Hugh French > Red Lion Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Red Lion Chambers Offices
18 RED LION COURT
LONDON
EC4A 3EB
England
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Hugh French
Position
Hugh French is a highly effective and persuasive advocate who specialises in providing advice and representation in serious and complex criminal cases.
He is currently shortlisted by Legal 500 as the 2024 Crime and Extradition Junior of the Year.
He is ranked in the Legal 500 directory as a leading junior in crime and is reported as “a very effective cross-examiner. Persuasive and unflappable”.
He regularly defends in cases of the utmost seriousness both as leading and junior counsel.
He is appointed to the highest grade (Grade 4) as a CPS Panel Advocate and is listed on all of their specialist panels. He is frequently instructed to provide charging advices in complex cases.
Hugh gains the confidence of clients quickly and is adept at providing clear and prompt advice to those who find themselves accused of serious crimes. He prosecutes and defends serious cases of Fraud, Serious Violence and Sexual Offences.
Hugh conducts training for the Metropolitan Police on disclosure.
Hugh is a pupil supervisor whilst also volunteering for the ELBA mentoring scheme as well as training students as part of the Bar Mock Trial Competition.
Languages
Spanish (conversational), French (basic)
Memberships
CPS Specialist Panel Advocate (Counter Terrorism Panel) (Grade 4)
CPS Specialist Panel Advocate (Serious Crime, Fraud, POCA) (Grade 3)
CPS Panel Advocate (RASSO) (Grade 4)
CPS Panel Advocate (General Crime) (Grade 4)
CBA
South Eastern Circuit
Education
Bar Vocational Course
Graduate Diploma in Law
BA(Hons) Classics, Newcastle University
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Crime
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 2Hugh French – Red Lion Chambers ‘Hugh is dogged and determined. He always comes armed with a strategy to exploit any weaknesses in the opposing case. His closing speeches are particularly impressive; Hugh has the confidence to pick the best points, and run with them, undiluted. He is a rare example of someone who is genuinely as effective on either side of the courtroom and the outcomes he secures are testament to an advocate of the highest ability.’
Red Lion Chambers has long been known as a ‘very strong and highly regarded set of criminal law barristers‘. Gillian Jones KC recently defended Marius Draghici, charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiring to facilitate a breach of immigration law after a group of Vietnamese migrants died in the back of a lorry trailer on the way to the UK – the case involving novel legal arguments concerning the potential abuse of court process relating to Draghici’s extradition from Romania, as well as the disclosure of case papers to the defendant’s Romanian lawyers. Jones KC and Genevieve Reed also represented a man acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter in a five-defendant trial concerning a robbery of a competitor by a group of drug dealers – a co-defendant was convicted of murder. Hugh French , ‘a robust and effective prosecutor’, has a varied practice that encompasses homicide, child sexual abuse, and large-scale drug conspiracy cases. In January 2024 he was lead junior for the Crown in a trial, in which a married couple received matching sentences of 33 years imprisonment for exporting six tonnes of cocaine to Australia.