Gillian Higgins > 9BR Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Gillian Higgins

020 7489 2727 clerks@9brchambers.co.uk View profile

Position

Gillian is a senior international criminal lawyer and Head of the International Practice Group with extensive experience at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN international tribunals. She has been instructed in some of the leading cases in international criminal law including the first trial of a former Head of State (former President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic) and the first case at the ICC of an incumbent Head of State (President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya). Before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, she represented Ivan Cermak in a case that has been described as the most important trial in the history of Croatia. Before the Rwanda Tribunal (ICTR), she acted for the defence in the trials of Alfred Musema (the first trial of a civilian alleging command responsibility for genocide) and Ferdinand Namhimana (a trial concerning the responsibility of the media for genocide in Rwanda in 1994). In 2019, she was appointed as an independent commissioner to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. She is also a founding member of the International Criminal Law Bureau.

In recent years, Gillian’s advisory practice has involved assisting states to investigate allegations of corruption and human rights abuses. Her work also includes capacity building, advising on transitional justice, sanctions, improving relations between governmental institutions and assisting states to fulfil their human rights obligations under the auspices of the UN Human Rights Council. Her recent work has resulted in a number of significant reports set out below:

• South Sudan: An investigation and report on the causes of the 2013 and 2016 conflicts in South Sudan. Read report here.
• Sudan: Preparation of a report on the Lundin case concerning universal jurisdiction proceedings in Sweden alleging war crimes committed in Sudan from 1997-2003 against Lundin Oil company, its chairman and its CEO. This report was commissioned by the Board of Directors for Lundin Energy. Read report here.
• Algeria: A Human Rights Abuse Alert report on Algeria, July 2019. This alert was submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Read report here.
• Egypt: Reports on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt commissioned by the State Lawsuit (Litigation) Authority of Egypt, 2015. Read all four reports here.
• Sri Lanka: Submissions to the OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) relating to the 30-year conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE (Tamil Tigers). Read one of the reports here.

Gillian’s practice areas also include UK and international fraud, sanctions, transitional justice, and extradition. In 2019, Gillian and Steven Kay QC established the Interpol Red Notice Desk at 9BR Chambers. She has also served as a member of the steering committee for Oxfam’s Lawyers Against Poverty programme and provided advice and legal services to a range of organisations including the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Kurdish Human Rights Project.

As an accredited civil and commercial mediator, Gillian employs this skillset throughout her legal practice, assisting clients with ‘difficult conversations’, brokering agreements and empowering institutions and government agencies to facilitate better communication. She is faculty member of the London School of Mediation. Gillian is currently developing a practice in international criminal heritage and art law and is registered to accept instructions under Direct Public Access and is licensed to litigate in the courts of England and Wales.

In addition to her legal practice, Gillian is a recognised pioneer of wellbeing at the Bar as an accredited mindfulness teacher. For the past 6 years, she has designed and developed presentations, workshops, and courses for a broad range of legal institutions and bodies including The International Criminal Court, Gray’s Inn, Women in Criminal Law, The Criminal Bar Association, The South-Eastern Circuit, civil and commercial chambers, Barclays Bank and JPM Chase.  Gillian is the author of Mindfulness at Work and Home, published in 2019.

Career

Called 1997

Independent Commissioner to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Memberships

Education