Heidi Stonecliffe QC has worked for the CPS since 2006 and is thought to be only the fourth lawyer – and the first woman – at the CPS to be made silk. The daughter of a legal secretary and railway worker, Heidi attended a girls’ grammar in Sittingbourne. Her schoolteachers expressed surprise when Heidi told them that she wanted to become a barrister, having been inspired by reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. One teacher asked at the time “Do women do that?” Called to the Bar in 1996, Heidi has practiced solely in criminal law, initially in a […]
Gurdeep Garcha QC, who is believed to be the first BAME QC to be appointed at the Birmingham Criminal Bar, was sworn in as a new silk in March 2020. He is a criminal defence specialist, now concentrating on the most serious cases, essentially leading on murder/manslaughter, terrorism and very serious drugs and sex offences. Gurdeep was raised in Birmingham by working class parents who had arrived in England in 1965 from the Punjab. He considered that his career choice was strongly informed by his heritage as “Punjabis love to debate and argue!” Gurdeep attended an inner-city comprehensive school where as “a […]