Call and Inn: 1993 Lincoln's Inn
Degree: BA London School of Economics
Affiliations: Criminal Bar Association
Julia Flanagan is a highly experienced and successful advocate, who acts as both leading and junior counsel. Her practice covers the whole spectrum of criminal work and she has appeared successfully in both the House of Lords and the Court of Appeal. Julia has a very high rate of acquittal at the Crown Court.
Julia’s main specialisations include Sexual Offences, Fraud, Homicide, Violence and Serious Drugs Offences. She also undertakes Regulatory work.
Sexual Offences: Julia is a leading expert in the field of Sexual Offences, instructed in the most serious and complex of cases ranging from the gang rape and torture of strangers, to familial sexual offences against children.
Julia is described as both hard working and innovative in the defence of her clients. In a recent case involving child prostitution, a senior judge described her successful legal application in relation to complex third party material as ‘groundbreaking’. She has achieved an acquittal for a client when running the defence of ‘Sexsomnia, on the basis that the accused was in fact sleepwalking, not intoxicated, at the time of the alleged offence.
Julia is well versed in the particular techniques of cross- examination needed when dealing with children, the vulnerable and court intermediaries, in addition to experts, both medical and forensic.
Fraud: Julia is very experienced in dealing with fraud offences, acting frequently as leading counsel in this field. She has dealt with high value ‘boiler room fraud’, recently representing the defendant described
by the prosecution as the most senior man in the criminal organization. She deals with multi-handed high value VAT fraud, Money Laundering, International Advance Fee frauds, Mortgage and Benefits fraud. Recently she appeared in a serious fraud trial, which was one of a series of trials involving 30 defendants. Her client was the only person who was acquitted out of the 30.
Homicide and Violence: Julia is regularly instructed in the most high profile and serious cases, which have roused great national interest. She deals with Murder, Manslaughter, S18 and Child Cruelty. She is currently dealing with a murder case involving the relatively new defence of ‘loss of control’, necessitating the use of appropriate psychological experts. She has also appears in murder cases involving the now prevalent accusation of the use of knives by young gangs.
Drugs: Julia has achieved acquittals for clients accused of the highest value Class A Drugs importations, successfully representing both civilians and Customs Officers. She is skilled at dealing with the issues surrounding admissibility of covert surveillance, telephone intercepts, lip reading experts and the associated disclosure regime.
Julia also acts on behalf of Police Officers accused of crime. She is accustomed to dealing with the national press in relation to resisting pre- trial publicity.