Professor Dame Joan Higgins (pictured) has been appointed as the new chairwoman of the Queen’s Counsel selection panel, to replace Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss.

Higgins, 60, has been a lay member of the selection panel since 2005 and will be the third person to chair it since it was set up in 2005. Higgins is chairwoman of the NHS Litigation Authority and a member of the House of Lords appointments commission.

She was appointed by an independent group led by Sir Roger Jackling, including the chief executives of the Law Society and the Bar Council.

Desmond Hudson, Law Society chief executive, said: ‘I congratulate Professor Dame Joan Higgins as the new chair of the Queen’s Counsel Selection Panel. I’m sure her invaluable experience will bring a safe pair of hands to the tiller and will continue the good work of Baroness Butler-Sloss.’

David Hobart, Bar Council chief executive, said Higgins’ role as a lay member has ‘given her a very firm grasp of the role and the value of Queen’s Counsel’ and he was delighted she would now be able to lead selection for the award of silk.

The current panel members are retired judge Sir Paul Kennedy, solicitor Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, barristers Jean Ritchie QC and Lord Carlile of Berriew QC and lay member Karamjit Singh. Appointments of another solicitor member and two lay members are under way.