Practice Profile
Georgina specialises in criminal justice and public inquiries and routinely advises on sensitive, high-profile cases. She is a diligent and effective advocate who combines sound judgement with meticulous preparation.
Georgina is an accredited advocacy trainer for Lincoln’s Inn. She has been elected twice by members of Lincoln’s Inn to the Bar Representation Committee between 2017-2022.
She currently sits on the editorial and policy board for the monthly journal of the Bar, Counsel Magazine.
Georgina has been commissioned by the Bar Standards Board to write and mark examination questions for the Bar Professional Training Course. She has previously acted as an examination marker for King’s College London.
Georgina graduated from the University of Keele with a first class law degree and continued this success on the LL.M. at the University of Cambridge, where she was assistant editor of the Cambridge Student Law Review. Georgina has received awards for academic and legal excellence, including the Professor Michael Akehurst Award, granted to one academically outstanding student a year. She was awarded the Sir Thomas More Bursary and Sir Walter Wigglesworth Scholarship by Lincoln’s Inn.
While at Cambridge University, Georgina was a researcher for the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, assisting UN Special Rapporteur, Professor Heyns, on his first thematic report for the UN Human Rights Council concerning the right to life in the context of policing assemblies. Georgina was a member of the Texas Defender Service panel at Cambridge University and conducted constitutional law research for several death row appeals, including in the US Supreme Court. During the summer of 2011, she undertook an internship with the Texas Defender Service in Austin, Texas, assisting attorneys defending capital cases.
Prior to commencing pupillage, Georgina worked as a research assistant in the criminal law team at the Law Commission of England and Wales, assisting on reform to the law on insanity and automatism and contempt of court. She also gained in-house commercial experience whilst working as a legal assistant for Porsche Cars Great Britain Limited.
Georgina has volunteered for Big Voice London, Liberty, Free Representation Unit and Toynbee Hall.
Before coming to the Bar, Georgina participated extensively in mooting competitions nationally and internationally, culminating in her winning the Inter-Inn Mooting Competition 2009 (for Lincoln’s Inn) and coaching the Lincoln’s Inn team to the World Championships of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition 2010 in Washington DC, USA. She has been invited to judge the UK national rounds of the Jessup Competition on many occasions.
Work Undertaken
General Crime:
Georgina prosecutes and defends in serious criminal cases, ranging from white collar crime to violent and sexual offences. She is a Grade 3 CPS prosecutor. Georgina has particular experience dealing with vulnerable defendants and witnesses and those with mental health issues, including with the assistance of an intermediary, and has undertaken specialist vulnerable witness training.
Financial Crime:
She has been instructed in a number of Serious Fraud Office investigations, including as disclosure counsel in a multi-handed multimillion-pound conspiracy to defraud investigation and as legal professional privilege counsel, jointly selected and instructed by Rolls-Royce, in an international bribery investigation.
Public Inquiries:
Georgina has significant experience acting in sensitive and complex public inquiries, where there is a great deal of public scrutiny, having been instructed as junior junior in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, as junior counsel for a key core participant in the Undercover Policing Inquiry and as senior junior counsel to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. She is experienced in advising on high-profile and voluminous disclosure and redaction exercises, including concerning sensitive and secret documents. Georgina is fully trained in the disclosure software Relativity and Autonomy.
Other Work:
Georgina is instructed in parole board and adjudication hearings. She has assisted on various advisory projects internationally, including advising on a multimillion-pound breach of contract case in Gibraltar; advising the Gibraltarian government on the investigation of child abuse allegations and providing guidance for use in the training of police officers, social workers and lawyers; and advising on plea, evidence and sentence for a high-profile false accounting case in Gibraltar.
Georgina accepts instructions on behalf of the government, public bodies and individuals.
Appointments & Memberships
Appointments:
- CPS Advocate Panel General Crime (Grade 3)
- Accredited advocacy trainer, Lincoln’s Inn
- Elected member, Lincoln's Inn Bar Representation Committee
- Member, Policy and Editorial Board, Counsel Magazine
Memberships:
- Criminal Bar Association
- The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn
Notable Cases
Public Inquiry into Covid-19 (June 2022 - present): instructed as senior junior counsel to the Inquiry chaired by Rt Hon Baroness Heather Hallett DBE.
Public Inquiry into Undercover Policing (2018 - present): instructed by a core participant.
Public Inquiry into Grenfell Tower Fire (2018): instructed as counsel working on the disclosure team.
R v A (Isleworth Crown Court): successfully prosecuted Defendant charged with a s.18 wounding with intent arising from an unpaid drug debt.
R v S (St Albans Crown Court): instructed in a sexual offences case involving three complainants with separate allegations. The Defendant received a community order. Case was reported in the media.
R v O and another (Woolwich Crown Court): secured acquittal on all counts where the allegation concerned physical abuse and neglect against the Defendant's two young stepsons who provided corroborating accounts. Involved careful and sensitive cross-examination.
R v S (Woolwich Crown Court): secured acquittal on all counts in a s.18 wounding with intent and possession of an offensive weapon trial where the Defendant had repeatedly attacked the complainant with a meat cleaver in a busy high street in pre-emptive self-defence.
R v R (Bristol Crown Court): secured acquittal in a s.20 GBH trial where significant injury was caused to the complainant.
R v D (Southwark Crown Court): instructed in a nationally reported violent incident which occurred at a fashion event at the Serpentine Gallery in London. The Defendant received a suspended sentence.
R v S (Maidstone Crown Court): Crown offered no evidence on charges of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs following representations by counsel on the first day of trial.
R v E (Inner London Crown Court): secured acquittal for a client charged with burglary.
R v B (Court of Appeal) [2015] EWCA Crim 1700: successfully represented the Applicant at the Court of Appeal for his appeal against sentence. Their Lordships held that the sentence of 14 months' imprisonment was manifestly excessive. Received praise from their Lordships for counsel's “careful and detailed skeleton argument”.
Parole Board v C (HMP Coldingley): successfully applied for transfer of a lifer convicted of murder to open conditions.
Parole Board v H (HMP Moorlands): successfully applied for the early release of a client convicted of multiple sexual offences in connection with the Rotherham child abuse scandal.
Education
- University of Cambridge, LL.M. (2011)
- BPP Law School, Bar Vocational Course (2009)
- University of Keele, LL.B. Law with Criminology (First Class) (2008)
Scholarships and Awards
- Sir Walter Wigglesworth Pupillage Scholarship 2012, Lincoln’s Inn
- Continuing Education Fund Award 2010 and 2011, Lincoln’s Inn
- Winner, Inter-Inn Mooting Competition 2009 (for Lincoln’s Inn)
- UK semi-finalist, Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition 2009 (for Lincoln’s Inn)
- Quarter-finalist, Peters & Peters Mooting Competition 2009
- Quarter-finalist, Inter-BVC Provider Mooting Competition 2009 (for BPP Law School)
- Sir Thomas More Bursary 2008, Lincoln’s Inn
- Professor Michael Akehurst Memorial Prize 2008, Keele University
- International Human Rights Award 2008, Keele University