Helen Law > Matrix Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Matrix Chambers offers ‘excellent barristers’ for claimant related police law expertise, with those drawing upon experience in associated areas of crime, public law, civil liberties, and inquests and inquiries. In R (W80) v IOPC, Phillippa Kaufmann KC appeared before the Supreme Court on behalf of the family of Jermaine Baker, who was fatally shot by a police officer, with the judgment clarifying that the civil test of whether an honest but mistaken belief is reasonable applies to police misconduct decisions, rather than the criminal law test of self-defence. ‘Quite simply the best junior around’, Jesse Nicholls is particularly adept at handling cases where police officers have caused death or catastrophic injury. ‘All rounder’ Helen Law , whose ‘knowledge of criminal law is such an asset in this area’, continues to act for wives of undercover officers in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

Matrix Chambers has an established reputation as ‘one of the very best sets in London for criminal work‘, with noted expertise in cases involving high-profile individuals or international elements. Helen Law is acting as counsel for the first defendant in relation to the prosecution of five Bulgarian nationals under the Official Secrets Act 1911, alleged to have been spying in the UK on behalf of Russia. Clare Montgomery KC recently prosecuted a woman for taking a three-year-old British child to Kenya for female genital mutilation, with the woman the first person to be convicted of assisting a non-UK person to perform FGM. Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC and Robbie Stern are both well known for their experience in protest cases, while Vedrana Pehar regularly defends those charged with serious violence, drugs, and sexual offences.