Julia Krish

Practice

Crime/Prison Law

Julia has a wide-ranging criminal practice which covers all areas of criminal defence work, at all levels, including murder, serious violent and sexual offences, child cruelty, firearms, serious fraud, money laundering and drugs. By way of example, she spent much of 20006 acting as junior counsel in two substantial trials at the Central Criminal Court (the Notting Hill Carnival shooting and a lengthy trial concerning the sadistic robberies and murder of a number of sex workers).

Her particular area of interest and expertise is the representation of defendants with mental disorder in its many forms. This includes adults and young defendants in cases where issues of capacity/fitness to plead arise She is regularly instructed in such cases, as well as in those cases where there are difficult issues as to risk assessment and which involve the consideration of complex psychiatric material.
She has also developed an interest in offences committed within prison, and has been instructed in a number of such cases, including riot, arson and escape (the latter most recently concluding in the Court of Appeal with a successful appeal against sentence).

Mental Health/Inquests

In 2003 Julia was appointed as a part-time President of the Mental Health Review Tribunal, and spends 4-6 weeks a year sitting in the Tribunal.

She has also had considerable experience over the years of representing patients in the Mental Health Review Tribunal, most recently in a number of difficult restricted patient cases with conflicting expert evidence.

She has recently been instructed to act for a number of health case professionals including a psychiatric nurse, a care worker and a 999 operator at inquests, and is interested in developing this aspect of her practice further.

Background

Julia originally trained as a solicitor at Bindman & Partners. After spending 18 months at a Law Centre she returned to private practice where she spent six years as a specialist criminal defence advocate. Ultimately frustrated by the limitations of magistrates' court work, she transferred to the Bar, without regret, but still regards her background and training as a solicitor as invaluable.

Training

Julia has maintained her links with solicitors over the years by her involvement in teaching practical advocacy skills and substantive law to would-be Higher Courts Advocates. She has also lectured on children's evidence, vulnerable witnesses and evidential issues in sex cases as part of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association training programme.

As part of the Garden Court seminar series she has lectured on sentencing mentally disordered offenders, the implications for criminal practitioners in concurrent care/crime proceedings, and sexual offences.

She has also taken part in seminars given by the Royal Society of Medicine (on new Mental Health Legislation) and Justice (on custody and detention human rights issues in respect of mentally vulnerable detainees).

Publications

Julia is currently working with Carolyn Taylor, solicitor, on the second edition of `Advising Mentally Disordered Offenders', to be published by the Law Society in 2008.

Societies

Criminal Bar Association, Lawyers for Liberty, Amnesty International and JUSTICE.

Other activities

Julia is a long-standing governor of a Lambeth Children's Centre.. She was on the management committee of the Battersea and Wandsworth Law Centre for ten years, five of which she was chair. She has two children and lives in Brixton.

Year of Call

Education

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