Crime
At the criminal Bar you may be called on to act for either the defence or the prosecution. Specialist criminal law chambers offer expertise in all areas, including child abuse, drug offences, fraud, human rights, mental illness, violent and sexual crime, and white collar crime. As might be expected, criminal barristers spend more time in court than those in almost any other sector of the Bar. The international aspect of criminal law includes human rights, terrorism, war crimes, organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering. Practitioners in international criminal law regularly appear before foreign tribunals and international courts. In her own words, Helen Law was “one of those very sad people who at the age of 14 decided I wanted to be a barrister, specifically a criminal barrister”, so there was no agonising on a ‘what to do with my life’ level for her teenaged self, at least. Later, she did a couple of placements at solicitors’ firms, but as was fairly clear from the start, they most served to confirm that the Bar was her calling. Although, as Helen points out: “The end point was clear, but the route is always a little unpredictable when you’re talking about the Bar.” After graduating in law from the University of Birmingham, doing a master’s in public international law and working as a research assistant at the Law Commission for a year, Helen completed the Bar course and secured pupillage – or ‘traineeship’ as it is termed at this set – at Matrix Chambers, whose barristers cover a wide range of practice areas including crime. “My traineeship was certainly challenging, as you are put under a level of personal scrutiny which I don’t think you get in many other job interviews, but I found it utterly fascinating,” she recalls of the experience. “My first trainee supervisor was Julian Knowles, who at the time was a
junior on a very high-profile murder trial at the Old Bailey. This meant that only a week after I started, I was in court every day for three months – the experience was incredibly interesting and I learnt a lot from day one.” ‘White collar’ crime In the present, Helen is a successful crime barrister. “I do everything related to criminal justice, which also incorporates criminal law in a public law context – for example, challenging decisions not to prosecute,” she explains. “I also perform advisory work during the investigatory stages of criminal cases. For example, in a fraud investigation, I would advise a corporate or individual client about how the case may unfold. And of course I do trial and appellate work, both here and in Strasbourg. The core of my practice is traditionally known as ‘white collar’ crime, which involves fraud, corruption and money laundering. However, I’m also involved in other areas – I’m currently working on a corruption trial, but am also doing an appeal case concerning drug smuggling and have an immigration offence trial coming up, too.” The workload varies from case to case, particularly in terms of paperwork: “I did a case a few years ago where there were over 100 lever arch files of used and unused evidence, all of which had to be read. In comparison, the case I’m doing at the moment involves fewer than 10 lever arch files of evidence. Reading through the case files is the start of the process with every case – from there you figure out a case strategy which will inform what you do in the months leading up to the trial. There will usually be a lot of preliminary legal research and correspondence, such as disclosure applications. This means that a lot of my work is outside the court room. When a case does finally go to court, I’m often in court for anywhere between one week and three months, as financial crime trials tend to go on longer than some other types of criminal case.”
For more chambers that work in this practice area, please use the “Pupillage index” starting on p519.
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