Kingsley Napley debuts HNW cross-border unit for complex extradition, financial crime cases

London-headquartered law firm Kingsley Napley has revealed that Aaron Watkins has joined the firm with effect from today (10 January) to co-head its new International Protection practice.

It said Watkins is highly regarded in the fields of extradition, mutual legal assistance, connected areas including asylum and public law and also in financial and business crime.

His career to date has been at the bar; as a member of Matrix until 2019 and then Cloth Fair Chambers from 2019 until now.

He has appeared in leading cases, both in the High Court and Supreme Court, defending individuals and representing companies and governments in numerous complex matters.

Watkins also has a significant advisory practice and extensive experience of investigations in both UK and multi-jurisdictional cases.

At Kingsley Napley, he will join the Criminal Litigation team headed by Louise Hodges.

His brief is to develop and co-lead the new International Protection practice alongside partner Rebecca Niblock drawing on expertise from across the firm not only in Criminal Litigation, but also Immigration, Reputation Management and other areas.

The focus will be on helping high net worth and high-profile individuals who are under scrutiny and face the risk of prosecution by authorities, whether the likes of the SFO, NCA, HMRC or FCA based here or equivalent agencies overseas.

Louise Hodges, head of Kingsley Napley's Criminal Litigation team,said: "Aaron is a fantastic addition to the Criminal Litigation team and I am delighted that he will be working alongside Rebecca Niblock to launch our International Protection practice.

"This team will provide specialist support and advice to individuals facing complex situations across multiple jurisdictions including extradition or Interpol notices, asset denial (including Asset Forfeiture orders or Unexplained Wealth Orders), immigration and asylum issues or international family or financial arrangements. In addition, Aaron has the expertise to advise on a range of financial crime and public law matters."

Watkins said: "This is an exciting new chapter for me professionally. There is a real opportunity to cement Kingsley Napley's reputation as the go-to firm for International Protection assistance and I am looking forward to working with excellent lawyers like Jonathan Grimes, Katherine Tyler, Katie Newbury, Elspeth Guild and Nick Rollason to deliver on this as well as Kingsley Napley's wider Criminal Litigation practice."