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Richard Keen QC Elected New Dean of Faculty

News - date posted 28.11.07

Richard Keen QC has been elected as the new Dean of the Faculty of Advocates.

Mr Keen (53) takes up the office of Dean following a ballot of the Faculty's 730 members.

Richard Keen QC

Educated at Dollar Academy and Edinburgh University, Mr Keen was called to the Bar in 1980 and appointed as Queen Counsel in 1993. He was elected Treasurer of the Faculty in 2006. He succeeds Mr Roy Martin QC who retired from the post earlier this month after three years in office. There will now be a fresh election to appoint a new Treasurer.

Richard Keen is presently appearing for the family of Henri Paul at the coroner's inquest into the deaths of Diana Princess of Wales and Mr Dodi Al Fayed.

As a Junior Counsel, his area of practice covered commercial litigation and insurance work. From 1986 to 1993 he was Standing Counsel to the Department of Trade and Industry.

In 1989 he was instructed in the Inquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster. Subsequently he was engaged in the litigations which ultimately resolved the claims arising out of the disaster.

Since his appointment as QC in 1993 his principal area of practice has been commercial litigation, extending to banking, insurance, engineering, construction and offshore energy. His advisory work has included a number of major financial restructurings recently including British Energy.

In 2000 Mr Keen led the defence of Lamin Fhimah at the trial in the Netherlands relating to the Pan Am/Lockerbie bombing. Fhimah was acquitted. Mr Keen is listed by the Legal 500 as a leading Counsel in the areas of commercial litigation, construction litigation and media law.

Mr Keen said: "It is a great privilege to be elected as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. With that privilege comes responsibility - responsibility in particular for leading an independent and effective Bar which continues to meet the needs of those who require its services and the aspirations of those who provide them.

"If things are to remain the same then some things will require to change."

Faculty Vice-Dean Valerie Stacey was the other contender in the contest.

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