The Legal Services Regulatory Authority has been making detailed preparations for the establishment and coming into operation of the Advisory Committee on the Grant of Patents of Precedence under the relevant terms of part 12 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015, which I commenced on 7 October 2019.
I have nominated Dr. Don Thornhill as the first lay member of the Authority to serve on the Advisory Committee under the relevant terms of section 172 of the Act. It is therefore anticipated that the Advisory Committee, which is to be chaired by the Chief Justice, will be in a position to commence its work at the earliest opportunity. However this will, understandably, be subject to those measures currently being implemented in response to the COVID-19 health emergency.
These latest reforms under the 2015 act will modernise and give greater transparency to the procedures for the granting of patents of precedence under the title of "Senior Counsel". The Advisory Committee will establish the criteria to be met by a legal practitioner, whether a solicitor or barrister, in order for a recommendation to be made to the Government that a patent of precedence be granted. These criteria are to be based on the objectives of ensuring that a legal practitioner seeking to have a patent granted has displayed a degree of competence and a degree of probity appropriate to, and consistent with, being granted a patent and has displayed professional independence. Candidates will also need to have displayed a professional capacity for excellence in the practice of advocacy, for excellence in the practice of specialist litigation, or, specialist knowledge of an area of law, in the manner specified under the act.
