EXPERTISE

Francis has a wide-ranging and diverse trial practice covering all types of serious crime, as well as high-profile appellate work (including the Supreme Court case of Jogee [2016] UKSC 8, which radically changed the law of joint enterprise), lately focussing on victims of human trafficking, and miscarriage of justice cases, and cases before the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

With Chambers in London and Newcastle, he accepts instructions to provide advice and advocacy for private and legally aided clients, as well as under the Bar’s Public Access scheme. He also acts for clients in immigration and asylum cases, and sits as an Immigration Judge in the First-Tier Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber). He also accepts instructions in professional disciplinary matters, and advises professional clients in other jurisdictions.

Francis was Chair of the Criminal Bar Association (2016-17) and is a Bencher of Middle Temple.

Francis has been recognised as a leading barrister in Crime for many years, and is ranked in the Legal 500, as ‘a highly intelligent Silk’.

Clerking team

Paul McNab

Civil & Criminal Silks' Clerk (Leeds)

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0113 3235 955

Lead Criminal & Regulatory Clerk

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0191 245 9521

Clerk (Middlesbrough)

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01642 247 569
  • "Very talented"

    Legal 500

  • "A charmer with the jury"

    Legal 500

  • "Excellent"

    Legal 500

  • "Provides a seamless service"

    Legal 500

  • "A true expert in human trafficking work"

    Legal 500

  • "a highly intelligent Silk"

    Legal 500

  • L: defending double attempted murder
  • Chard: prosecution of four men who assassinated a rival major drug dealer
  • A: defence of a man charged with failing to report suspected terrorist activities by his cousin; acquitted on a retrial in 2020
  • D: successful defence of a man charged with murder, who rammed his car into a thief who had stolen his motorbike,
  • H: Administrative Court decision on availability of ‘slip rule’ in the case of a mistaken guilty plea in the Youth Court (reported at [2021] 1 Cr App R 23)
  • GS: appeal by a victim of human trafficking (reported at [2019] 1 Cr App 7)
  • M: the extensively reported ‘Colindale Allotment murder’ in 2018

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