Crown court advocates at Johnsons are senior solicitors representing those accused of serious crimes: presenting cases to the jury and cross-examining witnesses.
Partner, Higher Courts Advocate (All Locations, Nottingham)
Digby graduated from Cambridge University in 1981 and qualified as a solicitor in 1984. He founded the Johnson Partnership in 1990. He qualified as a Higher Courts Advocate in 2007.
Partner, Higher Courts Advocate (Nottingham)
Emma, as she is known, graduated from Newcastle University in 1998. She joined Johnsons in 2001 and qualified as an HCA in 2007. She now leads the Crown Court team.
Solicitor, Higher Courts Advocate (Nottingham)
Maddy is our exclusive solicitor litigator of the most serious of Crown Court cases. She has extensive experience of representing clients charged with murder and attempted murder. She is known best for her client care skills which always make clients feel at ease when facing the worst period of time in their lives.
She is qualified to represent her clients in both the Crown Court and Magistrates Court having qualified as a Solicitor and Higher Court Advocate in 2021.
She also represents clients in the police station.
She has a Law degree and a Masters degree [specialising in the law surrounding joint enterprise in murder].
Maddy is always on hand and renown for her second to none client care.
Notable cases
Murder
R v AT - murder of a prisoner while on remand for attempted murder
R v JH - gangland murder of a boy lured to a location to silence him from contacting the police
R v SE - murder of mother while in the midst of a psychiatric illness
R v KV - murder of mother in law by fire
R v GB - murder of a baby
R v AH - murder of neighbour with pokeman cards
R v SB - murder or brother with a guitar and attempted murder of mother
R v VC - murder and GBH of elderly couple following a botched burglary
R v DW - murder and dismemberment of uncle
Attempted murder
R v NO - attempted murder by shooting in a multi handed neighbour dispute
R v TW - attempted murder by shooting
Solicitor, Business Defence, Higher Courts Advocate (Nottingham)
Sian joined The Johnson Partnership’s Business Defence team in December 2017 as a Paralegal. She qualified as a solicitor in April 2021. As well as qualifying as a solicitor, Sian qualified as a Higher Court Advocate in April 2021 and became a Duty Solicitor in July 2021.
Sian graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2012 with a LLB Law Degree. She then worked in Finance and Recruitment roles before embarking on the Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice at Nottingham Law School in September 2016.
Solicitor, Higher Courts Advocate (Barnsley)
Solicitor, Higher Courts Advocate (Nottingham)
Katie started working at The Johnson Partnership in July 2019. She completed her law degree (LLB) in 2018, graduating from Nottingham Trent University. Katie then completed her LPC and Masters Degree (LLM) at Nottingham Law School in 2019. After qualifying as a solicitor Katie worked in the Magistrates department and is also Duty qualified, she is now a Crown Court Advocate but can turn her hand to crown court litigation billing, police station representation and Saturday remand courts in the magistrates.
Solicitor, Higher Courts Advocate (Nottingham)
Completed my LLB, LLM and LPC in Nottingham whilst working for the Johnson Partnership part time. I then undertook a full time training contract and I am now a qualified solicitor in the Nottingham Office
Higher Courts Advocate ()
Chris qualified as a solicitor in 1985. He lived and worked in London for 9 years before joining the Johnson Partnership in 1994. He has been with us ever since and has been practising as a Higher Court Advocate since 2015
Higher Courts Advocate ()
David joined Johnsons in February 2016. Prior to that he had worked for other firms in the East Midlands. He had also previously been the Course Director for Criminal Law for a major legal training company. David qualified as a solicitor in 1994 and as a Higher Court Advocate in 2007. He has an LLB from Huddersfield and an MSC from Leicester University.
Notable Cases:
2023-2025 R v P and others
David successfully defended our client in what turned out to be the longest criminal trial in British legal history, a series of allegations involving drugs and guns.
2020 R v P
David successfully defended our client in a conspiracy to supply Class A drugs trial last several weeks and involving a dozen defendants.
2020 R v B
David successfully defendant our client on the extremely rare charge of prison mutiny.
2019 R v M
David successfully persuaded the Court of Appeal that the trial judge had got the law on blackmail wrong, leading to the convictions of his client being overturned.
Higher Courts Advocate (Nottingham)
Benn joined the Crown Court litigation department in November 2012 after spending 2 years providing advice at the police station as an Accredited Representative. From 2012, he then spent 7 years preparing Crown Court cases for trial and dealt with all of the most serious offences on the criminal spectrum. He qualified as both a Solicitor and a Higher Court Advocate in 2019 and is now routinely appearing in the Crown Court.
Higher Courts Advocate ()
Paul has two decades of experience defending trials in serious cases of murder / rape/ large scale drugs conspiracies/ high value complex fraud and public disorder.
He has an excellent success rate and often listed in the Legal 500
Paul has an easy manner with clients but is well known as a difficult opponent in court. Judges like and respect him, juries love him.
He enjoys argument, is a very good trial tactician and loves to win.
Outside work he is a football referee at semi professional level (Steps 7-5)
Cannon Courtyard, Long Row
Nottingham
NG1 6JE
Tel: 0115 941 9141 - 24 hrs
mail@thejohnsonpartnership.co.uk
Mon – Fri: 9:00am – 5:00pm (Open 24 hours for police station advice)
