Jessica defends a variety of criminal charges including serious violence and drug offences. She often challenges the prosecution’s case early in proceedings resulting in charges being dismissed or lowered. She is regularly instructed to defend in murder cases, including those involving firearms and gang culture. She was recently instructed in a serious multi-handed section 18 stabbing with a machete involving both youth defendants and complainants. Her client was the only one to be acquitted after the Crown dropped the case against her client following her submissions on ID.

Jessica regularly successfully defends sexual offences and domestic violence charges on both a public and private basis and has extensive experience in cross-examination of complainants and analysing, presenting and obtaining electronic material. She is an advocate who understands the importance of written advocacy and has had considerable success in having charges against clients dismissed or lowered through her submissions on paper.

Jessica prosecutes for a range of organisations including the CPS, National Crime Agency, HMRC and various local authorities. She is often instructed in civil matters including condemnation, confiscation and forfeiture proceeding, including in factually or legally complex high value cases.

Jessica is privately instructed to defend in Road Traffic Offences and has had considerable success in putting forward both Special Reasons and Exceptional Hardship arguments.

She is a CPS grade 3 listed prosecutor and regularly prosecutes violent, fraudulent, dishonesty and drug related offences in the Crown Court as a single junior, including cases involving youth defendants and complainants and vulnerable witnesses. She often advises the CPS on evidence, charge, and whether a prosecution is in the public interest and has considerable experience in advising on and acting in any subsequent POCA proceedings following a conviction. She recently successfully prosecuted a £1.6 million cannabis factory. This was a sophisticated operation involving the industrial production of cannabis plants that is believed to have linked to Serious Organised Crime.

Financial Crime

Jessica Tate has a wide-ranging white-collar crime practice encompassing high-value fraud, money laundering, bribery and corruption cases. She is regularly instructed in both civil and criminal international cases involving restraint, forfeiture and confiscation, including advising on discharging or varying restraint orders at an early stage in proceedings. She has acted in cases flowing from ‘Operation Car Wash’, the biggest corruption scandal in the history of Latin America. Many of her cases involve multiple jurisdictions, including countries in Latin and Central America, USA, Switzerland and Africa. She regularly acts for clients who have been subject to politically motivated prosecutions, advising on how the overlap between political bias or regime change can affect a decision to prosecute, and the subsequent fairness of those proceedings, or the creation of new legislation that adversely affects an individual’s personal or business interests. Such cases can call into question the compatibility of foreign and UK legislation. These cases usually involve both civil and criminal proceedings and therefore require careful strategizing to protect the client’s best interests in both sets of proceedings, including how the civil matter may assist the criminal case and vice versa.

In R v X, Jessica was instructed by a client at an early stage in defending allegations of fraud and various regulatory offences, handling detailed pre-charge procedures relating to raids on corporations, seizures and injunctions. This company was a global corporation and therefore the case involved multiple jurisdictions (including the British Virgin Islands, Mauritius and Greece). She was also part of the team reviewing and challenging the original search warrants.

In R v Lounajli she defended a client charged for his role in a £100 million fraud. The trial issues included compliance and AML regulations and whether the ‘victims’ in the fraud were in fact attempting to move the money from their company account to use as a ‘slush funds’ to pay commercial bribes. Moreover, there were legal arguments concerning causation and intervening conduct in relation to criminal accessory liability and the influence of individuals potentially implicated in the fraud on the police investigation. The case also involved the admissibility of evidence of an attempted bribe made to the police by a third party who was involved in the investigative process.

High-Net Worth

Jessica Tate acts for High Net Worth individuals in their personal and commercial capacities, advising on criminal and regulatory liability and providing strategic advice in relation to both criminal or civil matters on how those proceedings may affect their overall business or financial interests. These high-profile cases often attract considerable press attention and Jessica has experience on advising on how this can impact proceedings and ensuring compliance with any Court Order.

She is regularly instructed in international cases involving civil and criminal restraint and forfeiture, including advising on discharging or varying restraint orders. She has acted in cases flowing from ‘Operation Car Wash’, the biggest corruption scandal in Latin America’s history. Many of her cases involve multiple jurisdictions, including Latin and Central America and Africa.

She regularly acts for clients who have been subject to politically motivated seizures or legislative changes that have adversely affected or constrained an individual’s personal or business interests. Such cases can call into question the compatibility of foreign and UK legislation. These cases involve both civil and criminal proceedings and therefore require careful strategizing to protect the client’s best interests in both sets of proceedings, including how the civil matter may assist the criminal case and vice versa.

She was recently instructed by David Chijner at Brown Rudnick LLP as junior counsel to Jason Sugarman QC, on behalf of Sir Frederick and Amanda Barclay, in relation to the strategic planning of their privacy case against Aidan, Howard and Alistair Barclay for illegally recording their private conversations at the Ritz Hotel. Her role included advising on issues of LLP, data protection and criminal and regulatory liability, including the procedure and evidential requirements of bringing a private prosecution. She also ensured that any press coverage did not breach Court Orders and did not prejudice the clients’ interests