King's Counsel

plural King's Counsels · abbreviation KC

1. CanadaNew ZealandUKoccasionally AustraliaAn 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

   1 more example

   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. UKhistoricalA barrister or advocate appointed by the Crown during the reign of a king.