Richard Atkins KC > Chambers of Sara Lewis KC > Birmingham, England > Barrister Profile
St Philips Chambers Offices
St Philips Chambers
55 TEMPLE ROW
BIRMINGHAM
B2 5LS
England
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Richard Atkins KC
Work Department
Crime & Regulatory
Position
Head of St Philips Chambers (2020 – 2023), Chair of the Bar of England and Wales in 2019 and Leader of the Midland Circuit from 2014 to 2017, Richard is one of the country’s most eminent regulatory and criminal silks. He has consistently featured at the top of the legal rankings since taking silk in 2011.
Richard specialises in serious criminal and regulatory offences concentrating on homicide, health and safety, consumer law, trading standards, licensing, fraud, tax, and sex cases. He defends and prosecutes in equal measure. He is well known for his ability to assimilate amount of detail, and to put it across to the court or tribunal he is appearing before in an effective and easily digestible manner. He appears regularly in the Court of Appeal.
Richard was part of the leadership team of the profession for many years. He dealt with senior Government Ministers and officials, and the country’s most Senior Judges. He has had considerable involvement with both the Legal Services Board and the Bar Standards Board dealing with the regulation of the profession. During his year as Chair of the Bar of England and Wales, Richard presented to international gatherings of lawyers across the globe. Richard has regularly lectured to solicitors, barristers, police officers and a variety of professional bodies on a wide range of legal topics and is a much sought after speaker and moderator. He is an advocacy trainer and a vulnerable witness advocacy trainer.
Richard sits as a Crown Court Recorder (part-time criminal Judge) and is one of a small number of Judicial College Tutor Judges who train Crown Court Judges. He also sits as a fee-paid (part-time) Judge of the Mental Health Tribunal.
Richard is regulated by the Bar Standards Board
Career
Called 1989, Gray’s Inn; Queen’s Counsel 2011. Head of St Philips Chambers (2020-); Chair of the Bar Council (2019); Vice-Chair of the Bar Council (2018); Leader of the Midland Circuit (2014-2017); Bencher of Gray’s Inn (2014); Fee-paid Judge of the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health) (2014); Recorder of the Crown Court (2005).
Memberships
Criminal Bar Association; Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers; Association of Health and Safety Lawyers; Midland Circuit.
Education
King Henry VIII School, Coventry; St Catherine’s College, Oxford University (MA, Oxon); Council of Legal Education Inns of Court School of Law (Bar School).
Lawyer Rankings
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Business and regulatory crime (including health and safety)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Crime (general and fraud)
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 1Richard Atkins KC –St Philips Chambers ‘Richard is a strong jury advocate who can powerfully argue whilst being able to speak in common sense. He is an impressive figure in the court.’
St Philips Chambers is ‘one of the best set in the West Midlands’, which ‘offers a high-quality service’ across the criminal law space. The team has significant expertise across a wide range of criminal matters, including drug conspiracies, fraud, murder, sexual offences and regulatory crime. Richard Atkins KC is highly adept at handling serious crime and murder matters – he prosecuted a woman for stabbing her mother to death. Jonathan Barker is regularly involved in multi-handed murder cases and currently represented a TikTok personality accused of being part of a group who murdered two men by forcing their cars off the A46 – the prosecution’s case is that the deceased were blackmailing the defendants. Jennifer Josephs successfully appealed a sentence for attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity (the “child” being an undercover police officer posing as one) – at issue was how to approach sentencing for a second similar offence when the law had changed between the first and second convictions. In September 2022, Andrew Smith KC, as was, was appointed as a circuit judge, and in July 2023 Marcus Harry and William Douglas-Jones joined from St Ives Chambers, and in October Rebecca Wade KC, Amy Jackson, Sara Wyeth and Callum Church followed.