King's Counsel

king's + counsel

King's Counsel (plural King's Counsel or King's Counsels, abbreviation KC)

1. (UK, Canada, New Zealand, occasionally Australia) An honorific status officially conferred on senior or meritorious barristers (and occasionally other kinds of lawyer) during the reign of a king.
   • 1994, Robert Rhodes James, “‘A Morbid Misery’”, in Henry Wellcome, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 292:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

2. (UK, historical) A barrister or advocate appointed by the Crown during the reign of a king.

• During the reign of a queen, the position is styled Queen's Counsel (QC).

• Senior Counsel
• take silk