Zarah Dickinson

Zarah Dickinson
Year of call:

2002 (Door tenant)

Education:

2001 - Durham University, Law LLB

2002 - BPP, BVC ('Very competent')

Career:

2003 - Pupil at Bridewell Chambers, Temple, London

2006 - Tenant at 5 Pump Court Chambers, London

2008 - Prosecution Counsel for The Attorney General's Chambers, Cayman Islands

2009 - Door tenant at No 6, Leeds

2015 - No 6 becomes Park Square Barristers

2018 - Tenant at Foundry Chambers, London

Appointments:

2011 - Advocacy trainer, Inner Temple

2012 - CPS Panel advocate

Memberships:

South Eastern Circuit

Criminal Bar Association

Awards:

2001 - Inner Temple, Jardine Studentship Inner Temple, Duke of Edinburgh Scholarship

2006 - Inner Temple, Pegasus Scholar

Zarah Dickinson is a criminal specialist with a practice covering a wide spectrum of offences. She prosecutes and defends serious and complex cases, frequently involving allegations of sexual abuse. She is a Specialist Rape Prosecutor (CPS) and Grade 3 Prosecutor (CPS) and regularly provides pre-charge advices for the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit (CPS).

Zarah is experienced in confiscation matters and regularly prosecutes on behalf of a number of local authorities. Local authority work includes benefit fraud, counterfeit goods offences, and offences under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990. She also advises local authorities on judicial review. She prosecutes on behalf of the National Probation Service.

She has appellate experience and provides second-opinion advice in appeals against conviction and sentence.

“Thank you very much for all you have done in relation to the case of Fardaush. I was extremely impressed with your handling of the appeal.” —William Martyn, Crown Prosecution Service

Zarah has developed a specialism in driving matters, ranging from driving with excess alcohol to death by dangerous driving cases, and so has experience in advising on expert evidence and inquiries.

Approach

Known for her excellent client care, exact advice and robust advocacy, Zarah also works well as part of a team of counsel and has been lead in both prosecution and defence cases.

International experience

Zarah was Crown Counsel with the Attorney General’s Chambers in the Cayman Islands in 2008.

In 2006, she was a Pegasus Scholar in Washington DC. She worked with Steptoe and Johnson in a 7-week bribery and fraud trial (USA v Jemal). She also gained experience at the District Attorney’s Office and assisted the prosecution in a murder trial at the circuit court.

“I have to say that I thought she was very good indeed. She had read everything carefully beforehand and was very pleasant to deal with and totally on the ball. Perhaps most importantly, she did an excellent plea in mitigation which encapsulated all the relevant points very succinctly. She had a very good approach with the bench and I was extremely grateful that she was there! I would thoroughly recommend her – indeed, I told her directly what an excellent job I thought she had done.” — Lay client

Notable cases

  • R v Petrou – Prosecution junior counsel in a serious and complex historical sex case involving four complainants
  • R v Uddin & Others – Defence junior counsel in a highly complex multi-defendant murder / causing the death of a vulnerable adult at St Albans Crown Court
  • R v Smith & Others (2008) – Prosecution junior counsel in a s.18 grievous bodily harm trial involving 9 youth defendants at Blackfriars Crown Court.
  • R v Ton Leo & Others (2007) – Junior counsel for one of the 14 defendants in a £4million car-ringing conspiracy. Judge Forster described the scale of the conspiracy as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘only the tip of the iceberg’.
  • R v GG (House of Lords) (2007-2008) (Operation Holbein) – Involved in the preparation of the defence for one of the individual defendants in a £2 billion pharmaceutical fraud.
  • R v W (2014) — Successfully defended the widely publicised attempted murder of a police officer (reduced to attempt s.18), multi-count indictment with a vulnerable client who was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

 

Contact Zarah’s clerks

Andrew Thornton on 0113 213 5202

Gina Hawkins on 0113 213 5205

Rebecca Wilson on 0113 213 5203

Hannah Dempsey on 0113 213 5211

Elaine Foster-Morgan on 0113 213 5217

Robyn Nichol on 0113 213 5253