Forrest Williams

This specialist practice is best known as a market-leading firm in private fee-paying criminal defence and motoring law, for which it attracts an impressive private client base. It does not take Legal Aid work. It has won numerous national and local awards including the overall winner, customer engagement winner and professional services sector winner at the Peer Awards;  customer focus award from Mansfield 2020; highly commended by the Modern Law Awards Team of the Year; Business Idea of the Year Chad Newspaper; Shortlisted for the Law Society Excellence Awards. Steve Williams was recognised by the Sunday Times in association with Vouched For as a top 175 solicitor.

The firm: Forrest Williams was founded in 2009 by Steve Williams, its principal and a solicitor with over 25 years experience. Focusing only on private fee-paying criminal work, the firm has a reputation for combining specialist knowledge with excellent client care. Its client base is demanding and often high-profile. Most clients have no previous experience of the criminal justice system. The firm has represented clients in over 200 courts across England and Wales as well as military personnel in Cyprus and Germany.

Types of work undertaken
Sexual offences: the team defends historic and current sexual offence cases, ranging from sexual assault and indecent exposure up to serious rape cases. It has a particular interest in cases involving defendants with learning difficulties.

Fraud: the team is experienced in all types of fraud cases. It is often involved in cases before action and can handle all stages of a case, including HMRC investigations, police investigations, meetings with official receivers, etc.

POCA: the team deals with all stages of POCA investigations, often taking over POCA cases after trial from non specialist defence solicitors. It has handled large scale POCA cases.

Assault offences: the team is skilled and experienced in defending against charges of common assault, ABH, GBH, wounding and affray.

Motoring law: the team enjoys a formidable reputation across the UK for its depth of expertise. It has extensive experience in all motoring cases, whether guilty pleas with mitigation, not-guilty trials, special reasons applications, Newton hearings, applications for early return of licence or exceptional hardship applications.

Other areas of expertise: police station attendance, regulatory law, repatriation and courts martial.

Other offices: London