A personable and resolute advocate and possessed of care and compassion for all of her clients, Katie defends and prosecutes in the Crown Court. Her practice spans serious crime and appellate work.
Katie is a tactical advocate with impeccable judgement and a strong work ethic. Her advocacy is adaptable, well capable of being both forceful and disarming with an understanding of which is called for and when.
She has recently been instructed as either junior alone or led junior in cases of serious violence, robberies, kidnap, aggravated burglary, large-scale drug supply, money laundering, firearms, rape (disclosure junior) and other sexual offences.
Instructing solicitors have described her as “a remarkable talent” who achieves “exceptional outcomes”. “Her preparatory work is exceptional” and she brings “grace and quite a presence to the courtroom.” Opponents have praised her “well-drafted and eloquent” legal arguments and one Resident Judge, in dealing with the complex sentencing of a 13 year old facing an extended sentence for serious charges of violence commented that she would be keeping Katie’s “outstanding … note [on the applicable law] on file for the future sentencing of dangerous young offenders.”
Katie has expertise in the area of trafficking and modern slavery. She has had notable successes in the appealing of convictions for victims of modern slavery whose status was not recognised at the time. She has had two clients’ convictions overturned following referral to the full court. In December 2024, her client’s (Katie was instructed only for appeal) conviction for being concerned in the supply of Class B drugs was quashed by the Court of Appeal. She had further success in March of this year when another client (again instructed only for appeal), who had pleaded Guilty in 2015 to offences relating to the supply of Class B drugs had his conviction quashed. Katie accepts instruction in all appellate work.
Katie academic background and written advocacy underscore her appellate success. She leaves no reasonable avenue unexplored for those seeking to challenge either conviction or sentence.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Katie worked as a researcher in extradition and business crime at Peters & Peters; she spent three years at the Law Commission as part of both the Criminal Law and Parliamentary Counsel teams. She also served as a researcher for Blackstone’s Criminal Practice and at Criminal Law Week.
R v K (2024) Client stopped whilst driving a car in which the police found 155 grams of cocaine and 124 grams of heroin. Following legal argument as to the admissibility of bad character evidence, the Court acceded to the defence submission of no case to answer and directed ‘not guilty’.