Queensland's silk road

Tiny club of Queensland SCs holding up rather well ... Central argument for the reintroduction of QCs shown to be spurious ... SCs also getting briefs because they stood against the tide 

The rush for letters patentTHERE are four silks in Queensland who didn't dash for the bauble when the Conveyancer General reintroduced QCs: Peter Callaghan SC, Dan O'Gorman SC, Tim North SC and Stephen Keim SC. 

You'd expect by now that those four were packing-up chambers and moving their practices into cars or cafés. 

After all, the argument of the pro-QC people has been that it would be ruinously uncompetitive to remain as a Senior Counsel while the rest of the free world had framed letters patent blue-tacked to their walls. 

Furthermore, they'd be frozen out of the Asian market. 

See reasons of the Conveyancer General 
 
So it was with a heavy heart that Justinian approached the four holders of the Star of Courage at the Qld bar n grill to commiserate about their declining fortunes. 

To our amazement, the dire prediction that SCs would drown in a sea of QCs hasn't been born out by the experience of the stick-in-the-muds. 

By implication, since the work at the Brizzy Bar has been static or declining over the past few years, if SCs are holding their own or even increasing their work, it must mean that there has been no increase in work for the sparkling new QCs. 

Here's what the Four Musketeers say ... on the record. 

O'Gorman: competitive advantage of QCs is rubbish Dan O'Gorman 

"I believe that the argument that QC gives a competitive advantage over SC is rubbish. The change in Queensland in 2013 does not appear to have resulted in any change to my level of work. 

I also find the Asia argument to be hollow. I believe that no Asian country appoints QCs any longer. 

Further, it is arguable that the change back to QC for this reason is duplicitous because it implies that the person was appointed silk at an earlier time than was in fact the case." 

We've also heard from another lawyer in Brisbane that O'Gorman got at least one brief that he might not otherwise have received.

The client wanted the services of a silk who would not take a backward step in the matter. 

North: pipped for the P&CApparently, the client thought O'Gorman's refusal to "follow the crowd" as evidence of someone who fitted the bill. 

Tim North

"I am not feeling any less loved than before, although I am prepared to assume that if we were competing  for a position in a branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society or a P&C at a school in one of the leafier suburbs a QC may have an edge over me."  

Peter Callaghan 

"The solicitors who used to brief me still do. They are all intelligent and perspicacious individuals and so no change in attitude from them is no surprise.

Seriously, I cannot recall ever speaking with any solicitor who was confused Callaghan: doesn't play golfabout the issue or allowed their briefing practices to be influenced by it. 

I have, since the switch, been briefed by a few firms who have never briefed me before. Whether it has anything to do with my choice I'm not sure. 

When the subject comes up I now only say that I don't play golf (cue Bret Walker's article)." 

Stephen Keim 

"I must say that this is about the Keim: busiest he has beenbusiest I can remember being although I would hesitate to attribute a causal relationship, either way. 

An interesting note is that whoever ordered the name tags at the Hangar Royal Commission made all the silks QCs for the duration of the hearing including those from the Socialist Republics of Sydney and Canberra."