Over her long years of immigration & asylum practice Christa has been a champion for immigration applicants, their families and asylum seekers, having attained countless successful results. She has been involved with many landmark cases such as for example Re Musisi in which the duty of “anxious scrutiny” was established and Boybeyi which helped to bring about “fresh claims”. Many clients also particularly needed to rely on human rights arguments, as for instance where people have overstayed but nevertheless need to fight against their removal from the UK and in these cases Christa’s creative approach became crucial and she has won many “unwinnable” cases.
Nicola Williams is the first Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces, appointed in January 2016, following a year in the role as the Service Complaints Commissioner for the Armed Forces. She sits on the Executive Committee of the Ombudsman Association. She was appointed as a Crown Court Recorder sitting on the London and South Eastern Circuit in 2009. She was the Complaints Commissioner for the Cayman Islands – the territory’s sole Ombudsman – from August 2009 to January 2015.
Between 2004 and 2009, Nicola was a Commissioner at the then Independent Police Complaints Commission. From 2001-2004 she was a Board Member at the Police Complaints Authority. Between 1985 and 2001, Nicola was a barrister in private practice specialising in criminal law and police misconduct. During this time she was the author of a successful legal thriller, “Without Prejudice” published by Hodder Headline. She is involved in mentoring and is a member of Speakers For Schools.
Alan Williams was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1978. Practising from the Chambers of Leonard Woodley QC and Lord Gifford QC at 8 King’s Bench Walk (now 1MCB Chambers), he became a fee paid District Judge in 1998 and an Immigration Judge in 2003.
John Dunning is a former member of 1MCB, now practising on the North Eastern Circuit.
Whilst his practice covers the broad spectrum of criminal matters, acting for both prosecution and defence, he has particular experience in fraud, money laundering and drug importation. John has also developed niche expertise in trading standards and environmental law.
John also has a developing interest in education law, having been a past chair of governors of a large primary school and presently an LEA appointed chair of governors of a state secondary school. He is a member of the East Riding Education Appeal Panel, and chairs the Appeal Panel of the University of York.
Jacqueline is a barrister at the Uganda office of Bowmans, a leading Pan-African law firm. A multi-disciplinary lawyer, she is an accredited Arbitrator (MCIArb) and Mediator (CEDR).
She practised for fifteen years at 1MCB, where she was also a well respected leading barrister in crime, with a special interest in white-collar crime, confiscation and civil recovery. Jacqueline prosecuted and defended in a large number of serious criminal cases involving murder, sexual offences, serious violence, drugs, fraud, money laundering. She practiced as a grade 3 prosecutor, and was part of a panel of barristers specialised in prosecuting sexual offences; she also prosecuted for HM Revenue & Customs in Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings, and was instructed by the Serious Fraud Office as disclosure counsel. In the latter years of her practice in the UK, Jacqueline developed a more commercial and civil law practice.
In 2015, Jacqueline relocated to Uganda where she has already built up a practice in corporate and commercial law; banking; governance, compliance and investigations (GCI), and dispute resolution. In her present practice, Jacqueline arbitrates and mediates commercial disputes and advises international and local companies, NGOs and individuals on incorporation and as to their legal and regulatory responsibilities in Uganda in the areas of telecoms, banking, competition law, company law, trade secrets, anti corruption and bribery, fraud, NGO law, cyber law, agricultural law, hospitality, and contractual disputes.
Jacqueline is an accredited Inns Advocacy Training Council trainer and prior to relocating to Uganda, taught on the Bar Professional Training Course at BPP Law School for over ten years. Jacqueline has also trained lawyers in negotiation, mediation and arbitration on behalf of the International Law Institute – Africa Centre for Legal Excellence. Alongside a number of current 1MCB members, Jacqueline is heavily involved in the work of Evolve – Foundation for International Legal Assistance, which promotes access to justice in Uganda, and in that capacity has led regular training sessions for Ugandan lawyers acting in capital cases.
She is admitted to the list of Counsel at the International Criminal Court and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Len Woodley QC was England and Wales’ first black Silk. Throughout his long career at the Bar, specialising in crime, he appeared in trials with a political or civil liberties element, including the Brixton riots trials and the Mangrove Nine trial. He was instructed in the Scarman inquiry (into the 1981 Brixton riots), chaired the Laudat inquiry into mental health, and sat on the Royal Commission on long term care for the elderly.
Len was head of chambers (then based at 8 King’s Bench Walk) from 1988 to 2000. In 1988, he invited Nelson Mandela, who was then serving a life sentence, to be an honorary door tenant, as a mark of solidarity with the South African freedom struggle.
A Senior Bencher of the Inner Temple and a Recorder of the Crown Court for many years, he endowed the Leonard Woodley Scholarship at the Inner Temple, to be given to black or Asian pupils with a view to promoting greater diversity at the Bar.
Len is also a member of the Bar of Trinidad and Tobago, and is a patron of Plan UK.
The Rt Hon Lord Boateng PC DL is a civil liberties and employment lawyer. He qualified as a solicitor in 1974 and was called to the Bar in 1989. He was an executive member of the National Council for Civil Liberties and, between 1977 and 1981, was legal advisor to the Scrap Sus campaign. One of his most notable cases is that of Cherry Groce, a mother of six who was shot and paralysed by the police during the course of a raid of her home in search of her son: the shooting sparked the 1985 Brixton riot.
He was elected to the Greater London Council for Walthamstow in 1981. As chair of the GLC’s police committee and vice-chair of its ethnic minorities committee, he advocated greater accountability in the Metropolitan Police and spoke out against racism in relation to their dealings with the black and Asian communities.
He thereafter served as MP for Brent between 1987 and 2005, becoming the first British MP of African descent. He served within the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury between 2002 and 2005, before being appointed British High Commissioner to South Africa. In 2000, he became the first Minister for Young People, in which capacity he launched the Youth, Citizenship and Social Change programme – then the UK’s largest research project designed to examine social exclusion and promoting citizenship among young people – and played a leading role in coordinating the Every Child Matters policy paper, which called for the reform of children’s services, including greater accountability and coordination among government agencies.
He currently chairs the English Speaking Union and the Nairobi-based Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund. He is also on the Board of the Ghana International Bank in the City of London, of which he is a Freeman.
Peter joined 1MCB in 2005 and stayed within chambers until his retirement in 2014. His work included a broad range of family law work, particularly children and care work.
He was known here for arriving on his motorbike and is now enjoying being able to give more time to his allotment and brewing hobbies.
Jocelyn has had an illustrious career at the Bar, having represented defendants in a number of high profile cases and made significant contributions to the development of the Bar and the legal sector overall.
Some of her contributions include:
- The Cardiff 3 murder trial – this case led to the requirement for accreditation of all solicitors.
- Considerable experience of inquiries:
- Counsel in the Scarman Inquiry into the Brixton riots;
- Chaired a panel inquiry into allegations of abuse at the Nye Bevan Residential Home for the Elderly in Southwark (instructed by the London Borough of Southwark in 2001);
- Chaired an inquiry into allegations of racism and harassment surrounding the death of a 10 year old boy (instructed by London Borough of Lewisham).
- Jocelyn is a founder member of the Society of Black Lawyers and member of the Bar of Trinidad and Tobago.
- Former member of the City and East London Family Practitioners’ Committee (dealing with disciplinary hearings) and was closely involved with legal advice centres providing free advice to ethnic minority communities in London, Coventry and Birmingham.
- Chaired numerous conferences on race and the criminal justice system in London and Birmingham organised by the Bar Council, the Commission for Racial Equality, the Society of Black Lawyers and Birmingham counsel.
- Joint head of chambers at 1 Grays Inn Square from 1990-97 before joining 1MCB chambers.
- Assistant Recorder on the Midlands and Oxford circuit from 1989-96.
- Very much involved with the Bar Council over the years. She has sat on the General Management Committee, the Professional Conduct Committee, and was vice-chair of the Race Relations Committee.
- Sits on the management committee of the Citizens Advice Bureau based in the Royal Courts of Justice. She is an advisory member, and former director and trustee, of the Caldecott Foundation, and sits on the Legal Aid Agency’s Funding Review Committee.
Her interests include family, friends and cookery.
