{{Short description|British barrister and judge (born 1946)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Bellamy | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KC}} | image = Lord Bellamy QC 2022 (cropped).jpg | caption = Bellamy in 2022 | office = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice | term_start = 7 June 2022 | term_end = 5 July 2024 | prime_minister = Boris Johnson<br>Liz Truss<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ministerial Appointments: September 2022 |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministerial-appointments-september-2022 |access-date=2022-09-20 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref><br>Rishi Sunak | predecessor = The Lord Wolfson of Tredegar | successor = The Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede | office1 = Member of the House of Lords | status1 = Lord Temporal | term_label1 = Life peerage | term_start1 = 14 June 2022 | term_end1 = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|04|25|df=y}} | education = Tonbridge School | alma_mater = Brasenose College, Oxford | party = Conservative }} '''Christopher William Bellamy, Baron Bellamy''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|sep=,|KC}} (born 25 April 1946), is a British barrister and former judge.
== Early and personal life == Born on 25 April 1946, Bellamy's father was a physician. Bellamy attended the independent Tonbridge School and then Brasenose College, Oxford.<ref name=":0">[https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-7162 "Bellamy, Sir Christopher (William)"], ''Who's Who'' (online ed., Oxford University Press, December 2020). Retrieved 25 January 2021.</ref>
He is a member of the Athenaeum and Garrick clubs.<ref>{{Who's Who | year = 2023 | title = Bellamy, Baron, (Christopher William Bellamy) | id = U7162 }}</ref>
== Career == Bellamy was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1968. He spent a year teaching before starting to practise as a barrister in 1970,<ref name=":0" /> when he joined Monckton Chambers. He developed specialisms in European, competition and regulatory law, and in 1986 was appointed Queen's Counsel.<ref name=":1">[https://www.monckton.com/barrister/sir-christopher-bellamy/ "Sir Christopher Bellamy QC"], Monckton Chambers. Retrieved 25 January 2021.</ref>
Between 1992 and 1999, Bellamy was a judge of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities.<ref name=":1" /> He then served as a judge on the Employment Appeal Tribunal between 2000 and 2007,<ref name=":0" /> and as president of the United Kingdom's Competition Appeal Tribunals for the Competition Commission (between 1999 and 2003) and then of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (from 2003 to 2007).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
After leaving the judiciary in 2007, Bellamy became a senior consultant at Linklaters, where he was appointed chairman of its Global Competition Practice in 2011.<ref>[https://www.legal500.com/firms/2086-linklaters-llp/329-london-england/lawyers/621251-christopher-bellamy-qc-qc/ "Sir Christopher Bellamy QC"], ''The Legal 500''. Retrieved 25 January 2021.</ref> He left Linklaters in 2020 and resumed practising as a barrister at Monckton Chambers.<ref name=":1" />
Bellamy was elevated to the peerage as '''Baron Bellamy''' in the 2022 Special Honours.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://members.parliament.uk/member/4941/career|title=Lord Bellamy |access-date=21 April 2023}}</ref>
On 7 June 2022, Bellamy was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice in the Ministry of Justice, replacing David Wolfson.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/people/christopher-bellamy |title=Sir Christopher Bellamy QC |work=GOV.UK |access-date=7 June 2022}}</ref> Aged 76, he became the oldest minister in the Government. He was reappointed by Liz Truss and by Rishi Sunak.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ministerial Appointments commencing: 25 October 2022 |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministerial-appointments-25-october-2022 |access-date=2022-10-30 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref>
== Honours == Bellamy was a bencher of the Middle Temple in 1994.<ref name=":0" /> He was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours.<ref>''[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/55710/supplement/2 Supplement to the London Gazette]'', 31 December 1999 (issue no. 55710), p. 2.</ref> On 14 June 2022, to facilitate his ministerial role, he was created Baron Bellamy, of Waddesdon in the County of Buckinghamshire, for life, and was introduced to the House of Lords the same day, supported by Baroness Scott of Bybrook and Lord Anderson of Ipswich.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=The Lord Wolfson of Tredegar}} {{s-ttl|title=Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice|years=2022–2024}} {{s-aft|after=The Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede}} {{s-prec|uk}} {{s-bef|before=The Lord Harrington of Watford}} {{s-ttl|title=Gentlemen'''<br />''Baron Bellamy'' '''}} {{s-fol|after=The Lord Markham}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, Christopher Bellamy, Baron}} Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:British barristers Category:20th-century English judges Category:English King's Counsel Category:Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers Category:21st-century English judges Category:People educated at Tonbridge School Category:20th-century King's Counsel Category:21st-century King's Counsel Category:British King's Counsel Category:Lawyers awarded knighthoods