Andrew Pickin

Year of call: 2017

Andrew is a persuasive and pragmatic criminal practitioner with a proven track record, both prosecuting and defending, in the Crown Court, Youth Court and Magistrates’ Court.
His practice covering aspects of family, police and social welfare law allows him to see cases with a holistic perspective. He is willing to go above and beyond to ensure he gets the best result.

Crime

Recent Cases

AG ref JP [Feb 2023] Court of Appeal
Andrew represented JP at his sentencing hearing, the result of which was appealed by the Attorney General for being too lenient. At the Court of Appeal, Andrew was able to persuade the Court not to impose a discretionary driving ban on his client and was able to keep the increased sentence to a minimum. Andrew was commended by the Court of Appeal for his submissions and saying all that could be said in mitigation.

R v KD [2023] Hull Crown Court
Following three days of evidence, Andrew succeeded in making a half-time submission of no case to answer for his 17-year-old client in a multi-handed affray.

R v EA [2023] Inner London Crown Court
On the day of trial, Andrew persuaded the prosecution to accept a plea to simple possession, where his client was charged with possession with intent to simply.

R v SF [2023] Teesside Crown Court
On behalf of the prosecution, Andrew successfully challenged the evidence of the Defendant in a Newton Hearing.

R v NRH [2023] Inner London Crown Court
After a four day trial, Andrew secured an acquittal of one count of assaulting an emergency worker for his client, and although the jury found the Defendant guilty of a second, identical count, Andrew secured a conditional discharge at sentence.

R v PW [2023] Sheffield Crown Court
Defending in a trial of s.20 assault, Andrew secured an acquittal in a case which centred around self-defence.

R v LG [2023] Liverpool Crown Court
Defending in a trial of possession with intent to supply £1 million worth of cocaine, Andrew secured an acquittal after two days.

R v VP [2022] Carlisle Crown Court
Defending in a trial of possession with intent to supply Class B of over 60 kilograms of cannabis. The trial received local press attention due to the amount of drugs and circumstances of the case.

R v IW [2022] Bradford Crown Court
Defending in an appeal against conviction for a serious assault occasioning actual bodily harm, Andrew not only managed to persuade the prosecution to drop their objection to the appeal in the Crown Court, but he also successfully argued that the Crown’s subsequent attempts to reduce the ‘ABH’ to a section 39 assault were unlawful. The Defendant’s appeal was allowed, he retained his good character, and Andrew obtained a costs order in the Defence’s favour.

R v AL [2022] Leeds Crown Court
Prosecuting a complex malicious communications offence as a committal for sentence, where the Defendant had deleted a number of appointments from her employer’s business diary, which was a factor in the business ultimately failing. The case received media attention including ITV news.

Police

Practice Summary

Andrew successfully completed his pupillage under the supervision of Olivia Checa-Dover, and consequently obtained excellent experience observing the full range of legal matters involving the police, including misconduct hearings and appeals, matters in the High Court and employment tribunal, multi-track claims involving the police and a spectrum of civil orders in the Magistrates’ and Crown Courts.

Andrew has conducted a number of misconduct hearings on behalf of the Appropriate Authority for a range of forces across the country.

He has also conducted several multi-track claims on behalf of claimants acting against the police. Andrew acted for a claimant suing the MET for false imprisonment and assault, which culminated in a two week trial at the Royal Courts of Justice. He has also acted for numerous forces in fast-track claims in the county court.

Andrew has successfully obtained, and defended, SHPOs, SROs, DVPOs, SPOs, STROs and account freezing/forfeiture orders on behalf of a range of forces and defendants.

Andrew welcomes instructions in LPP work.

Family

Practice Summary

Andrew is a conscientious and thorough family practitioner, and he accepts instructions in all aspects of private and public law proceedings. He has experience in the full range of hearings, from the initial DRA or case management stages to fact finding and final hearings, acting for local authorities, parents and guardians.

His practice in family law is assisted in his practice of crime, police, civil and property law; often their intertwining strands mean his perspective and advice is practical and grounded in the realties which parents often face in parallel to family proceedings.

Recent cases

A v K [2021] Bradford Family Court
Acting in a private fact find for a mother where her allegations of rape, domestic abuse and honour crimes were met with father’s counter-allegations of domestic abuse and lying. Andrew’s client’s allegations were all proven and the respondent’s allegations were unanimously dismissed. This allowed for a comprehensive final order in mother’s failure and a Section 91(14) prevention against father making further applications in relation to the children.

Re F [2022] Leeds Family Court
Acting for a father in an application for an interim care order, where serious neglect allegations were brought, Andrew was able to avoid significant findings against his client.

Personal Injury

Practice Summary

Andrew is developing a successful civil practice, so far focusing on advising and advocating in cases of noise-related hearing loss, employer’s liability and road traffic work. He is keen to develop his practice alongside his interest in police law, and has acted in a number of cases, both for and against the police, in unlawful detention and other police related torts.

He accepts instructions in all areas of civil practice and has experience in:

Applications for strike out/summary judgment/default judgment
CCMCs
Interim applications
Small claim and fast-track trials

Credit hire
Andrew has advised and acted for claimants and defendants in a number of small claim and fast-track trials involving credit hire and both his meticulous preparation and ability to keep on top of this fast-paced and ever-changing area, mean he is an excellent choice for claims involving this issue.

Business & Property

Practice Summary

Andrew has experience in all areas of housing related law, including matters of possession, disrepair, homelessness and injunctive work. He acts for private landlords, social landlords and tenants. He is also keen to develop his landlord and tenant, and property practices.

Most recently, Andrew has assisted in defending complex possession matters and disrepair claims. He is also developing a practice in housing-related environmental prosecutions, which combines his knowledge and experience of housing and criminal law.

Prior to pupillage, Andrew worked full-time as a housing and resettlement adviser based in three London prisons, providing direct support and advice to hundreds of offenders who faced homelessness on release.

During his studies, and later full-time after call, Andrew was a benefits and housing adviser at a South London legal advice centre. As part of this role, he was a duty advocate at two South London county courts, defending possession proceedings and other property-related hearings. He appeared in over 600 cases.

Andrew has also worked in a research capacity for Reprieve and JUSTICE, the latter of which used his research to publish ‘Solving Housing Disputes’ to address the problems litigants in person face when bringing and defending housing and landlord and tenant claims across the jurisdictions of the county court and property tribunal.

Andrew has provided multiple training sessions to a leading national homelessness charity on possession and homelessness law.

Background

CPS Grade 2 Prosecutor

Education

2017 BPTC – City University of London
2016 LLM – UCL
2015 GDL – City University of London
2014 MA (Classics)- University of St Andrews

Prizes/Scholarships

2021 Kalisher Trust Pupils Essay Competition 2021 Winner
2020 Inner Temple Cecile Yahuda Scholarship
2016 Inner Temple Exhibition (Full Fee for BPTC)
2016 Inner Temple Duke of Edinburgh Entrance Award
2015 International Undergraduate Awards, Highly Commended
2014 H J Rose Memorial Prize, University of St Andrews
2014 Winning Team- The Inaugural Oxford v St Andrews ‘Norton Rose Fulbright’ Moot
2014 Half-blues- University of St Andrews

Professional Membership