Partner
As a partner in the Serious and General Crime team, Kate Goold represents individual clients facing the most serious and potentially life-changing criminal allegations.
With 30 years’ experience as a criminal defence expert, Kate acts across the full range of charges. She is often instructed by high profile and HNW individuals for whom maintaining a good public reputation is everything.
Kate is particularly regarded for her sensitivity, tactical skill, attention to detail, her ability to tackle complex forensic issues, and her thorough and determined pursuit of disclosure and defence leads. She understands the huge pressures press attention can place on an under-fire individual and is expert at navigating clients through the media storm.
Ranked by the Legal 500 directory as a “Leading Partner” in General Crime, Kate is one of the UK’s foremost extradition lawyers: an area in which she is ranked “Band One” in the Chambers directory.
Kate is particularly well known for representing university students facing misconduct-related allegations with criminal implications. She is skilled in acting for vulnerable clients who particularly appreciate her understanding and compassion.
She regularly provides legal advice before – and during – investigations brought by a range of prosecuting agencies, with regards to police powers, production orders, search and seizure, securing evidence and publicity. Very often the result of her actions that a legal predicament which initially seems overwhelming comes to a swift and satisfactory conclusion.
A forceful defender of individual rights, Kate regularly draws on the Human Rights Act to ensure clients’ rights are protected. She is an expert on police powers, production orders, search and seizure, pre-charge bail and suspect anonymity: subjects on which she has provided expert evidence to the UK Parliament.
After starting her post-qualification career at Hickman & Rose, Kate Goold spent 25 years at another leading London law firm before rejoining Hickman & Rose in 2025.
She is a member of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association; Defence Extradition Lawyers’ Forum; and Liberty.
Kate is recognised as a leading solicitor for representing university students who face internal disciplinary proceedings with the potential to spill over into criminal matters.
She routinely acts for young students accused of sexual misconduct either on-campus, or in another educational context.
Kate’s long experience in this area means she knows exactly how to navigate the internal, non-criminal investigatory proceedings that can, if not handled correctly, spiral out of control into criminal charges.
Kate’s success in this area is built on her compassionate approach, and her encyclopaedic knowledge of the various, often highly complex, disciplinary proceedings UK universities employ.
Clients in this area include:
– An Oxford University student who faced allegations of rape and harassment from multiple complainants. After a two-day Disciplinary Hearing, each of the allegations were dismissed and the student was integrated back into university.
– A Cambridge University student who faced some of the most serious allegations, all of which were dismissed and only a minor infringement of policy was upheld with minimal sanctions.
– A University of Warwick student in whose case the university accepted its disciplinary procedure had been both unreasonable and unfair. The university amended its policy to clearly permit legal representation.
Kate acts for high profile and High Net Worth individuals for whom maintaining a good public reputation is all important.
Past clients include some of the best-known figures in the political and entertainment worlds, as well as senior businesspeople and professionals for whom a criminal investigation has potentially serious regulatory implications.
Kate has achieved significant success for her clients, both in terms of winning acquittals at trial and also persuading prosecutors not to pursue investigations. She has also minimised – and in many cases prevented altogether – damaging press coverage of her clients’ travails.
Much of Kate’s work in this area relates to allegations of sexual misconduct. In 2025 the Legal 500 directory recognised Kate as “a key contact for high profile political individuals regarding sexual assault representation”.
She is highly skilled at managing the intense media interest these matters can attract and which can, if not handled appropriately, cause lasting damage no matter what the outcome of the criminal inquiry.
Previous clients in this area include:
– The broadcaster Paul Gambaccini who was arrested and investigated as part of Operation Yewtree (the Met police investigation into historic sexual abuse within the BBC), and against whom no charges were brought.
– A former star of a hit television business programme who was accused of serious sexual offences and who was ultimately found not guilty.
– An award-winning Hollywood actor was investigated regarding a non-sexual allegation. He was not charged.
For many of Kate’s clients, the strategic priority is that the criminal investigation they face concludes as swiftly as possible.
Kate has achieved significant success persuading the police to end investigations before the charge stage; and in convincing the CPS to end its prosecutions on public interest grounds.
Kate achieves this for her clients by adopting a holistic approach: investigating the circumstances leading up to the allegations; establishing weaknesses with the prosecution case; identifying potential mental health/dementia/neuro diversity issues; and, through her network of trusted experts, obtaining the highest quality and comprehensive reports.
This thoroughness, coupled with persuasive representations to the agencies in question, often result in the police / prosecution accepting they cannot proceed.
Kate recognises the fact that simply being under police investigation can, in and of itself, have an adverse reputational impact. She has successfully applied to have data from a police investigation removed from the Police National Computer to minimise the adverse impact of an investigation.
She has also acted for journalists and organisations in challenging production orders and advising on criminal law aspects of their work and protection of sources.
Instructed by the National Union of Journalists, Kate represented a freelance journalist in resisting a production order issued by Newcastle police for source material and successfully stopping the investigation of a photographer accused of a criminal conspiracy for merely photographing activists’ political stunt. Instructed by The Guardian and First Look Media, she acted for journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, who was detained at Heathrow Airport whilst delivering secret material obtained by Edward Snowden, the US National Security Analyst.
Having spent the whole of her professional life as a criminal defence solicitor, Kate has represented clients facing the most consequential criminal allegations. These include murder, manslaughter and the most serious drug offences.
Kate has a particularly strong reputation for defending vulnerable individuals accused of homicide-related offences such as murder, manslaughter and assisted dying. She recently succeeded in having a young person’s case dismissed pre-trial. The client’s co-defendants all received sentences of over 30 years each.
In term of assisted dying, recent clients in include a loving wife who helped her husband, who was suffering from “locked-in syndrome”, to travel to Switzerland to take his life. In doing so she risked criminal prosecution until Kate became involved and pro-actively engaged with police, providing evidence to illustrate this case came within DPP Guidelines not to prosecute.
She has also assisted families and partners by persuading police to conclude investigations without the intrusion of an interview under caution by knowing what information they require to conclude their investigations swiftly. She is aware of the complex probate issues in these circumstances.
Kate has represented a vulnerable young man accused of causing the death of his girlfriend by supplying her with lethal class A drugs. The client ultimately received a caution for drug possession
Kate Goold is a leading criminal defence lawyer for individuals accused of sexual offences, no matter whether the allegations relate to recent events; or are more historical.
Recognised by Legal 500 as a “key contact for high profile political individuals regarding sexual assault representation”, Kate is known for her empathic approach to her clients; and forensic mastery of the evidence.
Previous clients include the broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, investigated as part of Operation Yewtree, but against whom no charges were ever brought. Kate gave evidence with Paul at the Home Affairs Select Committee on pre charge bail and suspect anonymity
She has also represented numerous high-profile actors, celebrities, TV starts, politicians and their loved ones, all of whom were not charged or acquitted of sexual offences in separate trials.
The fact that the identity of many of Kate’s sexual allegation clients remains out of the public domain speaks to her ability to handle both the criminal and reputational sides of these often complex and distressing matters.
Kate Goold is recognised by the Chambers & Partners legal directory at a leading “Band One” lawyer in extradition law.
She has successfully represented clients facing the most serious charge in foreign jurisdictions. Kate has a broad extradition practice and has successfully challenged applications for extradition, many of which are politically sensitive, to both Category 1 and Category 2 territories. She advises on Interpol Red Notices and Mutual Legal Assistance Requests and liaises closely with US Attorneys in negotiations with the DOJ and defending related SEC actions where appropriate.
Kate has succeeded in having cases discharged in many politically motivated Russian extradition requests. Other cases include that of a high-profile Indian businessman, who had associations with the Ghandhi family, and who faced allegations of fraud in separate proceedings. Kate succeeded in having one case dismissed and is awaiting a decision on other cases, largely arguing that there is no prima facie case and prison conditions in India violate Article 3.
Other clients include a UK businessman accused of racketeering and fraud in New York and other SEC related allegations. Kate successfully compromised matters through assisting with negotiations with the US attorney of Southern District New York and the DOJ which resulted in extradition proceedings being withdrawn.
Kate has also represented a Polish businessman accused of pharma fraud who had serious health issues, and a young child and a Spanish elderly grandmother accused of fraud. In both cases extradition was prevented when the applications were discharged under Article 8 (the right to family and private life)
16 Oct 2025
Hickman & Rose’s status as one of the country’s leading law firms has been confirmed in the latest edition of the Chambers & Partners legal directory.
The firm’s Business Crime,…
1 Oct 2025
Hickman & Rose is delighted to announce that two more of its departments have been elevated to the leading Tier 1 category in the latest edition of the Legal 500 directory.
The Business Crime…
2 Sep 2025
The official body charged with overseeing student complaints about English and Welsh universities has revealed a growth in concerns about university-run sexual misconduct proceedings.
Here,…
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