Top criminal law junior and former Slaughter and May associate Katherine Hardcastle has joined leading London commercial set Fountain Court Chambers.

Hardcastle has made the move from specialist criminal law set 6KBW College Hill, where she spent 12 years, having transferred to the criminal Bar on requalification in 2011.

Hardcastle is described in the latest legal directories as “one of the best juniors of her generation” with “exceptional technical and strategic insight”.

Her practice covers commercial crime, focusing on fraud, bribery, proceeds of crime and sanctions work. At Magic Circle UK firm Slaughters she spent nearly five years as a banking and finance associate at the outset of her career.

Richard Handyside KC, who became head of chambers in October last year, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Katherine to Fountain Court. She has an excellent reputation in commercial crime, and we are pleased to strengthen our capabilities in that area further.”

Since moving to the Bar, Hardcastle has been instructed by leading City firms including Simmons & Simmons, Wilmer Cutler Hale Pickering and Dorr and McDermott Will & Emery as well as specialist criminal boutique firms.   

She has particular experience in representing corporate defendants and is currently instructed in several major Serious Fraud Office (SFO), HMRC and police investigations, including those involving Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs), where her clients have included Entain, in the first DPA to be concluded by the Crown Prosecution Service, and Glencore, Amec Foster Wheeler and G4S, among other cases involving the SFO. 

Recent high-profile work saw her instructed by Hickman & Rose to represent former LIBOR/EURIBOR trader Carlo Palombo in a successful application to the Court of Appeal in May for Palombo and fellow former trader Tom Hayes to be granted permission to apply directly to the Supreme Court to seek the overturning of their convictions. Leave to appeal was denied by the court when it upheld their convictions. She has acted in three of the six Court of Appeal cases in the LIBOR line of cases.

She also appeared alongside Matrix’s Clare Montgomery KC, in R v Ecclestone [2023], when she defended a complex fraud case involving former Formula 1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone in the resolution of fraud proceedings arising from an HMRC investigation. Ecclestone was fined £650m and received a suspended sentence for a £480 million tax fraud. 

Hardcastle’s arrival is another testament to Fountain Court’s senior clerk Alex Taylor, under whose management the set has grown its commercial crime capabilities with the arrival of leading counsel like Richard Lissack KC, Nick Medcroft KC and Robin Barclay KC, alongside Eleanor Davison. Recent recruits include Leonora Sagan and former Cloth Fair silk Clare Sibson KC, who joined in November 2022.

Hardcastle is a contributing editor to Blackstone’s Criminal Law Practice, which is seen as the definitive work in its field. She is also a member of the SFO panel and the Attorney-General’s List. 

During her requalification she worked for the civil rights group Liberty for a year and served as a judicial assistant to Lord Justice Rix, as he then was, in 2010.