The Ministry of Justice is inviting nominations for the award of King’s Counsel Honoris Causa. The nomination window is open now and will close on 18th September.
To be eligible for the award, the individual must be a qualified lawyer or legal academic,including solicitors, barristers and chartered legal executives.
The honorary award is unique to the law and legal profession and granted under the royal prerogative. “It is a dedicated opportunity to recognise lawyers and legal academics who have made a major contribution to, and impact on, the law of England and Wales or the legal profession outside the courtroom”, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.
The award is not a working rank and is separate from substantive KC appointments administered by King’s Counsel Appointments, which recognise excellence in advocacy in the higher courts.
It is awarded for a significant, positive impact either on the shape of the law of England and Wales, or on the legal profession, for work outside the courtroom.
The criterion can be interpreted broadly, the MoJ explained, either as a major contribution to the development of the law of England and Wales (for example, by dedicated research, influencing case law/legislation and promoting initiatives), or to how it is advanced (for example, by positively impacting the shape of the profession).
Professor David Hodson OBE (right) is a previous recipient of the honorary award. A family law solicitor, mediator, arbitrator and deputy judge specialising in international family law and dispute resolution, he was nominated for his work developing England’s family law arbitration, directive mediation, family accreditation and plain-English good practice codes.
The initiatives were recognised for encouraging out-of-court settlement and making family law more accessible.
The nomination also pointed to his authorship of a leading practitioner text on international family law and his co-founding of innovative law firms that brought together lawyers, mediators and counsellors and to support international families, which won the Law Society’s Excellence award in 2019.
The nomination also recognised his long-standing work to promote understanding of the international aspects of family law among lawyers in England and Wales.
