Chairman Anthony Burton appointed a CBE in New Year Honours list

Anthony Burton, Chairman of the English Stage Company since 2005 has been appointed a CBE for services to the theatre in the New Year Honours List.

Anthony has been associated with the Royal Court for 30 years. He first joined the Council in 1983 during Artistic Director Max Stafford Clark’s tenure, after being asked to advise as a lawyer the previous year, on the play Operation Bad Apple by GF Newman directed by Max Stafford Clark.

During his time at the Royal Court, he has seen four Artistic Directors at the helm, including Max Stafford Clark, Ian Rickson and Stephen Daldry and will oversee the appointment of a new Artistic Director when Dominic Cooke steps down in 2013. He was also integral to the Royal Court’s major rebuild project, during which time the building temporary relocated to the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End before reopening in Sloane Square in 2000.

Anthony Burton said:

“Although a very humbling personal accolade for which I am very grateful, it is a testament to the amazing work of everybody past and present at the Royal Court. It is a privilege and joy to be part of the best theatre in the world”

Anthony is a Solicitor and a Senior Partner of Simons Muirhead & Burton. He is Recorder of the Crown Court and a Higher Court Advocate. He specialises in fraud and business crime litigation, international criminal law, theatre law and defamation. He is a Council member of Justice, a member of the International Bar Association, the Law Society of England and Wales. He is also Chair of the Death Penalty Project which provides free represention and assistance to anyone facing execution in all jurisdictions where the death penalty is imposed.