Olivia joined the firm at the beginning of her legal career and has quickly progressed to becoming a Solicitor Apprentice with BPP University, one of the UK’s leading law schools. This means she is undertaking her professional qualifications, sponsored by Nicholls & Nicholls, and will become a fully qualified solicitor in due course.

Her background shows a committed attitude to working hard and managing pressured situations when juggling two part-time jobs and undertaking her studies and exams. During these studies, she undertook an EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) in criminal law and ethics. After researching the underfunded prison system and laws surrounding sentencing, Olivia entitled her work ‘Can the death penalty ever truly be justifiable?’ and received a grade A*.

Whilst undertaking voluntary work as a support worker, Olivia undertook a placement at a care home for vulnerable people with a range of mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Seeing the differing displays of vulnerabilities, intrigued her to the extent that she has researched the links with the criminal justice system. Olivia now spends a significant amount of her time working on cases that have questions relating to capacity, knowledge, mental health and learning difficulties in relation to the complainants and our clients. She has built a strong relationship with experts who provide detailed reports in these areas, and she regularly considers issues regarding consent, intoxication, and the impact court has on young people giving evidence as complainants and defendants. This has culminated in her spending time researching and engaging with barristers on the remits of Section 41 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999; questions relating to the background of complainants in sexual offence allegations, and a common occurrence in the courts across England and Wales.