Jonathan Barker > 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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Jonathan Barker
Position
Jonathan is a specialist criminal practitioner. He has established a practice far beyond his year of call. A confident and persuasive trial advocate, Jonathan is instructed to defend in cases involving allegations of serious criminal conduct. His practice covers the full spectrum of criminal offences, from serious violence to complex frauds, and includes regulatory crime. He is fully conversant in the law relating to proceeds of crime including confiscation, restraint and cash forfeiture. Aside from defending, Jonathan prosecutes, either on his own or in very complicated cases as a led junior, for the Crown Prosecution Service, including the complex case work unit division, and other prosecuting authorities. Jonathan read law at University College London. He was awarded the prestigious Queen Mother Scholarship from the Middle Temple. While at Bar School he won an award for his advocacy.
Career
Called 2006; Middle Temple.
Memberships
Midland Circuit.
Education
University College London (LLB).
Lawyer Rankings
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Business and regulatory crime (including health and safety)
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 1St Philips Chambers’ regulatory team has substantial expertise in handling both prosecution and defence work in cases related to environment agency, trading standards matters and health and safety cases, including catastrophic injury and gross negligence manslaughter. ‘An articulate and persuasive advocate’, Ben Mills is ‘able to argue difficult points of law and fact by distilling them to the real issues that need deciding in the case’. Jonathan Barker represented a Birmingham businessman accused of selling unregulated COVID-19 tests.
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Crime (general and fraud)
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 1Jonathan Barker –St Philips Chambers ‘Jonathan is a very hard-working and capable advocate. He obtains the trust of the lay client immediately through his thorough preparation and gentle manner. He is impeccable in court. He is genuinely respected by all at the bar and judiciary. His closing speeches are engaging and persuasive to a jury, and his cross-examination is on point.’
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.