Ylenia is developing a practice in International Criminal Law and Extradition. Before joining Guernica 37 she was part of the team acting on behalf of a British-Iranian person who was formerly detained in Iran unlawfully. She has a keen interest in the corporate liability of international crimes.

​She has been seconded to the Bank of England and to the Serious Fraud Office in a case involving  large-scale international shipping and banking frauds across multiple countries.

​Ylenia has significant experience in defending clients of a particularly vulnerable nature, often with complex mental health issues addressing matters of the utmost sensitivity.

​Ylenia has a strong relationship with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law through which she has trained Nepalese prosecutors on matters of pre-trial conferencing, witness care and ethics. She currently also teaches new practitioners and pupil barristers Ethics within the Gray’s Inn Education department.

​Ylenia has a busy criminal practice in which she regularly prosecutes and defends in the Crown Courts. Ylenia has been appointed to the Government Legal Department’s Junior Junior Panel of Counsel and is also a member of the CPS Advocate Panel Scheme (level 2). She has prosecuted on behalf of the CPS, National Probation Service and local authorities. She has expertise in applying for specialised behaviour orders on behalf of the Metropolitan Police as well as contesting them and appealing them.

​She has successfully represented clients in cases involving serious drug allegations, grave violence and sexual offences. In terms of prosecution, Ylenia has particular experience representing the Crown in cases involving domestic violence.

​Ylenia has advised on matters of jurisdiction in an international trade dispute and has been led junior counsel on 3 civil fraud cases. She is often led in civil cases that have a criminal element at hand.

Ylenia is robust in Court and has been commended on her ethics and client care.

Ylenia is Qualified to accept Public Access instructions.

​

Ylenia spent time working in The Hague at the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal of Former Yugoslavia on the case of Prosecutor v. Radovan Karadžić, who was convicted of genocide.

​Before coming to the Bar, Ylenia worked for criminal defence solicitors in their appeals and prison law departments, representing prisoners at independent adjudications and advising on points of appeal against conviction and sentence in cases of murder, serious drug and sexual offences, often incorporating Human Rights issues, in particular fair trial rights. She also worked for the University of Essex Human Rights Clinic as a legal researcher investigating international corporate accountability for human rights abuses.

​Ylenia also spent time teaching prisoners at HMP Pentonville. This experience developed an interest in prison law matters and gave her a special understanding of the needs of those in custody; and knowledge of prison procedures, rules and bodies.

English, Italian, Maltese

Bar of England and Wales

CPS Panel level 2

Criminal Bar Association

The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn

Defence Extradition Lawyers' Forum

BPTC: University of Law, 2013

LLM: International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law; University of Essex, 2012

GDL: BPP, 2012

LLB: Laws with International Relations; University of Malta, 2010

Certificate in Law, War and Human Rights, London School of Economics, 2009

Bachelors in European Studies with Anthropology, 2007