{"id":1693,"date":"2017-02-23T15:48:13","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T15:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2022-04-13T16:14:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T16:14:26","slug":"cardiff-alumnus-appointed-to-queens-counsel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2017\/02\/23\/cardiff-alumnus-appointed-to-queens-counsel\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff alumnus appointed to Queen’s Counsel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Cotter (LLM 1993)<\/span> has been sworn in as one of 113 new Queen’s Counsel for 2017. The\u00a0new ‘silks’ were sworn in by the Lord Chancellor at Westminster Hall before a ceremony at the Royal Courts of Justice. Here, Mark shares how his time at Cardiff has helped him become\u00a0a leader in the field of\u00a0crime at the London Bar.<\/p>\n

“When I graduated with my LLB I did not get into Bar School.\u00a0\u00a0I wanted to do an LLM, but could only afford it if I stayed at home.\u00a0 As I am from Cardiff, it was the realistic choice. \u00a0The course helped me get back into the work ethic I had shown when in sixth form.\u00a0 I really enjoyed my undergraduate days but I needed to get back into serious academic study in preparation for the bar.\u00a0 It was invaluable.<\/p>\n

“I worked extremely hard that year as the course was very demanding.\u00a0However my favourite\u00a0memories are connected to when I became a music reviewer for Gair Rhydd<\/em>.\u00a0 So every week, I went to a meeting and was given free vinyl and CDs to review.\u00a0 I still have my presale copy of Mudhoney’s Piece of Cake and remember seeing them in the Great Hall.<\/p>\n

“When I completed the LLM, I moved to London and completed the Bar Vocational course. Then I worked for a few months as a paralegal before starting pupillage. I was taken on as a tenant in chambers following pupillage and stayed there until 2001 when I moved to my current chambers.<\/p>\n

“I now work as a barrister in independent practice specialising in criminal law. Day to day I am prosecuting or defending in some of the most substantial and serious cases in the country. I\u00a0regularly appear in London’s main courts, including the Old Bailey.<\/p>\n

“For Cardiff University students, my advice would be enjoy Cardiff. It\u2019s an amazing city, and\u00a0so many opportunities for outdoor pursuits on your doorstep. Make sure you explore other parts of the city away from the centre, it has some great areas, parks and pubs!”<\/p>\n

Do you have a story to share? Let us know by emailing us on alumni@cardiff.ac.uk or completing our alumni questionnaire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Cotter (LLM 1993) has been sworn in as one of 113 new Queen's Counsel for 2017. The\u00a0new 'silks' were sworn in by the Lord Chancellor at Westminster Hall before […]","protected":false},"author":1080,"featured_media":1701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,4,38],"tags":[132,131],"class_list":["post-1693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law","category-news","category-our-alumni","tag-law","tag-queens-counsel"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1080"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1693"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1753,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions\/1753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}