Tom Williams +44 20 3301 0910

clerks@6kbw.com

Profile Tom accepts instructions across the range of Chambers’ practice areas, including
general and corporate crime, public law, and prison law.

Expertise General Crime

Tom is an experienced defence advocate appearing regularly in the Crown Court. Cases
in which he has been instructed as a led junior include a murder in Birmingham where
the deceased was shot in broad daylight (Operation Allied) and an ongoing prosecution
of an alleged international drug conspiracy currently expected to last for four months at
trial (Operation Orlando). Recently, he has defended individuals charged with grievous
bodily harm with intent, violent disorder, drug-dealing, and causing death by careless
driving whilst over the legal limit. He has successfully represented an appellant in a case
referred to the Crown Court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, on the basis that
a defence in the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004 had
previously been overlooked. He also has a particular interest in defending young people:
he is a peer reviewer for the Blackstone’s Youth Court Handbook and is currently
instructed to represent a seventeen-year-old charged with aggravated arson.

Tom prosecutes for the Crown Prosecution Service, as a Grade 2 prosecutor; for the
Immigration Services Commissioner, having appeared as a led junior in a three-handed
prosecution for illegally offering immigration advice at Southwark Crown Court; and for
the National Probation Service. He was involved in drafting the case summary and the
opening speech in the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit burglary trial at Woolwich Crown
Court.

Finally, Tom is experienced in dealing with driving offences in the magistrates’ court,
when the court is considering a discretionary or a totting-up disqualification; in particular,
he has run a number of successful exceptional hardship arguments.

Corporate Crime

Tom has provided advice to individuals and corporates facing charges for offences under
the Fraud Act 2006, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and arising out of
various regulations. He is currently instructed to advise a large corporate in relation to
potential criminal liability, led by David Perry QC and Miranda Hill; he has appeared in a
ten-week mortgage fraud involving six defendants at Hull Crown Court, led by Paul Jarvis
(Operation Accordion); and he has experience of defending prosecutions brought by the
Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Public Law and Immigration

Tom has a real interest in public law work, particularly when there is a cross-over with
criminal law. In 2017, he was instructed as second junior counsel acting for the Home
Office in the Undercover Policing Inquiry, led by Nicholas Griffin QC and Rosemary
Davidson. He has also appeared regularly for the Home Office in immigration and asylum
appeals in the First-tier Tribunal, and has conducted a number of case reviews for them.
He is part of the junior junior scheme, and is experienced in providing advice in relation to
judicial review in a number of different areas.

Prison Law

Tom regularly appears before the Parole Board representing prisoners serving life
sentences or IPP sentences, and has advised on whether Parole Board decisions should
be challenged by way of judicial review. He is also familiar with prison adjudications dealt
with by an independent adjudicator.

Media Law and Contempt

Tom has been retained to provide pre-publication advice to two newspapers in relation to
defamation, privacy, and contempt of court. He has an in-depth knowledge of reporting
restrictions in the criminal courts, including orders made under ss. 4(2) and 11 of the
Contempt of Court Act 1981 and injunctions; he is the author of the ‘Open Justice’
chapter in the most recent edition of Miller on Contempt (4th edn, 2017). During
pupillage, he assisted his supervisor, Louis Mably, with applications for committal for
contempt on behalf of the Attorney General.

Previous Experience

Before starting pupillage, Tom was a paralegal at Kingsley Napley. Most of his year there
was spent as part of the team representing Rebekah and Charlie Brooks in the phone-
hacking trial at the Central Criminal Court, conducting legal research, drafting
submissions, and managing a large volume of evidence. He also worked on a number of
extradition cases, and helped compose the European Criminal Bar Association’s
response to the draft Directive on the right to silence.

Memberships

6KBW College Hill Pupillage Committee

Criminal Bar Association
Young Fraud Lawyers Association

Publications

Miller on Contempt of Court (4th edn, 2017), eds C.J. Miller and David Perry QC:

Chapter 1: Introduction (co-author with David Perry QC)

Chapter 9: Open Justice: Reporting Restrictions (author)

Peer reviewer for:

 Smith, Hogan, and Ormerod’s Criminal Law
Blackstone’s Magistrates’ Court Handbook
Blackstone’s Youth Court Handbook

6KBW College Hill blog posts (with David Perry QC):

Section 2 notices: here and now? (22 November 2017)

Legally binding: when do criminal statutes bind the Crown? (17 April 2018)
The letter of the law (25 September 2018)
Casement and Capitol Hill: on grammar (20 February 2019)

Awards

Ann Goddard Scholarship, Gray’s Inn (2015)

Winner, BPP Mooting Cup (2013)
Bedingfield Scholarship, Gray’s Inn (2012)
Finalist, Maitland Advocacy Prize (2011)
Corpus-Taylor Prize, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (2011)
Manners Scholarship, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (2010)
Moule Prize, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (2009)
Kitchener Scholarship (2008)

Education

MA (Hons), English, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

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