Our People
John Barker
Before joining RFB John was a barrister in private practice for more than twenty years appearing in Criminal and Regulatory cases. His experience extends throughout the criminal jurisdiction with him acting as lead counsel in many serious and notable trials. John is available to advise you and to represent your interests whether it be in the Magistrates Court fighting for your driving licence or in the Crown Court fighting for your liberty. The Department undertakes trial advocacy for the firm's own clients and on behalf of other firms of solicitors.
John was educated at University College (London) where he obtained a Masters degree in Law and at the Inns of Court School of Law where he qualified as a barrister in 1982.
He is a member of The Honourable Society of Middle Temple and The Criminal Bar Association. John has been appointed to sit as a Legal Assessor to The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, The General Osteopathic Council, The Association of Accounting Technicians and The Market Research Society.
Cynthia Barrientos
Cynthia graduated with a Law Degree from King’s College London and proceeded to achieve a distinction upon completing her Legal Practice Course. She joined Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP in August 2007 as a trainee under the Legal Services Commission Training Contract Grant Scheme.
Cynthia qualified as a solicitor in August 2009 specialising in Civil Litigation covering a broad spectrum of cases including, but not limited to, breach of contract, debt recovery, enforcement proceedings, negligence, and cost litigation. Cynthia is in a privileged position in that she also has extensive experience in criminal litigation and is able to use this experience in cross over areas such as fraud, asset recovery and confiscation proceedings.
She is experienced in conducting cases in the appellate court and one of her noted cases is her involvement in the case of Hextalls v Al-Sami [2009] EWHC 3678 (QB) which related to a successful costs appeal based on Human Rights argument on the right to a fair trial and access to justice.
She has obtained her Duty Solicitor Status which allows her to advise and assist clients in the Magistrates Court and the police stations.
Amila Blentic
a.blentic@rfblegal.co.uk
Amila joined RFB in 1998 and is the firm's Accounts Manager. Having over 12 years experience in Legal Accounts, Amila is fully conversant with the Solicitors' Accounts Rules and has been a member of CIMA since 2004.
Amila is fluent in Croatian and Bosnian.
Anna Buch
a.buch@rfblegal.co.uk
Anna Buch graduated with a Masters Degree in Law from University College London. Since qualifying she has specialised in serious crime and developed a following of clients from Russian speaking countries.
Anna has a special interest in the international aspects of criminal work including extradition, asset confiscation and money laundering. She has a wide range of experience advising clients in relation to extradition matters and white collar crime often involving complex, high value cross-border fraud. Anna has experience of acting in government led investigations and prides herself on being able to provide strategic, comprehensive and practical advice.
Anna speaks Russian, German and Romanian.
She was made a Partner in the firm in January 2012.
David Burns
David studied Law at University College Dublin and obtained a degree in Law and European Legal Studies. He then completed the LPC at Nottingham Trent University. David secured a training contract gaining experience in Immigration, family and criminal law.
David qualified as a solicitor in April 2009 specialising in criminal law and immediately gained experience of trial advocacy in the Magistrates and Youth Court.
David obtained his duty solicitor status in October 2009. He has dealt with large scale drug conspiracies, rape and firearms offences. He also has experience dealing with mentally disordered offenders.
Paul Cain
Paul obtained a Bachelor of Science at the University of Liverpool prior to completing his Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course at the College of Law in London. He joined Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP as a paralegal in November 2008 and completed his training contract in 2011.
Paul has gained significant experience in matters involving serious fraud, including cases with an international dimension, as well as extradition and confiscation. Paul is also an Accredited Police Station Representative and has gained significant advocacy experience in the Magistrates court.
Marianna Christou
Marianna graduated from Lancaster University in 2005 prior to completing the Bar Vocational Course at the inns of court in 2006. Marianna thereafter gained a great deal of experience as a senior prosecutor acting for borough of Barking and Havering, then Haringey and then Ealing before joining a specialist criminal firm based in North London. During her time at the firm she was part of the firm’s serious crime team dealing with high profile murder cases and predominately crown court matters in particular confiscation.
Marianna has also volunteered at Mother Teresa’s House in Kolkata, an orphanage in Phom Penh and the School for the Blind in Ho Chi Minh City.
At Ronald Fletcher Baker Marianna specialises in serious crime, confiscation and serious fraud.
Mariana is fluent in Greek
Ciro d'Alessio
c.dalessio@rfblegal.co.ukCiro studied Law at Cardiff University before going on to complete the LPC at Bristol in 2004. After some time spent working for various City law firms, he then secured a training contract with a large firm in Sussex and soon became involved in a wide range of matters relating to Criminal Law, Civil Litigation and Family Law.
Upon qualification, Ciro specialised in Criminal Law and joined a well-established firm in Berkshire. During his time there, Ciro obtained Duty Solicitor status and also conducted a substantial number of trials in the Magistrates and Youth Courts, thereby developing extensive experience as a trial advocate. Following this, Ciro then took over a Criminal department as Head of Crime for a London high street firm before joining Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP in May 2010.
Charles Digby
Charles joined the firm in 2010 having enjoyed a lengthy and successful career as an independent barrister. He brings with him a wealth of experience in all types of criminal defence including presenting the case as the leading advocate in major criminal trials.
Charles has a particular interest in complex fraud and white collar crime but has developed an expertise in all areas of serious crime and extradition. He has defended in many murder trials and in trials involving the importation of huge quantities of drugs. For many years Charles was on the Attorney General's preferred list of counsel.
Charles was called to the bar in 1982.
Rachel Duke
Rachel is a senior specialist solicitor in Family Law with 8 years post qualification experience.
Rachel has extensive experience of the full range of family matters with a particular interest and expertise in financial and property cases often involving substantial assets, foreign property, trusts, pensions and business interests. She also deals with advice on and the preparation of pre and post nuptial agreements and agreements for cohabiting couples and also advises on matters relating to children.
Rachel is Resolution Accredited Specialist and is accredited on the Law Society’s Advanced Family Law Panel reflecting her high level of expertise. In addition Rachel is a trained collaborative lawyer. Collaborative law is a relatively new approach to resolving family law issues involving a couple and their lawyers working together to find solutions, based on an agreement not to litigate.
Rachel is committed to a providing a high quality, efficient and cost effective service focused on achieving results through a constructive and non-confrontational approach to all family issues. However, she is equally prepared to challenge bad behavior on the part of others and defend her client’s interests before the courts where necessary.
Vanessa Frankson
Vanessa Frankson started working with Ronald Fletcher Baker in 1998 as Receptionist. She now has the role of being the firm's Office Manager. Many wise people consider her to be the power behind the throne.
Gillian Frost
Gillian Frost, barrister, has been appearing in the crown court for over 25 years in private practice. She has principally been in the criminal courts and has defended clients in serious and complex cases. this has included a seven month VAT fraud as leading counsel. Gillian is looking forward to continuing her career as part of the advocacy team at RFB.
Gillian obtained a BA in business law before studying for the bar qualification. She was called to the bar in 1979. before starting her pupillage she had several temporary placements including at the Law Commission. She is a member of the honourable society of Lincoln’s Inn and the Criminal Bar Association.
Claudie Gauriau
Claudie works as PA to Jonathan Roberts and has been working with RFB since October 1999. Claudie is French and is proud of it. She enjoys walking and quite naturally has a keen interest in food.
Sarah Hung
Sarah Hung is a real estate lawyer. She undertakes both contentious and non-contentious matters and has extensive experience in all areas of commercial property with a particular focus on investment and development transactions and landlord and tenant work.
Sarah acts for both buyers and sellers of investment property and land owners, developers and funders of development projects across a range of sectors including offices, restaurants, retail and mixed use schemes.
Sarah also has extensive experience in licensing and planning law.
Sarah represented the successful party in the House of Lords case on Ofulue v Bossert [2009] UKHL, a major new legal authority on the law of adverse possession whereby the ruling highlighted the wide protection provided by the ‘without prejudice’ rule to parties who engage in genuine settlement negotiations.
Having graduated in law from Queen Mary College, University of London in 2011, she joined Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP in 2003 as a trainee, qualifying as a solicitor in 2005 and became a Partner in 2011.
Sarah is fluent in spoken Cantonese and Hakka.
Shamsun Hussain
Shamsun graduated with a Law Degree from Queen Mary University of London in 2005. After completing her Legal Practice Course at the College of Law in 2006 Shamsun joined Ronald Fletcher Baker as a paralegal. She qualified as a Solicitor in 2009. Shamsun now works in the Conveyancing Department mainly in residential property and also undertakes wills and probate work.
Bakul Joshi
b.joshi@rfblegal.co.ukBakul Joshi has been practising as a solicitor in private practice for over 20 years.
He has a considerable amount of experience in managing developing and running law firms having been a Managing Partner at a couple of well known law firms.
He has a wealth of experience incorporating real estate corporate finance and joint ventures.
He has acted for a broad range of National and International clients including Governments Banks Local Authorities Public and Private Companies and sports and media celebrities.
His achievements include being the vice president of the London School of Economics Global Real Estate Group, and governorship of the Royal Alexandra and Albert School which has recently celebrated its 250th year and of which the Queen is the patron.
Adeela Khan
a.khan@rfblegal.co.ukAdeela completed her law degree and LPC at University of West of England in Bristol. After finishing her LPC in July 2006, Adeela began working as a criminal caseworker before gaining and completing her training contract. She qualified as a solicitor in April 2009. She attained duty solicitor status in November 2010. Adeela has extensive experience representing clients at the police station and at Court. She has particular interest in defending youths and vulnerable adults. Adeela joined Ronald Fletcher Baker in May 2010.
Kanchanmala Kumar
k.kumar@rfblegal.co.ukKanchanmala graduated with a LLB (Hons) Law Degree and went on to complete her Legal Practice Course at the College of Law in London. She has had three years experience in conveyancing but during her training contract she developed an interest in family law. Kanchanmala qualified as a Solicitor in 2007 and now specialises in family law. In addition to this, Kanchanmala is interested in advocacy and qualified as a Solicitor-Advocate in May 2010. She joined Ronald Fletcher Baker in April 2010. In her spare time Kanchanmala enjoys undertaking charitable work and is a member of the Royal British Legion.
Simon Lawrence
Simon is a 21 year qualified Commercial Property solicitor. He deals with all aspects of sale and purchase of commercial property with special emphasis on commercial investments. Simon acts for a wide variety of landlords and tenants on commercial lettings and has in the past acquired headline premises with values in excess of £20m on numerous occasions. He also acts for developers on acquiring and developing sites for commercial sales together with advising on planning issues.
Ross Marriott
Ross graduated from the University of Wales, Swansea before completing the Legal Practice Course at City University London with Distinction in 2010. He joined Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP as a trainee in 2009, qualifying in 2011.
Ross is part of the litigation and dispute resolution department. His particular interests include commercial litigation and professional negligence and he deals with a wide variety of cases. Ross has represented individuals, small business and large commercial concerns at County Court and High Court level. He has acted in a wide range of matters including commercial contractual disputes, directors' disputes, shareholders' disputes, breaches of covenant and professional negligence claims. Ross also acts for a variety of clients in relation to property litigation matters. Ross has built up considerable advocacy experience in the County Court.
Ross brings with him a great deal of experience in criminal litigation which is an invaluable asset when dealing with cross-over areas in particular fraud. Ross has maintained a keen interest in criminal law and is police station accredited.
Daniel Martinez
Daniel graduated from the University of Manchester with a Philosophy Degree in 2001. He subsequently undertook his PGDL and Legal Practice course at the College of Law in Guildford . Daniel qualified as a solicitor in September 2008 and joined RFB in December 2008. He specialises in Family Law, to include all private law children matters and in particular the distribution of financial assets upon relationship breakdown. Daniel is a member of Resolution.
Adebola Mayungbe
Adebola studied Law at Staffordshire University and obtained an LLB Law degree. Adebola trained in criminal law, family law and property law. He qualified as a solicitor in 2008 and joined Ronald Fletcher Baker in 2009. Adebola regularly represents clients at police stations and Magistrates Courts. He has completed his Magistrates Court Qualification and is a duty solicitor.
Michael Mitchell
Michael joined RFB in 1965 and is the longest serving member of staff and is proud of many enduring client relationships. Michael has vast experience of handling the sale and purchase of residential properties as well as serving small business clients. He is fluent in Greek.
Farhan Mughal
Farhan graduated from University of Westminster in 2003 with LLB Honours. He worked for a firm in East London as a caseworker and gradually secured a training contract. During his training he gained a lot of experience in both civil and criminal law.
Farhan qualified as a solicitor in May 2009 and decided to continue his career in criminal law. He joined Ronald Fletcher Baker in September 2009 as a criminal defence solicitor. Farhan has completed his Magistrates’ Court Qualification and acts as a Duty Solicitor.
Farhan speaks fluent Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and Swahili.
Naomi Nathan
Naomi graduated from the University of Sussex in 2010 with an LLB degree. She went on to complete Legal Practice Course at the College of Law (Guildford). Naomi joined Ronald Fletcher Baker in 2011 where she assists the Property, Litigation and Family law departments as a paralegal. She also has an interest in Immigration law and Human Rights. In her spare time Naomi enjoys reading literature, cooking and going to the cinema.
John O'Callaghan
John qualified as a solicitor in 1983 and has been a partner in the firm since 1990. John has a wide range of experience in many areas of the law with many longstanding client connections. He now specializes in property and private client work.
He acts for clients in connection with commercial and investment property, property development and financing as well as supervising the firm's domestic conveyancing department.
John undertakes much of the management of the firm and has a keen interest in the benefits technology can bring to modern law firms and their clients.
Deniz Oguzkanli
Deniz Oguzkanli joined RFB in April 2008 as a partner. He has experience of dealing with cases brought by HM Revenue and Customs, local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions. He also has dealt with cases of murder, large scale drug conspiracies, rape, historic sexual abuse and firearms offences. He has made a specialism of dealing with mentally disordered offenders. He defended in Operation Blue Sky, the largest UK human smuggling case, a pan-European case where the defendants had allegedly smuggled over 100,000 immigrants into the UK. He is a Legal Services Commission Very High Case Cost (VHCC) panel member and Case Manager.
He is a Labour Councillor in the London Borough of Hackney representing Leabridge Ward and is a Management Committee member of Hackney Law Centre, and a member of Amnesty International, The Labour Party and a Lawyer for Liberty.
Robert Perkins
Robert studied Law at the University of Leicester and obtained an LLB Law degree. He then completed the LPC at the College of Law in London whilst also working as a Crown Court Solicitors Clerk. While there he was involved in a large number of Crown Court proceedings throughout London. He then secured a training contract where he qualified as a Solicitor specialising in Criminal Law. Robert built up a sound knowledge of the Criminal Law and was a regular presence both at local Police Stations and Magistrates Courts, whilst also being involved in the preparation of a number of high profile cases.
Since coming to Ronald Fletcher Baker Solicitors in October 2008 Robert has attained Duty Solicitor Status and continues to represent clients both at the police station and Magistrates Courts on a daily basis. He also conducts a large number of Summary Trials as an advocate in the Magistrates and Youth Courts.
Robert has experience of cases involving a wide range of offences including sexual and violent offences, he has a keen interest in Road Traffic Law and is also responsible for all of our Prison Law cases.
Alia Rahim
a.rahim@rfblegal.co.uk
Alia graduated with a law degree from Birmingham University and then qualified as a solicitor. She joined RFB in June 2008 and specialises in litigation. She deals with a broad spectrum of litigation including but not limited to breach of contract, negligence, debt recovery, drafting commercial contracts, partnership disputes and undertaking general commercial work. In addition, she advises on employment (link) related matters particularly unfair dismissal, discrimination and redundancy. She has a particular interest in intellectual property including contentious and non-contentious matters and alternative dispute resolution. She regularly advises on trademark and copyright issues including passing off and misuse of confidential information.
Rakeebah Rahim
Rakeebah has been practising as a solicitor with RFB since 1989 and has been a police station and court duty solicitor since 1994. Her experience in criminal matters is huge; Rakeebah has had conduct of the most serious examples of cases including murder, manslaughter, terrorism, drugs trafficking, people trafficking, fraud, money laundering and cases involving serious sexual and violent assaults.
Rudi Ramdarshan
Rudi Ramdarshan practices within the dispute resolution department specialising in commercial litigation at our Baker Street office. He has a great deal of litigation experience having represented clients at all levels and in most jurisdictions from the Tribunals, County Courts, High Court, Senior Courts Costs Office and Court of Appeal.
Rudi specialises in commercial litigation advising on cases, often with international and cross border issues, including intellectual property and trademark disputes, breaches of commercial contracts, commercial business and partnership disputes, injunctions, arbitration and construction disputes. Before joining Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP Rudi commenced his legal career at an Islington based firm and was made a partner at that firm in 2008 specialising in commercial litigation.
His grounding in appellate court litigation has meant that he is able to identify key legal issues at an early stage and challenge rulings and decisions where necessary. This is evidenced by Rudi’s involvement in the High Court case of MH &Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Rev 1) [2008] EWHC 2525 (Admin) and the Court of Appeal case of Secretary of State for the Home Department v AHK &Ors [2009] EWCA Civ 287, which clarified the use of Special Advocates where disclosure is withheld on public interest grounds.
Whilst having an in depth knowledge of civil law and procedure, his commercial judgement is at the forefront of the advice he provides to his clients. He believes in providing clear and comprehensive advice at an early stage so that his clients are best placed to make key decisions with respect to litigation. Rudi comes highly recommended by his clients.
Rudi was a partner at the firm in January 2012.
Other interests
In his spare time Rudi maintains a keen interest in human rights and in particular the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, having previously been involved in the administrative court case of Queen on the Application of Lutete and Others [2007] EWHC 2331. Rudi continues to advise several charities on a pro bono basis.
Baljinder Randhawa
Baljinder’s expertise covers a wide range of contentious matters with a particular emphasis on financial disputes and cross-over issues between family and civil litigation.
She has experience in high value complex ancillary relief cases, often with an international element having knowledge in all stages of proceedings including final hearings and enforcement of orders. For Baljinder negotiation is of paramount importance to ensure that her clients achieve best possible results in the speediest time and at the lowest cost to the client. Where negotiation is not fruitful she is able to aggressively defend your interest drawing on her experience of civil litigation.
Baljinder Randhawa also practises in private law Children Act proceedings, including contact, residence, specific issue order and prohibited steps order applications, fact finding hearings, removal of children from the jurisdiction and child abduction cases. She also deals in contests between England and Wales and other jurisdictions as to which should decide the divorce - both in respect of Brussels II and generally - also in relation to injunctions to prevent a party from proceeding with divorce in a foreign jurisdiction. Baljinder also volunteers at the Citizens Advice Bureau.
Baljinder is Fluent in Punjabi and Hindi.
Jonathan Roberts
After getting a degree in Modern History at Oxford University, Jonathan joined the firm as an articled clerk in 1973. In 1976 he qualified as a solicitor and became a partner in 1982, and senior partner in 1989.
He has vast experience in dealing with a broad spectrum of work but now specialises in dealing with a range of business clients both in resolving disputes and property matters. Jonathan has a firm and longstanding relationship with many of his clients reflecting the care and commitment he invests in his work.
He has a good reading knowledge of French and Italian
Rebecca Roberts
Rebecca graduated from Sheffield University with a degree in Politics and subsequently converted to law at BPP in Leeds. She joined the firm in January 2009 as a trainee solicitor and demonstrated particular aptitude contentious and non-contentious employment. Rebecca qualified in our firm’s dispute resolution department in January 2011, specialising in Employment litigation.
Rebecca prides herself on being able to offer quick and pragmatic advice to her clients. For her corporate client she is seen as an extension of their HR team, providing advice on issues such as redundancy, business restructuring, TUPE, disciplinary and grievance issues as well defending Employment Tribunal Claims. Where corporate clients do not have a HR team she is able to tailor her approach providing a very hands-on service.
For her individual clients she appreciates the emotional and financial toll which many of her client’s experience when having to seek legal advice on employment related issues. She is able to offer practical advice during disciplinary and grievance procedures, advice on compromise agreements and preparation of claims before the Employment Tribunal.
With respect to employment claims she has experience acting for claimants and defendants in claims involving, unfair dismissal, disability discrimination, race, sex discrimination and Whistleblowing. Outside of work her interests include theatre, horse riding, and literature.
Zubeyde Simsek
Zubeyde graduated with a Business Law degree. She then went on to complete her Legal Practice Course. Zubeyde joined Ronald Fletcher Baker in 2010 as a paralegal where she assists the Criminal and Family Department. Since joining Ronald Fletcher Baker, Zubeyde gained a great deal of knowledge in criminal cases and has represented clients at the police station on several occasions.
Zubeyde also has gained a wide range of experience advising clients in relation to Children Act matters including residence, contact, specific issues and prohibited steps order.
She is fluent in Turkish.
Vicky Thompson
Vicky was raised in Halifax, West Yorkshire and went to the University of Northumbria where she obtained her Law Degree and completed her Legal Practice Course. She graduated in 2007 and began working for a barrister’s Chambers in Newcastle, where she gained a keen interest in criminal law. She moved to London in February 2008 to take up a training contract in a criminal law, immigration and prison law. She qualified as a solicitor in 2010 and joined Ronald Fletcher Baker. Vicky regularly represents clients at police stations and Magistrates Courts. She has completed her Magistrates Court Qualification and is a duty solicitor.
Jim Zacharias
j.zacharias@rfblegal.co.ukJimmy qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and has exclusively specialised in criminal defence work.
He is a qualified Duty Solicitor and joined Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP in 2010. Jimmy attends Magistrates' courts on a regular basis and also advises clients at police stations. His practise is extremely diverse, covering the complete range of criminal offences and he has been involved in many high profile cases.
Jimmy has particular expertise in road traffic matters and has a very high success rate in defending motorists/clients over the years. He has represented clients facing a wide spectrum of motoring matters. There are a number of defences to various offences under the provisions of the Road Traffic Acts which Jimmy has successfully argued/used over the years.
