Sonn Macmillan Walker 30th Anniversary Party

On 11th January, the London criminal defence firm Sonn Macmillan Walker celebrated its 30th birthday with a reception at Wilton’s Music Hall in East London, attended by 200 current and former staff and members of the Bar and Judiciary. Addressing the gathering, the firm’s founder David Sonn remarked that the firm, which predominantly undertakes publicly funded work, was “alive and kicking” after 30 years, despite successive governments starving criminal legal aid of funding.

After also hearing from former trainee Rebecca Crump, now senior lecturer in law at the University of Cardiff, about how her training contract at the firm had changed the “trajectory of her life”, those present enjoyed a live karaoke band, kicked off by Director Euan Macmillan performing Don’t Look Back in Anger.

Sonn Macmillan Walker is a criminal law boutique, dealing with the most serious criminal, extradition, and regulatory matters. The firm has been consistently ranked as one of the Times 250 Best Law Firms, and in the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners directories. Many individual members have been recognised in the latest directories, notably Katy Smart ranking Band 1 for Extradition in Chambers and Partners, and Amy Cox being recognised as a Next Generation Parter in the Legal 500.

Sonn Macmillan Walker is a heavy hitter within the legal sphere. Just in the past year, successfully defending the first ever extradition request from South Korea in relation to an alleged securities fraud, and successfully defeating an extradition request by the USA for a Briton wanted in connection with a $4 Billion OneCoin fraud. Just two months ago, the firm’s client succeeded in his appeal to the Supreme Court in relation to a regulatory prosecution concerning his alleged failure to comply with employment protection legislation.

Sonn Macmillan Walker is also home to founders of three legal organisations: Amy Cox, Katy Smart and Leah Connolly. They were respectively instrumental in the establishment of Woman in Criminal Law, the Defence Extradition Lawyers Forum, and the Youth Practitioners Association. These organisations have allowed lawyers to connect and develop their practice within specialist areas of criminal practice.

In the face of a crumbling criminal legal aid system, Sonn Macmillan Walker wished to celebrate its 30th birthday with its lawyers past and present, and its many friends across the legal world. It is not often that a sizeable criminal legal aid practice survive for three decades!