Serious Crime and Terrorism

Respected barrister for complex cases

Brian Altman KC’s wide ranging portfolio covers murder, manslaughter, terrorism, official secrets and war crimes.

Brian is respected as one of the country’s premier criminal barristers for his exceptional work on a series of high profile, complex cases. After 16 years as Treasury Counsel, also as First Senior Treasury Counsel at the Old Bailey, and in his work since, he is considered a powerful advocate and cross-examiner, convincing, pragmatic, robust, and the ultimate strategist.

Listed as a leading crime barrister in both Chambers Bar Guide and The Legal 500, he is also ranked by The Times as one of the UK’s top 100 most influential lawyers.

Brian has prosecuted for and advised the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Attorney General in many serious cases including.

• Murder, manslaughter
• Corporate manslaughter
• Breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
• Medical manslaughter
• Police misconduct
• War crimes
• Official secrets and terrorism
• Organised Crime

Brian has led in a number of high-profile terrorism trials including the 2018 prosecution of Khalid Ali, a Taliban bomb-maker in Afghanistan for 5 years who returned to the UK in 2017 plotting to kill in Whitehall; the first prosecution of a major Islamic State-influenced terror plot to kill servicemen or policemen in the UK; an ISIS cyber-terrorist; the 2011 Birmingham terror bomb plotters; former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg; ‘on the run’ IRA man John Downey; trained jihadi fighters returning from Syria; Neil Lewington, a white supremacist operating a bomb factory; and Brian was also on the prosecution team for Operation Odin, an international terror plot to bomb the Christmas market in Strasbourg.