Attorney General. Candidates are recommended by an advisory panel composed of the chief justice of British Columbia, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, the chief judge of the Provincial Court, the president of the Law Society of British Columbia, a Law Society member appointed by the benchers (directors) and the deputy attorney general. The committee also seeks the views of the Canadian Bar Association (B.C. branch).^[29]

Sri Lanka[link]

President's Counsel (postnominal PC) is a professional rank, as their status is conferred by the president, recognised by the courts and wear silk gowns of a special design. It is the equivalent of the rank of Queen's Counsel in the United Kingdom, which was use in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) until 1972 when Sri Lanka became a republic, when the position became that of Senior Attorney-at-Law. In 1984 the position became the President's Counsel. The holder can use the post-nominal letters PC after his or her name.

Queen's Counsel dress[link]

The following relates to the dress of Queen's Counsel at the Bar of England and Wales. Most other jurisdictions adopt the same dress, but there are some local variations.

Queen's Counsel in England and Wales have two forms of official dress, depending on whether they are dressing for appearance in court before a judge, or a ceremonial occasion.

Court dress[link]

A junior barrister, if male, wears a white shirt and white wing-collar with bands, underneath a double-breasted or three-piece lounge suit of dark colour. He has a black "stuff" gown over his suit, and wears a short wig of horsehair. A female junior barrister wears similar garb.

Upon promotion to Queen's Counsel, the male barrister retains in court his winged collar, bands and short wig. However, instead of an ordinary dark jacket, he wears a special black court coat (frock coat) and waistcoat in a style unique to Queen's Counsel or, alternatively, a long-sleeved waistcoat in similar style with no frock coat, known as a "bum freezer" because it is cut off at the waist.

He also replaces the black stuff gown of a junior barrister with a black silk gown, although cheaper variants are also worn, including gowns of the same cut but all wool, or in a silk-wool mix, or in artificial silk. The all wool gown is, strictly speaking, a mourning gown, but that point is now of historical interest only. A female Queen's Counsel wears a similar gown and wig to that of her male counterparts.

Ceremonial dress[link]

For ceremonial occasions, Queen's Counsel wear black breeches and black stockings instead of trousers, and patent leather court shoes with buckles. They wear the same black frock coat and waistcoat worn when appearing in court (never the "bum freezer", however) but add lace at the wrists and also a lace stock at the collar. Bands are no longer worn at the collar in addition to the lace, and the winged collar is also dispensed with. They have white cotton gloves, but these are invariably carried and not worn. This part of their ceremonial dress is taken from the standard ceremonial dress worn at the Royal Court (as opposed to the Courts of Justice) by other courtiers.

In addition, however, Queen's Counsel wear distinctive full-bottomed wigs and their silk gowns. The silk gown is the same as that worn when appearing in court. It is this gown which gives rise to the colloquial reference to Queen's Counsel as silks and to the phrase taking silk referring to their appointment.

When wearing the full bottomed wig, Queen's Counsel have a black rosette hanging from the back of the neck, which was originally intended to catch oil and powder that might otherwise mark the silk gown. Modern wigs, however, are made of horsehair and so there is no longer any oil or powder.

See also[link]

• Senior Counsel, similar status used by some jurisdictions in which the British monarch is not head of state and also in most of the several Australian jurisdictions (of which the monarch is head of state in all).
• Serjeant-at-law, a now defunct rank higher than that of QC.
• Silk (TV Series), a BBC 2011 legal drama showing the competitive pursuit of the silk.

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Queen’s Counsel of England and Wales 2010
• Paper on Queen's Counsel constitutional reforms
• Queen's Counsel – Historical Context a paper written in 2001 for the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society reviewing the history of the QC and current practices throughout Canada and the Commonwealth.
• Guardian 2004-04-10: QC system replaced by new scheme after 400 years
• Guardian 2004-05-28: U-turn lets QC title live on for now
• Website of the new English QC appointments procedure
• Canadian Forces Administrative Order 18-4 Recommendations for Canadian Orders, Decorations and Military Honours

v t e   Orders, decorations and medals of Canada Awards of valour Victoria Cross Cross of Valour National orders Order of Merit Order of Canada Order of Military Merit Order of Merit of the Police Forces Royal Victorian Order Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem Provincial orders Orders, decorations, and medals of the Canadian provinces Other decorations and medals Decorations War and operational service medals Special service medals United Nations medals NATO medals International mission medals Commemorative medals Long service and good conduct medals Exemplary service medals Special Medals

Queens is a borough of New York City.

Queens or queen's may also refer to:

In geography:

• Indian Queens, a village in the United Kingdom
• Queen's Pier, a demolished public ceremonial pier in Hong Kong
• Queensport, Nova Scotia
• Region of Queens Municipality, Nova Scotia
• Queens County (disambiguation)

In education:

• Queen's University, a research intensive university based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada
• Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
• Queens University of Charlotte, a private university located in the Myers Park neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina
• Queen's College (disambiguation), Queens' College or Queens College

In arts and literature:

• Queen's Theatre (disambiguation)
• Queens of the Stone Age, a rock band from California, United States
  • Queens of the Stone Age (album), the band's debut album
• Queens (group), a Polish musical group
• Queens (novel), a 1984 novel about gay life in London by Pickles (a pseudonym)
• Queens (film), a 2006 film by Spanish director Manuel Gomez Pereira
• Queen's (drama), a Taiwanese TV series based on the Korean comic book series by Ha Sung-Hyen

In sports and games:

• Queen's Club, a tennis club in West London, England
  • Queen's Club Championships, an annual tournament held at the club
• Queen of the South F.C., a football team in Dumfries, Scotland, whose name is often colloquially shortened to Queens

In armed forces:

• Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)
• Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment
• Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment
• The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada

Other uses:

• Queen's Scout, a scouting movement award

See also[link]

• Queen (disambiguation)
• Queening (disambiguation)
• Queens Plaza (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Keir Starmer, QC, (born 2 September 1962, Southwark) is a barrister in England and Wales. He became the fourteenth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the sixth head of the Crown Prosecution Service on 1 November 2008.^[1] Until then, although he had prosecuted cases for the CPS during his career, he was mainly known as a defence lawyer, with special expertise in the law of human rights.^[2]

Early life[link]

Starmer was the second of four children. He was named after former Labour Party leader and socialist Keir Hardie.^[3] He was educated at Reigate Grammar School. He gained a 1st class LLB from the University of Leeds in 1985 and a BCL from St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1986.

Career[link]

He became a barrister in 1987, became a Queen's Counsel in 2002, and was joint head of his chambers, Doughty Street Chambers.

Acting in several appeals to the Privy Council for defendants who had been sentenced to death in Caribbean countries, his legal submissions led to the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in those countries. He worked with lawyers in African countries towards the same end. In 2005 he persuaded the House of Lords that evidence obtained by torture should be inadmissible in court. In 2007 he represented two alleged terrorists in a case in the House of Lords in which he successfully challenged their control orders on human rights grounds. He has also acted in 15 other cases in the House of Lords since 1999, including two cases about the conduct of British soldiers in Iraq, and representing David Shayler in his appeal against conviction for breaching the Official Secrets Act 1989. He gave free legal advice to the defendants in the "McLibel" case,^[4] and was interviewed twice — ten years apart — in Franny Armstrong's 2005 documentary, McLibel.

He was a human rights advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and the Association of Chief Police Officers. He is a member of the Foreign Secretary's Death Penalty Advisory Panel. In 2007 he was named "QC of the Year."^[5] He is generally seen as supportive of the Labour Party.^[6]

DPP[link]

On 25 July 2008 the Attorney-General, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, QC, named him as the next head of the CPS, to take over from Sir Ken Macdonald, QC on 1 November 2008. Macdonald, himself a former defence lawyer, welcomed Starmer's appointment.

One issue he has had to deal with as DPP is that of victims' rights. After the controversial conviction of Munir Hussain on 14 December 2009 for attacking a burglar who had terrorized Hussain and his family, he said:

Keir Starmer QC^[7]:There are many cases, some involving death, where no prosecutions are brought ... We would only ever bring a prosecution where we thought that the degree of force was unreasonable in such a way that the jury would realistically convict. So these are very rare cases and history tells us that the current test works very well.

Starmer was involved^[8] in the decision to prosecute Omari Roberts, a trainee builder who killed a teenage burglar in a struggle at Roberts's mother's home.^[9] The prosecution case relied on the evidence of a second teenage burglar (who had many previous convictions for violent offences), and was eventually dropped on 19 April 2010, with Roberts being formally found not guilty. Mr. Roberts said:

Omari Roberts^[10]:I never understood why they would not believe me and why they constantly took the word of a 14-year-old criminal over mine.

Roberts's mother suggests that if she had not been so vocal in her protests over the decision to prosecute or the 2010 general election was not in progress, the prosecution might not have been dropped.^[8]

On 22 July 2010, Starmer announced the controversial decision not to prosecute the police officer Simon Harwood in relation to the Death of Ian Tomlinson resulting in accusations by Tomlinson's family of a police cover up.^[11]

On the 21st July 2011 Starmer was honoured at the University of Essex and was provided with an Honorary degree.^[12]

On 3 February 2012, Starmer announced that the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne MP and his former wife, Vicky Pryce would be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice. Huhne became the first Cabinet minister in British history to be compelled to resign as a result of criminal proceedings.^[13] Starmer had previously stated in relation to the case that "[w]here there is sufficient evidence we do not shy away from prosecuting politicians".^[14]

Publications[link]

He is the author and editor of several books about criminal law and human rights.^[15]

Personal life[link]

He married Victoria, a solicitor, in 2007 and has a son and daughter.^[16]

References[link]

External links[link]

• CPS

Dinah Rose, QC is a British human rights lawyer. A member of Blackstone Chambers, she was named Barrister of the Year in The Lawyer Awards 2009.^[1]

Rose was educated at City of London School for Girls and at Magdalen College, Oxford.^[1] She was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1989^[2] and took silk in 2006.^[2] In a July 2009 interview with The Lawyer, she referred to Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC as a ­"mentor" and described Lord Pannick QC as a "huge influence".^[3]

Notable cases[link]

She has appeared in many high profile human rights cases, including representing "extraordinary rendition" victim Binyam Mohamed at his controversial Court of Appeal hearing.^[4][5]

Rose also worked on the judicial review of the Attorney General's controversial decision to drop the investigation into alleged bribes of Saudi officials by BAE Systems.^[6]

She appeared for Julian Assange in Assange v The Swedish Judicial Authority before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, in his unsuccessful appeal against extradition to Sweden.^[7][8]

References[link]

Dame Rose Heilbron, DBE, QC (19 August 1914 - 8 December 2005) was one of the outstanding barristers of the post-war period in the United Kingdom, whose career included many 'firsts' for a woman - she was the first woman to win a scholarship to Gray's Inn, the first woman to be appointed King's Counsel in England, the first to lead in a murder case, the first woman Recorder, the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey and the first woman Treasurer of Gray's Inn.

Early life[link]

Heilbron was born in Liverpool, the daughter of a Jewish hotelier, Max Heilbron. She attended The Belvedere School and Liverpool University, where she became one of the first two women to gain a first class honours degree in law, in 1935. She was awarded the Lord Justice Holker scholarship at Gray's Inn in 1936, and she became one of only two women to hold a master of laws degree in 1937. Two years later she was called to the bar, joining the Northern Circuit.

Career[link]

In 1945, she married the Dublin-born Dr Nathaniel Burstein, whom she had met at court. He became a consultant at a Liverpool hospital, and there is little doubt that the availability of medical knowledge was a great help to her in some cases.

By 1946, Heilbron had appeared in 10 murder trials, and in 1949, she was one of the first two female King's Counsel at the English Bar (the other was Helena Normanton). She became something of a household name, especially in her home city, when, in 1949-50, she became the first woman to lead in a murder case, when she defended the gangster George Kelly, accused of shooting dead the deputy manager of the Cameo cinema in Liverpool, which became known as "The Cameo Murder". He reportedly said that he was not "having a Judy defend [him]", but he later praised her for her painstaking defence, which led to her being named the Daily Mirror' s "Woman of the Year". She was unable to save Kelly from the gallows, but the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction as unsafe in 2003.

Heilbron's successes in the first half of the 1950s included the defence of four men accused of hanging a boy during a burglary (she was able to show the death had been an accident) and of Louis Bloom, a solicitor from Hartlepool who was accused of murdering his mistress in his office. She was an honorary Colonel of the East Lancashire Battalion of the WRAC and the first woman in Liverpool to wear a calf-length evening dress.^{[citation needed]}

Heilbron was appointed as Recorder for Burnley in November 1956, the first appointment of a woman as Recorder, although not the first time one had sat. In 1957, she was the first woman to sit as a Commissioner of Assize. Although Elizabeth Lane was appointed the first female judge in the County Court in 1962 and of the High Court in 1965, Heilbron was appointed as the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey on 4 January 1972. She became leader of the Northern Circuit in 1973 but then followed Lane as the second woman High Court judge in 1974. She was assigned to the Family Division, and created a DBE.

Heilbron chaired a committee to consider reform of rape laws in 1975. The committee's subsequent report recommended that the identity of rape complainants should be kept secret, and that the defence should be limited in its ability to cross-examine the complainant about their sexual history in an effort to attack their character. In 1976, she was made an honorary fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where her daughter (Hilary Nora Burstein Heilbron, born 1949, who also became a QC, in 1987) had been educated.

Heilbron was presiding judge of the Northern Circuit from 1979 to 1982, and was Treasurer of Gray's Inn in 1985. She retired from judicial office in 1988.

Heilbron's rapid rise apparently was aided by the fact that so many men were in the armed forces during her first six years as a barrister during World War II.^{[citation needed]} Her hobbies included golf and walking, and she was a keen member of Soroptimist, the worldwide organisation for women in management and professions, working to advance human rights and the status of women.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

• Obituary (The Telegraph, 10 December 2005)
• Obituary (The Times, 13 December 2005)
• Obituary (The Guardian, 13 December 2005)