23rd March 2026
Congratulations to Jennie Gillies KC who was formally sworn in as Silk today following a ceremony at Westminster.
Jennie is featured in ‘Silks Day 2026: Meet the stars from The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases’ article, published this morning.
Jennie Gillies was straight out of a three-day trial and sitting with her instructing solicitor when the email about her silk application came in. For Gillies, this marks the start of a new era, having left the Bar in 2015 for an in-house role at engineering consultant Arup. She took a career break in 2017, before returning to 4 Pump Court two years later with a deeper understanding of the world in which clients operate.
On rejoining, Gillies says her priority was not taking silk, but instead coordinating all the moving parts in both her professional and family life. “It doesn’t mean the same thing it did in 2000 when I was called to the Bar it’s very different now,” Gillies tells the Lawyer. She is pleased not just for herself, but also for those around her who have children and express doubts about taking silk. Explaining that she wasn’t always upfront about juggling work with her personal life, Gillies says that Covid-19 marked a turning point for her. It opened up discourse about family and work life, and redefined the boundaries between work and home. The silk application process was empowering, she claims, enabling her to reach out to colleagues, opponents and judges for feedback. Describing it as an “ excruciating process” at times, Gillies adds that the response was uplifting. “
Until you go through the silk application process, I am not sure you ever get that feedback because we are quite lone wolves in many ways. It’ s quite rare to have feedback,” she says. Her advice to junior barristers who may be considering silk is to have a sense of self belief and remember that they probably do have more than enough experience to put down on the application form. A true construction expert, Gillies has been involved in the three main cases on remediation contribution orders, one of which features in The Lawyer’s top 20 cases of 2026 Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government v Urban Splash and others. While her client recently settled its claim, the trial for the other parties continues and is due to kick off next month.
Access the full article can be accessed here.
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