Type of service: Advocacy (legal)

Website: http://www.msbsolicitors.co.uk

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Andrew Pearson is a solicitor/advocate and leads a specialist team who provide advice, assistance and representation for young people and adults at the police station, courts and on appeal. The firm holds a franchise in Criminal Law with the Legal Services Commission together with the Law Society 'Lexcel' Quality Accreditation Standard. Andrew is a solicitor with over 30 years of experience, almost exclusively within criminal defence work. During that period he has represented defendants who have exhibited difficulties right across the autism spectrum often complicated by multiple learning disabilities and mental health problems. The practice has regular recourse to seeking expert assistance when preparing for the defence of such individuals to include commissioning reports from clinical psychologists and forensic psychiatrists as well as having access to educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists etc. Andrew Pearson has a particular personal interest in this area of law as he is the father of two autistic teenage boys. He thus has considerable “hands on” experience in this area. Andrew is also a Governor of two Special Schools; one in the maintained sector and one in the private sector. One of the schools is a specifically designated autism spectrum disorder (ASD) school having Autism Accreditation and scoring outstanding in its latest Ofsted Inspection. In his capacity as a Governor of those two schools, Andrew has received training to supplement his personal experiences..

Aimed at: Adolescent , Adult , Child , Young person

Gender: All genders

Specialisms: Has autism-specific elements, Staff and volunteers get autism awareness training

Other specialisms: Challenging behaviour, Criminal justice, Learning disability, Mental health