Leading Criminal Defence and Regulatory Law Firm Manchester & London

Olliers is one of the country’s leading criminal defence and regulatory law firms. We specialise in the representation of individuals facing serious criminal allegations or fraud allegations and we deal with a lot of pre-charge work representing clients under investigation as opposed to prosecution. We bring the same skill set to professional disciplinary work and representing client’s interests in inquests and inquiries. We have top-tier ranking in the Legal 500 and the Chambers directory. We are the seven times winners of Crime Team of the Year at the Manchester Legal Awards and we’ve won the Manchester Legal Awards Law Firm of the Year twice in the last four years. We’re also a Times best law firm. For my part, I’m a two times winner of the Manchester Legal Awards partner of the year and I am a recent Northern Powerhouse Legal 500 Criminal Lawyer of the Year. Lots of our individuals are named as leading lawyers in the various legal directories so our credentials really are second to none. We’ve been a leading criminal defence firm for quite a few decades now, we have over 25 criminal defence lawyers all specialising in different areas of criminal defence work and that means we can match the right lawyer to the right client every time and our results really do speak for themselves.

At Olliers we’re passionate in our commitment to encouraging new entrants to the profession and the future of criminal defence. There may be a recruitment crisis within criminal defence but not at Olliers. We hold an annual student meet and greet event where we invite undergraduate students to come and have an informal evening with the team at Olliers and ask questions about the reality of life as a criminal defence solicitor.

I’m Martha, I’m one of the solicitors here at Olliers Solicitors, I started working here in 2021, after I completed the internship in 2020. I’ve always wanted to be a criminal defence solicitor. I initially did an undergraduate in English literature because I wasn’t sure whether I was cut out for it. I did my conversion course during covid in 2019 to 2020, which changed my undergraduate degree into a law degree. After graduating I was looking for legal work hence why I did the internship here. Before I got offered the reception job here I worked in Manchester Magistrates’ Court doing admin just to see that side of the legal system. I definitely knew that this is what I wanted to do. I started working in reception for a few months doing admin work helping other fee earners and then I was fortunate enough to be offered a training contract. I did my training contract over two and a half years because I did it part-time while studying for the LPC. Also during that period I did the police station accreditation and the internal pre-charge accreditation. As a trainee, I won the Manchester Legal Awards Training Solicitor of the Year Award and qualified in February 2024. The range of work I’ve done as a trainee and now as a qualified solicitor ranges from pre-charge police stations to Crown Court and sometimes appeals. I do quite a lot of ancillary work including discharge of Sexual Harm Prevention Orders and I’ve even dabbled in the DBS and PNC Department as well, so I am able to cover a wide range of work. Support’s great, everyone’s really approachable here, it’s an open door policy you can go to any partner or senior associate or even other junior members of staff and everyone helps you and there’s no question that’s too stupid to ask.

Through the Olliers Academy, we offer ongoing training and education for all of our staff and it’s tailored to the needs of every single lawyer or trainee. One of the things we do is push our staff to achieve accreditations. These include two Law Society accreditations, these are in respect of police station work and Magistrates’ Court advocacy and where accreditations don’t exist we create our own. So we have accreditation in respect of pre-charge representation, the stage between the police station and a decision to charge where our key objective is to prevent prosecutions. Then we have Crown Court accreditation, so that’s obviously cases that are in the Crown Court. So we’ve got all bases covered by a combination of our internal accreditations and external Law Society accreditations. I’m really proud of this because I don’t think there’s any other firm in the country that offers this level of training and accreditation for its young lawyers.

At Olliers we’re aware that our team is our greatest asset and we’re really proud of our ability to attract and retain high quality staff. Criminal defence is by its nature a very stressful occupation as we deal with clients who are going through the most difficult period of their lives and that can have an impact on our team as well. We have a dedicated head of wellness to oversee the creation and implementation of our wellness program essentially fortnightly activities for the team to get involved with. These can range from anything from paddle boarding, walks in the country, trips to museums and local art galleries or anything that the team want and we encourage suggestions from the staff. Here at Olliers we’re convinced that our mental health, employer-employee relations and interconnected relationships are all enhanced by these activities. One of the things that really sets Olliers apart is representing clients during the pre-charge stage of the case, and I don’t think there are many if any firms in the country with the level of experience and the track record that we have for pre-charge representation of clients. At Olliers our team of experienced regulatory lawyers deal with professionals and businesses from all walks of life. We provide advice and assistance to those being investigated and indeed those being prosecuted by a full spectrum of regulators and authorities including the police, CPS, the Health and Safety Executive, Trading Standards and even the Environment Agency amongst others. We also offer advice and assistance to professionals facing investigation and the proceedings brought by their regulatory body for example doctors before the General Medical Council, dentists with the GDC, HCPC which covers a broad variety of those involved in the health and social care sector. So our pre-charge team and our professional discipline team work together to ensure that any submissions which are made either to the criminal authorities or indeed the regulatory bodies are consistent and ensure that we do not jeopardise either proceedings.

My name is Alex, I’m a Senior Associate. I’m based in our Serious Crime Department, some of the cases I deal with include murder and other cases of serious violence, drugs conspiracies and money laundering as well as complex fraud. My main role is to prepare cases in the Crown Court, this involves analysing evidence and taking my clients instructions and making sure they’re fully informed at each stage of the process. At Olliers we take a client-centred approach and we ensure that we treat all of our clients as individuals we understand that facing a serious allegation is a daunting prospect and we will use all of our experience and expertise to ensure that we achieve the right outcome for our clients. One of the things we do is look at the needs of a client and make sure that we match the right client with the right lawyer every time and that’s something that our new enquiry team and senior lawyers are really skilled at. We know what a client needs, it doesn’t matter whether they’re involved in a serious criminal case, neurodiverse client, or somebody who’s professional. It really doesn’t make any difference we can always help because we’ve got so many lawyers. We can always match the right client to the right lawyer every time and I think that is a really strong point because the relationship between the client and the solicitor is so important, they’re a team.