Gillian Higgins
Gillian Higgins is Head of the International Practice Group at the Chambers of 9 Bedford Row in London. As an international lawyer with over 20 years’ experience, Gillian has appeared as Counsel in some of the leading cases in international criminal law. She represented President Kenyatta before the International Criminal Court, and has also acted in cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Slobodan Milošević, Ivan Čermak) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Alfred Musema, Ferdinand Nahimana).
Gillian's practice areas include fraud, extradition and mediation. She is an accredited civil and commercial mediator with a particular interest in the use of mediation to resolve international conflict situations. She is also actively involved in promoting wellbeing at the Bar in her role as a mindfulness meditation teacher. In recent years, she has designed and delivered courses on mindfulness for the legal profession and other business sectors. She is the founder of Practical Meditation, and her first book “Mindfulness at Work and Home” was published earlier this year. Follow Gillian @gillianhiggins
Gillian was profiled for ATLAS by Nolwenn Guibert, a a French lawyer specialised in international law. She is currently working She is now working as a Senior Legal Officer in the Office of the Legal Counsel with the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. Read more about Nolwenn's work at the end of this profile.
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What pulled you towards international law as a career? And what were your first steps?
I started as a commercial barrister. I completed a 12-month pupillage—which, in the UK is the practical training required to become a barrister— in commercial law. However, towards the end of my pupillage, I started to realise that the contractual nature of the work didn’t really interest me and that it wasn’t the field of law I wanted to pursue.
During my pupillage, I used to attend lectures organised by the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales. One of these lectures had a fundamental impact on my decision to change path. This was back in 1998. Two barristers, Steven Kay QC and Sylvia de Bertodano came to speak about their work defending Duško Tadić in the first trial held at the ICTY in The Hague. I thought it sounded fascinating. It involved not only law but also politics, history, languages, and different cultures. Listening to this speech was the first time I had heard from practitioners in this field. It was a defining moment in my career at the Bar. At the time I studied for my law degree at Exeter and Master’s at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, international criminal law was not taught as a subject. It was an eye-opening moment.
I went on to finish my pupillage in commercial law and was offered a tenancy in the same Chambers. Although I didn’t have any firm alternative plans, I decided to turn down the offer. This was quite radical at that time as a tenancy in a great commercial practice was hard to find. I still remember having the difficult conversation with the Head of Chambers as I explained that I intended to leave.
Shortly thereafter, I decided to find out where Steven Kay and Sylvia de Bertodano practiced as I was keen to follow in their footsteps. I contacted their Chambers, which at that time was 3 Gray’s Inn Square, and applied for a further 12-month pupillage, explaining that I had heard about their work and wanted to learn more. In spite of a rather wobbly interview, knowing little about criminal law at that time, I was offered a further 12-month pupillage, which I accepted. Within about six months Steven asked if I would go to Belgium to interview defence witnesses in the ICTR case against Alfred Musema. Subsequently as the case approached trial, I went on to work with Steven, Sylvia and a Dutch lawyer, Michail Wladimiroff, in Arusha, Tanzania. When the trial ended some six months or so later, I contacted a French lawyer, Jean-Marie Biju-Duval and worked with him and his team on the ICTR media case, defending Ferdinand Nahimana. From there, I went to The Hague to work at the ICTY on the Milošević trial and thereafter, to defend Ivan Čermak.
What have been the highlights of your career thus far?
Definitely one of the high points was my initial journey to Arusha to work on the genocide trials at the ICTR. In particular, working on the trial of Alfred Musema, I was a member of the first Defence team to conduct investigations in Rwanda. That aspect of our work came with so many challenges as we sought to collect evidence on the ground to present the defence.
Another high point was my journey on the Slobodan Milošević trial. I began as a legal consultant to three amici and within three years, I had been asked by the Judges to become an amicus curiae myself. I worked alongside Steven Kay QC as fellow amicus, navigating tricky legal waters for several years to ensure a fair trial for Slobodan Milošević, who insisted on defending himself. While taking on this legally complex case with 66 charges in the role of amicus was a high point, it was also one of the most difficult positions I have held. The length, complexity, and sheer amount of evidence presented during the case brought unparalleled logistical challenges and heavy workloads with limited resources.
Another high point was conducting investigations in Kenya on behalf of Uhuru Kenyatta, charged before the ICC. This case involved managing a team on the ground, interviewing a wide-range of individuals, forensically examining evidence to understand the motivation of witnesses and building an accurate narrative of what actually took place. Ultimately, to step into any arena of conflict to try to make sense of it as a lawyer is both a challenge and a privilege.
What are some of the challenges that you’ve faced and how have you tackled them?
In the early days, I was very fortunate to work with senior lawyers who gave me early opportunities to take on responsibility. They encouraged me and believed in me – which I think is critically important to how you flourish as a lawyer. There were definitely fewer women in this field when I started out but I have never felt that I had fewer opportunities than my male colleagues.
Over the years, I have found that one of the challenges of having a largely international practice is that it’s very hard to keep your domestic work going. If you’re not regularly at home building your practice, it’s hard to retain solicitors who would otherwise instruct you. I think you also have to be willing to reinvent yourself from time-to-time as a lawyer and expand your areas of expertise as it’s not always viable to practice in just one area of law. In this vein, over the years, I have developed a practice in civil and commercial mediation, training as an accredited mediator. Interestingly, I find that the skills of the mediator, which require active listening and facilitating the conflict resolution of others, have improved my lawyering. As a result, I am a little less quick to judge and more ready to listen and reflect.
Another challenge that I have faced over the course of my international criminal law career is how to deal with the nature of the crimes we analyse. I think I approached it clinically at the outset. As barristers we are trained to step into conflict, do our job and exit – rather akin to doctors operating on patients. The reality is however that for many of us, over time, our exposure to evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide can take its toll. Some witnesses and some aspects of testimony never leave you.
For me, it was the prospect of becoming a mother for the first time that motivated me to think about the impact of my built-up stress over the years. I wondered how I was going to be able to be present as a parent to my incoming adopted daughter and enjoy the moment before it had gone - which brings me on to mindfulness. I started to explore how mindfulness could help me to deal with my stress and enjoy a greater sense of wellbeing. I decided to join a local group and attended an eight-week course. Slowly, I started to feel the benefits: my focus, concentration and sleep improved; I got better at responding rather than knee-jerk reacting to tricky situations and I started to notice and deal with my ‘inner critical voice’ – something we all have to some degree.
After some months, I decided to train to teach to take the practice to the Bar – a profession much in need of stress-management tools. I approached Gray’s Inn and soon thereafter I was hosting sessions for 20-25 barristers, looking at how mindfulness could help temper perfectionism, reduce anxiety and increase our ability to pay attention. The course attracted media attention and my work in this field has grown ever since, expanding beyond the legal profession to other areas of business. In my experience, the concept of taking wellbeing seriously has slowly started to gain traction over the last few years, but there is still a long way to go. It’s exciting to be part of that change and I am passionate about sharing mindfulness and its scientifically proven benefits with others.
Do you have any advice for those, especially women, who are embarking on a career in international law?
Resilience and persistence: It takes persistence and resilience to find your particular career path in international law. Seek out advice, ask for help and try to find a mentor so you have someone to speak with about the challenges along the way.
Look after yourself: Long hours, the stress of litigation and navigating the demands of home and work life can be exhausting. Make sure you look after yourself, check in with your stress levels and try not to compromise on sleep!
And finally…find something you love: Of course it’s a cliché, but if you love what you do, then it’s rarely ‘work’. Follow your passion and celebrate your successes – however you choose to define them.
Gillian was profiled for ATLAS by Nolwenn Guibert, a French lawyer specialised in international law. She received her law degree from the University of Paris-X Nanterre, an LL.M. in International Law from Washington College of Law, and another LL.M. in Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the University of Paris II. She started her career as Human Rights Officer with the OSCE in Bosnia-Herzegovina. She then worked as a Legal Adviser to the Trial Judges and, later, the Coordinator of Chambers staff, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for 12 years. She has also served at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Chambers and at the International Criminal Court for the Defence, for the United Nations Department of Field Support as a disciplinary officer, and in the Pre-Trial Section of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as a legal officer. She is now working as a Senior Legal Officer in the Office of the Legal Counsel with the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. She is also passionate about ballet and blogs about the interactions between art and human rights.