Francesca Cociani

Practice Areas

Francesca Cociani is a Senior Associate in the Criminal Defence team at Hodge Jones & Allen.

Francesca has a substantial practice in general crime, extradition and protest law. She works on a wide range of complex and sensitive cases, from serious sexual offences to drug supply, fraud, terrorism and murder.

Francesca is dedicated to representing vulnerable clients and has successfully secured acquittals for victims of modern slavery and individuals with learning difficulties or severe mental health issues. She has become particularly involved in advocating for pregnant women in prison, including by submitting contributions to the Sentencing Council’s recent consultation on the sentencing of pregnant women and acting pro bono in Court of Appeal cases.

Francesca has successfully challenged applications for extradition, to both Category 1 and Category 2 territories. She has built close relationships with many international experts who are regularly instructed to fight extradition requests, particularly from the United States.

Francesca is a Higher Courts Advocate and regularly represents clients at the Crown Court. Last year she appeared on behalf of two defendants in a climate protest-related nine hander trial charged with criminal damage of £500,000 where they were all acquitted.

Francesca has a busy protest law practice and has been involved in several high-profile cases such as the Just Stop Oil protest at the Snooker championship in Sheffield in July 2023. She has recently represented some of the protestors first charged with the new statutory public nuisance offence and challenged their conviction at the Court of Appeal.

Professional Memberships

• Defence Extradition Lawyers Forum

• London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association

Publications

Francesca is regularly approached by different media outlets including LBC radio and BBC to comment on cases or points of law in the public eye. She has recently featured on the following:

• Cross Examination podcast episode discussing protest law

• Byline Times podcast with Adrian Goldberg on new protest legislation

• Lawyer in the News on the Law Gazette in July 2024

• Owen Jones YouTube channel discussing privacy laws and the criminal justice system during the BBC scandal in July 2023