Appointment of King's Counsel in Scotland 2025

2025 Appointment Round

On 23 January 2025, the then Lord Justice General, The Right Hon. Lord Carloway, intimated to the First Minister that he would like to start the process for the appointment of King’s Counsel and Honorary King’s Counsel for this year and that it would be the intention of his successor, The Right Hon. Lord Pentland, who was appointed on 3 February 2025, to introduce the new appointees at the Opening of the new Legal Year in September.

The First Minister replied on 13 February agreeing to these appointment rounds proceeding.

The Guide for Applicants explains that there is no fixed quota of King’s Counsel to be appointed at any time and that the Lord Justice General endeavours to ensure, in the interests of the public, clients and the courts, that an adequate number of King’s Counsel generally, and in specific areas of specialisation, is maintained. Each year, to inform the appointment round, the Lord Justice General discusses with the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates whether there is a shortage of King’s Counsel with certain specialisms: none were identified this year.

Advertisements were placed on the Judiciary of Scotland website and via the Law Society of Scotland and Scottish Legal News, as well as a Judicial Office for Scotland post on LinkedIn, on 28 February 2025. Notice was also sent by email to the Faculty of Advocates, the Society of Solicitor Advocates and the Law Society of Scotland.

This is less publicity in comparison with many public appointment processes but it is in line with recent practice and is appropriate given the relatively limited field of potential applicants.

Separate application forms were provided for advocates and solicitor advocates. These require applicants to complete a self-assessment with details of their experience and capabilities against the criteria in the Guide for Applicants and to set out why they consider themselves suitable for appointment. The three criteria in paragraphs 3.2 to 3.5 of the Guide are: Advocacy; Legal Ability and Experience; and Professional Qualities.

Last year, some changes were introduced to the Legal Ability and Experience criteria to recognise that, with changing practices in the courts, junior counsel have less opportunity than in the past to undertake appellate work: including because there is now more reliance on written submissions and senior counsel are increasingly being instructed to appear alone to make the oral submissions; the Sheriff Appeal Court now deals with the majority of criminal appeals; and there are now far fewer reparation cases heard by the Divisions of the Inner House.

For this year’s round, the role of the Sheriff Appeal Court has been reflected by adding the President of the Sheriff Appeal Court to those who are sent a list of candidates and asked to provide comment on any known applicant (paragraph 4.10 of the Guide refers).

All applicants were required to obtain two references from senior members of the legal profession fully familiar with their work; a majority of applicants provided references from judges. A simple form to help structure comments against the criteria was used by three-quarters of the referees.

Applicants were asked to complete a confidential Equalities Monitoring Form which is detached and not used in the decisions on appointment. The closing date for applications was 25 March and contact details in the Lord President’s Private Office were provided for enquiries.