Matrix Chambers

Areas of practice include: corporate and general crime; civil and criminal fraud; public enquiries; Courts martial; mediation; and sport. Lord Ken Macdonald QC recently returned to private practice after five successful years as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for England and Wales, the first leading defence lawyer to have been appointed to that post. Widely praised by commentators for combining outstanding success in prosecuting serious crime with an outspoken attachment to due process, fair trial and defendants’ rights, he was described in a ‘Times’ editorial on his last day in office as ‘an exemplary figure’ who had transformed his office into a ‘respected and public role’. As DPP, Ken Macdonald was head of the Crown Prosecution Service and established the Counter Terrorism Division, the Organised Crime Division, and the Special Crime Division. He played a major role across Whitehall in the development of criminal justice policy, especially in relation to international treaties and jurisdictional issues, mutual legal assistance, extradition, terrorism, and grave cross border crime. In 2007, he was knighted for services to justice. In the 2008 inaugural ‘Times Law 100’, he was listed fourth most influential lawyer in the UK, directly behind the Senior Law Lord, the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice. Ken Macdonald’s practice ranges from business and corporate crime and associated extraditions, to financial regulatory work, sanctions busting and espionage. He has a special interest in emerging international criminal liabilities.

Ken Macdonald was educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he read politics, philosophy and economics.