Lawyers 21
Turnover Not disclosed
Offices 1
Justice can sometimes be a long time coming. It took nearly half a century for three black men who were wrongly convicted of robbery on the London Underground to have their names cleared.
Jenny Wiltshire, the head of serious crime at Hickman & Rose, acted for Courtney Harriot, Paul Green and Cleveland Davidson, three members of the so-called “Stockwell Six”, who were aged between 17 and 20 when they were convicted in 1972 of attempting to rob the corrupt police sergeant Derek Ridgewell. The officer who framed them had stitched up several other young black men in similar circumstances.
In July the Court of Appeal quashed their convictions. Sir Julian Flaux, sitting with Mr Justice Linden and Mr Justice Wall, said: “It is most unfortunate it has taken 50 years to rectify the injustice suffered by these appellants.”
Acting in the inquest into the Fishmongers’ Hall terror attacks in London, Kate Maynard, another partner at the firm, represented the family of Jack Merritt, who along with Saskia Jones, was killed by the convicted terrorist Usman Khan at a rehabilitation conference in 2019.
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The seven-week inquest, which was held during severe Covid-19 restrictions, explored the complicated interplay between various state agencies responsible for managing Khan, who was known to be dangerous but was nonetheless allowed to travel alone to the event.
The jury’s damning conclusions found that failings by the police, probation service and MI5 contributed to the deaths of the two Cambridge University graduates. The findings prompted the police to offer an apology to the families.
In another high-profile inquest, Maynard is representing the family of the footballer Dalian Atkinson, who was unlawfully killed by a police officer in 2016.
Benjamin Monk, who tasered the former Aston Villa striker to the ground and kicked him in the head, was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for eight years – the first time in more than 30 years that a British police officer has been convicted of manslaughter in the course of their duties.
The partner Daniel Machover remains engaged in inquest proceedings into the death of the footballer Emiliano Sala, who died in a plane crash in 2019.
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The firm has developed an expertise in defending individuals who get prosecuted after the companies they work for sign a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the Serious Fraud Office. These agreements, which were introduced in 2014, allow for deals to be made between fraud prosecutors and an organisation that would otherwise be charged. They cannot be applied to individuals.
Andrew Katzen, a Hickman & Rose partner, secured the acquittal of Nicholas Woods, a former executive at the private security company Serco, who was charged with defrauding the Ministry of Justice by concealing profits made from a contract for electronically tagging criminals.
The prosecution followed a long investigation by the SFO and a DPA in which the company admitted wrongdoing. Three weeks into the trial at Southwark crown court, the judge halted the trial and ordered the acquittal of Woods and his co-defendant Simon Marshall because of serious disclosure failings by the SFO.
Ross Dixon, another partner at the firm, successfully defended the Tesco UK managing director Chris Bush on serious fraud charges in similar circumstances. He is also acting for the former managing director of G4S Care and Justice, who is being prosecuted by the SFO after a DPA with that company.
★ Commended for administrative & public law; financial crime & fraud & regulatory; human rights
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