Interim Criminal Lawyer
Ailsa McKeon joined JUSTICE as Interim Criminal Lawyer in May 2023, having come from a busy practice at 6KBW College Hill Chambers. Ailsa was called to the Bar of England and Wales in October 2018 and successfully completed pupillage at 6KBW the following year. Before commencing her tenancy, Ailsa spent 10 months as Judicial Assistant to Lord Reed in the UK Supreme Court and Privy Council. Back in chambers, Ailsa developed a broad criminal practice, both prosecuting and defending before Crown courts across England, as well as developing a fledgling practice in extradition and public law. Most notably, she was instructed to assist Sir Tom Winsor in his independent review into the departure of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, in February 2022.
Before coming to the United Kingdom, having grown up in Australia, Ailsa completed a dual LLB/BA (with majors in Spanish and Peace & Conflict Studies) at the University of Queensland. She was subsequently admitted to the legal profession as a solicitor and spent 2015 as Associate to the Hon. Justice Roslyn G. Atkinson AO of the Supreme Court of Queensland. During 2016, Ailsa interned with the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute in London and the defence team for General Ratko Mladic at the ICTY in The Hague. Ailsa then went on to work for Griffiths & Partners Attorneys in the Turks and Caicos Islands and to complete an LLM in Public International Law at the University of Cambridge before being called to the Bar.