Payne Hicks Beach LLP

Dispute Resolution, Arbitration & Litigation

The Rt Hon Sir Robert Buckland KBE KC MP KC is the Head of Policy and Senior Counsel. Robert joined Payne Hicks Beach in March 2023.

Sir Robert Buckland KC was Lord Chancellor of Great Britain for over two years and served as HM Solicitor General for nearly five years prior to that.

He has over twenty-five years’ experience in practice at the Bar, both at the self-employed Bar and later as a Law Officer.  As Lord Chancellor, he was responsible for landmark reforms of Sentencing Law, Domestic Abuse Law and Divorce Law in England and Wales, and has immense direct experience both as a Bill Minister and as a backbencher in the development, scrutiny and passage of legislation through Parliament, including justice, constitutional law and national security legislation. He therefore has huge experience of criminal, constitutional and public law both as practitioner and law maker.

For nearly twenty years from the early 1990s, practising in Swansea and then Cardiff, after initial practice in general common law, Robert specialised in criminal ligation, most notably drugs offences, proceeds of crime and child sexual abuse, rising to be a Grade 4 CPS Prosecutor and member of the Attorney General’s A List of Prosecuting Counsel.   He was junior prosecution counsel in a wide range of cases from murder to conspiracy to defraud and health and safety.  He had a busy defence practice, regularly conducting work as a Leading Defence Junior in complex drugs conspiracies.   He has extensive experience in defending sexual abuse cases, including child sexual abuse and was often a led defence junior in murders and other complex cases.   He took silk in 2014.

During Robert's time as HM Solicitor General he advised the Government on legal issues relating to all proposed legislation, and on issues that required Law Officer input (ie inter-departmental issues); granted consents to many CPS and SFO prosecutions and Contempt of Court proceedings, made High Court referrals for the reopening of Inquests and reviewed thousands of Crown Court sentences as part of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, personally conducting over 40 cases in the Court of Appeal.  He was responsible for the approval or otherwise of Nolle Prosequi applications, Pardons and Royal Charters. He superintended the work of the CPS, the SFO and the Government Legal Department.