Charles Archer

Practice Overview

Charles joined Chambers as a Tenant in 2024 following the successful completion of his pupillage under the supervision of Peter Donnison and Joseph Murphy.

Crime: Charles has a busy practice prosecuting and defending a range of criminal and regulatory matters in the Crown Court and Magistrates’ Courts. Charles has been instructed in the Crown Court as trial counsel, in sentences and in Plea and Trial Preparation Hearings. Charles has been complimented by circuit judges in the Crown Court for “advocacy of the highest standard” and for conducting a case “impeccably.” During pupillage Charles benefited from working on criminal cases involving homicide, multi-handed drugs conspiracies, serious sexual offences and serious assaults.

Civil: Charles has been instructed in a range of County Court hearings and small claims trials. This has included personal injury cases arising from road traffic accidents, Employer’s Liability and Public Liability claims and landlord and tenant disputes. Charles has had success in seeking a claim struck out at trial due to deficiencies in its pleadings and has successfully argued for costs to be awarded based on unreasonable conduct.

Charles grew up in Wales and was educated at the Cathedral School Llandaff. He attended the University of Bristol to study an LLB and LLM in law. Whilst at university Charles was a Team Leader in the Human Rights Law Clinic and prepared legal research and analysis for the United Nations Sub-Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.

Charles won scholarships from the Inner Temple and Cardiff University to study the Bar Professional Training Course (LLM). He was assessed as Outstanding and achieved the highest mark of his cohort. As part of his LLM, Charles completed a dissertation examining the provision of criminal legal aid in Wales for which he achieved a distinction.

Prior to pupillage, Charles was a member of the Independent Monitoring Board at HM Prison & YOI Parc. Charles fulfilled a statutory role to monitor whether prisoners were treated humanely and justly and reported his findings to the Secretary of State. Charles also worked as a County Court Advocate and regularly appeared in small claims trials, a range of interim hearings, landlord and tenant matters, bankruptcy proceedings and contractual disputes.

Charles completes work for the Bar Standards Board scrutinising Bar Course exam papers.

Notable and Reported cases

• Education & Qualification
  • Bar Professional Training Course (LLM)- Cardiff University (2022)
  • LLM- University of Bristol (2021)
  • LLB- University of Bristol (2020)
• Memberships
  • The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
• Appointments
  • Bar Standards Board Paper Scrutiniser (2022- present)
  • Pupil Representative of the Inner Temple’s Education & Training Committee (2023 - 2024)
  • Member of the Independent Monitoring Board of HMP & YOI Parc (2021-2023)
  • Witness Service Volunteer based in the Crown Court at Bristol (2020 – 2022)
• Awards
  • Awarded a scholarship by the Inner Temple to attend the Geoffrey Nice Foundation’s Master Class titled ‘Genocide: Citizen, state, victims and accountability’. It was held in Dubrovnik, Croatia (2024)
  • Achieved the highest overall mark of his cohort on the Bar Training Course at Cardiff University and achieved the highest mark of his cohort in five modules (2022)
  • As a team won the Cardiff University Bar Training Course Mock Trial Competition (2022)
  • Awarded a Bar Course Exhibition Scholarship and Duke of Edinburgh Entrance Scholarship by the Inner Temple (2021)
  • Awarded a Master’s Excellence Scholarship by Cardiff University to study the Bar Training Course (LLM) (2021)
  • Semi-finalist in the KK Luthra Memorial Moot Court Competition, an international criminal law moot held in New Delhi, India (2019)
  • Winner of the Herbert Smith Freehills, University of Bristol Mooting Competition (2018) (Judged by The Honourable Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb) (2018)
  • Awarded the Denise Coates Award by the University of Bristol Law School (2017)
  • Awarded a top academic scholarship by the Cathedral School Llandaff (2015)
• Related Publications
  • ‘Criminal evidence obtained through torture’ (Case Comment), E.H.R.L.R. 2022, 2, 223-225
  • ‘Interference with art.10 by measures to restrict the distribution of condoms’ (Case Comment), E.H.R.L.R. 2022, 2, 173-175
  • ‘Admission and subsequent reliance upon untested witness evidence’ (Case Comment), E.H.R.L.R. 2021, 5, 558-560
  • ‘Mandatory disclosure of criminal convictions and the right to privacy’ (Case Comment), E.H.R.L.R. 2021, 4, 439-441
  • ‘Russo-Georgian war’ (Case Comment), E.H.R.L.R. 2021, 3, 317-321
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