Members of chambers have extensive experience of acting for service personnel before courts martial, Inquiries and other criminal tribunals throughout the UK and overseas, including Germany, Cyprus and other parts of the world where service personnel are stationed. Our experience of representing service personnel covers a period of over twenty years. We also have long standing links with the Royal Navy with whom we have an arrangement to take on naval pupils on secondment going back to the late 1980’s; one former Naval Pupil, Lt Cdr James Farrant is now a Door Tenant.

Members of chambers with particular experience in this field include: Stephen Harvey QC has represented senior ranking officers including a Major charged with two counts of negligent manslaughter at BATUS in Alberta and a TA Captain who was charged under s.1 Officials Secrets Act 1911 and dubbed ‘the spy that never was'; and Rosamund Horwood-Smart QC and Alex Milne spent two and a half years representing former soldiers, including a Field Marshal, on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

Involved in an advisory capacity have been Peter Carter QC who has trained JAG advocates and Professor David Ormerod who has lectured the Service Prosecution Authority.

Stephen Harvey QC, Stephen Rose, David Pickersgill, Richard Potts, Matthew McNiff, Samantha Leigh, Tom Forster, Marcus Rickard, Max Baines and Sarah Lewis have all been instructed to undertake cases at various courts martial centres, including Colchester, Bulford and Germany. 

 

Tom Forster recently acted for a trooper charged with a serious assault.   Sarah Lewis is currently defending an infantry soldier charged with fighting a commissioned officer whilst on exercise in Kenya and Max Baines is currently instructed in an AWOL case.

Sarah Lewis has first hand military experience having spent 10 months at Sandhurst as an officer cadet, as well as spending time at Chicksands with the Intelligence Corps and at Larkhill with the Royal Artillery.

 

Chambers is on the Armed Forces Criminal Legal Aid Authority list for defending in Courts Martial cases.