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Head of Serious & General Crime, Jenny Wiltshire is an expert criminal defence solicitor with deep knowledge and long experience of police investigations into major crimes and the complex trials to which they can lead. She is recognised as one of the UK’s leading lawyers in her practice areas and has enjoyed a long run of success representing clients facing some of the gravest criminal charges, including murder, manslaughter and serious sexual assaults.
Much of Jenny’s work takes place early in a criminal allegation’s lifetime. She has often achieved positive results for her clients long before the charge stage. This has caused her to be much in demand by high-profile clients seeking a swift and discreet resolution to what, if made public, would be highly damaging allegations. She frequently acts for professionals caught up in the criminal justice system – including doctors, bankers, teachers, lawyers and politicians.
Jenny is one of the country’s foremost legal experts on sexual assaults (both historic and current) and also so-called ‘baby shaking’ cases – an area of law in which she broke new ground. She has successfully represented numerous high-profile and professional individuals in respect of sexual assault allegations as well as many bereaved parents and members of health services accused of harming children and babies.
The key to Jenny’s success is her ability to unravel complex medical and forensic evidence. She also benefits from an ability to listen and get the best out of her clients. Her case organisation skills and her attention to detail often unearths disclosure that is case breaking.
Jenny was Vice President of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association between 2015 and 2017 and Secretary between 2014 and 2015. She is a founding member of Women in Criminal Law.
Jenny has long experience representing individuals accused of sexual offences, both historic and current. She is regularly instructed in relation to #MeToo type allegations, often relating to well known individuals for whom any public allegation could prove reputationally devastating.
She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of how the law in this area has evolved and, in particular, of the defences that apply in historical cases. Disclosure failings in this area are not new and over many years, Jenny and her team has developed deep expertise in challenging the prosecution approach to disclosure and unearthing often case-breaking material.
Jenny is often instructed in the very earliest stages of any police investigation. Her long experience operating in this field enables her to determine the best way to approach interviews, and to handle the reputational aspects of any allegation.
Jenny provides a full suite of legal services to individuals facing what is often the greatest challenge of their lives. She works closely with lawyers in the firm’s civil litigation department – and alongside media and reputational legal experts outside the firm – to ensure that the adverse impacts of any allegation of criminality is contained as much as possible.
As well as ensuring that any unmerited criminal investigation is ended as soon as possible, Jenny and her colleagues’ expertise goes beyond criminal defence to encompass crisis management, media relations and reputational protection.
Jenny’s clients in this area include HNW and high-profile individuals, many of whom work in the sports and entertainment industries. She has also provided reputational advice and representation to leading business figures, politicians and their relatives and other leading professionals.
Jenny has represented individuals accused of the most serious crimes, including murder, manslaughter and the most serious assaults. Many of these cases involve often involving complex forensic and medical issues: something which has enabled her to build a reputation as one of the country’s foremost experts on so-called “baby shaking” cases.
Jenny frequently represents individuals who find themselves under investigation for less serious – but nonetheless potentially reputationally ruinous – crimes including those connected with drinking and drugs. She has often achieved positive results for her clients in such as way that the allegations remain outside the public domain.
Jenny has enormous experience representing individuals accused of crimes which while not necessarily the most serious on the statute book can nonetheless be hugely damaging. These sorts of cases can be hugely impactful as even being a suspect (let alone convicted) can be a career-ending event.
Jenny’s clients in these matters have included celebrities, politicians and other household names, but they are also HNWs and doctors, lawyers and City professionals for whom an allegation of wrongdoing would be reputationally and professionally devastating.
Jenny and her team has enjoyed significant success preventing unmerited allegations from entering the public domain. Often this is achieved by taking decisive action at an early stage by persuading an investigating authority to end its inquiry before the charging stage.
Often working in conjunction with the firm’s civil lawyers, the team has enjoyed significant success containing reputational damage by persuading police to conduct investigations in a way that often avoids the need to arrest and minimises the risk of matters coming into the public domain.
Jenny has brought, and won, some of the most important criminal appeals over the past two decades. She is expert at unravelling the complex thread of decisions that can lead to a miscarriage of justice, and knows the best strategies to expose this, and get it rectified for good.
1 Apr 2025
Hickman & Rose is delighted to announce that Kate Goold has rejoined the firm as a partner in its market-leading Serious and General Crime team.
Kate originally joined Hickman & Rose in…
6 Mar 2025
On International Women’s Day, Hickman & Rose is proud to support the important work done by Women in Criminal Law to improve the working lives of women in the profession.
This year the firm…
6 Jan 2025
Hickman & Rose’s Head of Serious and General Crime Jenny Wiltshire has been quoted in the Daily Telegraph commenting on the steep rise in the number of rape prosecutions dropped by the…
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