Citadel Chambers

Citadel is a long-established specialist crime set and a direct descendant of one of the oldest sets of Chambers in Birmingham, formerly at 77 Colmore Row. That set was mentioned in the Law List in 1909, the first listing of a Chambers outside the London Inns of Court

With its team of 54 headed by 9 KCs including 5 door tenants Citadel is one of the largest specialist crime sets outside London. As well covering the full range of criminal work, Citadel is complemented by teams in discreet areas of practice where advocacy is the key skill including licensing and regulatory work.

Chambers’ size and strength in depth enables it to guarantee skill and experience in equal measure at all levels.

In recent years Andrew Fisher KC prosecuted Operations Cookie and Gold Dust involving large scale commercial importation and trafficking of firearms, Gold Dust being the biggest case ever successfully brought by the National Ballistics Intelligence Agency. Whilst equally sought after for offences involving complex homicides Tim Hannam KC was junior in Operation Amazon the largest ever successful HMRC direct tax prosecution. Both Gurdeep Garcha KC and Rachel Brand KC are outstanding in their own fields of expertise focusing on complex homicide homicide and gang related offending .

Citadel has an enviable list of former members appointed to judicial office The Hon Mr Justice Saunders; the editor of Paterson was a former member of Chambers. Citadel takes an active role in progressing our members careers. significant numbers of members of Chambers hold part-time judicial appointments. Citadel’s current clerks are proud to have developed 32 judges, including 3 recorders of Birmingham, 2 recorders of Stoke and 3 High Court judges, in addition to many other former members sitting as Chairs of Tribunals, District judges and Coroners.

The clerks room team is led by Chris Ward supported by Rodney Neeld’s wealth of experience. The team prize above everything excellent customer service and reliability within a wider criminal justice system that is becoming increasingly stressed . The Chambers’ director is John Binks. Citadel is perhaps unique in that, as an alternative to direct access, instructions can be taken , in licensing and regulatory matters, by John, who is also a practicing solicitor.