After studying law at Leeds University (LLB) and Oxford University (BCL), Keir Starmer was called to the Bar in 1987 and appointed Queen's Counsel in 2002. He has conducted cases at the highest level in England and Wales, including over 30 cases in the House of Lords (before it became the Supreme Court) and before the Privy Council. He has also conducted cases all over the world, including in international courts such as the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Right, the Caribbean Court of Justice and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.
He was named as QC of the Year in the field of human rights and public law in 2007 by the Chambers & Partners Directory and in 2005 he won the Bar Council's Sydney Elland Goldsmith award for his outstanding contribution to pro bono work in challenging the death penalty throughout the Caribbean and Africa.