Queen's Counsel

American  

noun

1. King's Counsel.

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Queen's Counsel British  

noun

1. Also called (when the sovereign is male): King's Counsel.  (in England when the sovereign is female) a barrister or advocate appointed Counsel to the Crown on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor, entitled to sit within the bar of the court and to wear a silk gown

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Etymology

Origin of Queen's Counsel

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

Finally, barristers and solicitors who have been appointed by the monarch to be Queen's Counsel will now be known as King's Counsel with immediate effect.

From BBC • Sep. 9, 2022

Queen’s Counsel barrister Nick Vineall, representing the Maduro-backed central bank, said that rather than being “fatal” to his side’s case, the UK foreign secretary’s statement had instead supported it.

From Reuters • Jul. 19, 2021

In the 1980s, she was appointed to the Law Commission, an independent body that scrutinizes laws in England and Wales, and became a Queen’s Counsel, a member of a select group of senior trial lawyers.

From New York Times • Sep. 24, 2019

But Mullen was riled by the leading defense barristers, who were all Queen’s Counsel, the finest trial lawyers in Britain.

From The New Yorker • May 20, 2019

Educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he took his M.A. degree, he was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1845, and became Queen’s Counsel in 1873. 

From Norfolk Annals A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth Century, Vol. 2 by Mackie, Charles