Dictionary

King's Counsel en · NOUN

Etymology

king's + counsel

Meanings

1. (Canada, New-Zealand, UK, qualifier:occasionally Australia) An honorific status officially conferred on senior or meritorious barristers (and occasionally other kinds of lawyer) during the reign of a king.
   • When the case eventually came to court in December 1903, Wellcome’s team, headed by Moulton, contained three King’s Counsel; they had marshalled seventy-two witnesses and intimated that they could produce as many again. 1994, Robert Rhodes James, “‘A Morbid Misery’”, in Henry Wellcome, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 292:
   • Arrayed in front of him was a very expensive line-up of London’s best legal brains. Each director had his own team of two, and in some cases three, defence barristers. Including two King’s Counsels who represented the Official Receiver, there were a dozen silks in court. 2011, Martin Vander Weyer, “[Misfeasance] Wilful Neglect?”, in Fortune’s Spear: The Story of the Blue-Blooded Rogue Behind the Most Notorious City Scandal of the 1920s, London: Elliott and Thompson Limited, →ISBN, page 256:
2. (UK, historical) A barrister or advocate appointed by the Crown during the reign of a king.

Forms

Relateds

Senior Counsel · take silk

Translations (6)

vo kronahilavogan (a barrister) · de Kronanwalt (a barrister) · vo kronajilavogan (a barrister) · vo kronalavogan (a barrister) · de Kronanwältin (a barrister) · cmn 御用大律師 /御用大律师 (a barrister)