Free Webinar – The 2024/25 Sentencing Review: An Opportunity to Address the Urgent Need for Sentencing Reform

Thursday 27 February 2025, 5-6.30pm

Webinar, Online

Thalia Maragh

Joanne Cecil KC

Stella Harris

Lord Nicholas Phillips of Worth Matravers

Professor Nicola Padfield KC (Hon)

Andrea Coomber KC (Hon)

This webinar is brought to you by the Garden Court Chambers Criminal Defence Team and the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Date:Thursday 27 February 2025
Time:5.00pm-6.30pm
Venue:Online
Cost:Free
Areas of Law:Criminal Defence, Prisoners’ Rights, Civil Liberties and Human Rights

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The upcoming Sentencing Review 2024/25, due to be published in Spring 2025, is highly anticipated as it provides an opportunity to address the urgent need for sentencing reform.

This panel discussion will delve into the scope of the review, sentencing inflation and its impact on the prison population.

Critical issues will be explored, such as reconceiving custodial sentences, resourcing non-custodial sentencing, and tackling the unique challenges women face within the criminal justice system.

Speakers
Thalia Maragh, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Thalia was called to the Jamaican Bar in 1999 where she maintained a mixed criminal and civil liberties practice at the private bar. She also worked as the staff attorney for The Independent Jamaican Council for Human Rights before pursuing an LLM in international crime and human rights at King’s College London. In 2009, she was called to the Bar in England and Wales, and later in 2017 in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Thalia’s practice at the English Bar has been predominantly criminal defence and civil liberties: defending in serious crimes and representing victims in inquest and public inquiries. Thalia also has a growing international practice, working with Indigenous groups in Kenya, advising on the merits of appealing to the Privy Council and appearing before the Board, particularly in cases which raise constitutional law issues. She is a trustee of the Howard League.

Joanne Cecil KC, Garden Court Chambers
Joanne Cecil KC combines a mixed serious crime and public law practice with criminal justice-related judicial review and civil litigation in the civil liberties sphere. She has a strong appellate practice both domestically and internationally, appearing at all levels including the Supreme Court. Joanne has developed an expertise in strategic litigation and acting for intervenors. She has been instructed in every significant test case at the appellate levels concerning juvenile justice in recent years, resulting in significant changes to the law. Most recently, she was instructed by Just For Kids Law in the joint enterprise case of Jogee before the Supreme Court. Joanne is a member of the Equality & Human Rights Commission’s panel of preferred counsel.

Stella Harris, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Stella has significant experience representing those accused of murder and serious violence and those with alleged connections to violent gang activity, where the admission of bad character, association evidence and unhelpful stereotypes has been successfully challenged. She assisted The Howard League for Penal Reform in making submissions both orally and in writing to the Director of Public Prosecutions regarding the reform of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Guidelines on charging in joint enterprise cases, which adversely and unfairly impacted young people. Their suggestions were incorporated in the final guidance, Submissions on Charging in Cases of Joint Enterprise. Stella also has an established practice representing women charged with murder and serious violent offending.

The Right Honourable The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Arbitrator, Brick Court Chambers
Lord Phillips is a retired Law Lord and past President of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. He was called to the Bar in 1962 and took silk in 1978. He was appointed a Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division, where he sat in the Commercial Court. In 1999, he was elevated to the Court of Appeal, appointed Master of the Rolls in 2000 and Lord Chief Justice in 2005. Lord Phillips was appointed as Senior Law Lord in 2008 and oversaw the transition of the House of Lords to the Supreme Court in 2009, when he became the Court’s first President. Between 2014 and 2018, he was President of the Qatar International Court & Dispute Resolution Centre.

Professor Nicola Padfield KC (Hon), Emeritus Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice, University of Cambridge
Nicola Padfield is Emeritus Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice at the Law Faculty, University of Cambridge, and has been a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College since 1991. She held a number of posts in the College as well as Master. She retired from the University in October 2022. After her first degree at St Anne’s College, Oxford, she came to Cambridge to study for the Diploma in Criminology. Called to the Bar in 1978, she then spent a year at the University of Aix-Marseille. Her teaching and research has covered a broad canvas in criminal law and evidence, sentencing and criminal justice more generally. She sat as a Recorder (part-time judge) in the Crown Court from 2002-2014. She was appointed as Honorary Queen’s Counsel in 2018.

Andrea Coomber KC (Hon), Chief Executive, Howard League for Penal Reform
Andrea was appointed Queen’s Counsel (Honoris Causa) in 2022 for making a major contribution to the development of the law in England and Wales. She joined the Howard League in 2021, having previously worked at JUSTICE, INTERIGHTS, at the International Service for Human Rights in Geneva and at the South Asia Documentation Centre in New Delhi. She is qualified as a barrister and solicitor in Australia.

Reserve your online ticket
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We will send joining details to all those who have signed up on the day of the event. Please check your junk inbox if you have not received the link by Monday 27th February. If you have not received the link by 3pm on Monday 27th February, and it is not in your junk inbox, please email webinars@gclaw.co.uk.

Book Online

To book your place on this webinar, please use the booking form below. If you have any queries, please contact the Garden Court Chambers events team at webinars@gclaw.co.uk.

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