Chambers Band 1, Thames Valley Crime 2026 · 4 years running · SRA 488294

St Albans criminal, family and immigration solicitors, since 2008.

BK Law, formerly Wells Burcombe LLP, is the criminal-defence practice that has held Chambers UK Band 1 for Crime in Thames Valley for the fourth consecutive year. Both founding partners, Alan Burcombe and Ravinder Khumra, are ranked Band 1 individually. From 5 Holywell Hill, two hundred metres from St Albans Cathedral, we act in criminal defence, family law, immigration and wills and probate for clients across Hertfordshire and the home counties.

Make an enquiry › 24/7 emergency line

Band 1 Chambers UK 2026 · 4 years running

Legal 500 Crime: General (London) and South East

SRA 488294 Authorised and regulated

LCCSA London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association

Holywell Hill · St Albans · AL1 1EU

Burcombe · Khumra Est. 2008

4YEARS BAND 1, CHAMBERS UK CRIME

2PARTNERS, BOTH BAND 1 RANKED

24/7EMERGENCY POLICE-STATION LINE

2008LLP REGISTERED, SRA 488294

Practice areas

Four departments, one file, the same solicitor on it.

The St Albans office runs as a single practice. The same partner you instruct on a criminal matter sits in the same building as the heads of family, immigration and wills, so where matters overlap (and they often do) the file does not move between firms.

01 · Criminal Defence

Criminal Defence

The Chambers Band 1 practice. Police station to Court of Appeal.

Alan Burcombe and Ravinder Khumra lead the criminal defence team, both ranked Band 1 for Thames Valley Crime in Chambers UK 2026, the firm itself ranked Band 1 for the fourth year running. Murder, terrorism, multi-million-pound fraud, modern slavery, historical sexual offences, large-scale drug cases. Both partners hold Higher Rights of Audience, so the same solicitor who takes your first call can advocate in the Crown Court. The 24-hour line on 07592 034170 is staffed for arrests and police-station attendance.

02 · Family Law

Family Law

Divorce, child arrangements, domestic violence, prenuptial agreements.

Mandeep Randhawa heads the Family Department from St Albans. Divorce and financial settlement, child-arrangements orders, prohibited-steps and specific-issue applications, non-molestation and occupation orders, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. Fixed-fee initial appointments where the case allows, transparent estimates on every file, and the same solicitor on the case from first meeting through to the final order.

03 · Immigration

Immigration

Visas, ILR, naturalisation, overstayer regularisation.

Melissa Vangeen leads the Immigration Department. Spouse and family visas, indefinite leave to remain, naturalisation, work visas under the Skilled Worker and Global Talent routes, EU Settlement Scheme late applications, overstayer regularisation, deportation defence. Two specialist Immigration Consultants (Amneet Notta and Martin Ciling) sit alongside the lead solicitors so files do not stall when the Home Office moves the goalposts.

04 · Wills, Probate & Estate Planning

Wills, Probate & Estate Planning

Wills, LPAs, probate, Court of Protection, Inheritance Tax.

Sarah Steel heads the Wills, Probate and Estate Planning department. Will drafting and review with a sit-down conversation rather than an online form, Lasting Powers of Attorney for property and finance and for health and welfare, grant of probate and estate administration, Inheritance Tax returns, statutory wills and deputyship applications in the Court of Protection. The solicitor who drafts the will stays on the file when probate is needed, sometimes a decade later.

Chambers UK 2026 · Legal 500

Band 1 for Crime in Thames Valley, four years running.

The firm has held the Chambers UK Band 1 ranking for Crime in Thames Valley for four consecutive years. Both founding partners, Alan Burcombe and Ravinder Khumra, are ranked Band 1 individually. The Legal 500 separately lists the firm for Crime: General (London) and General crime and fraud (South East). Both partners hold Higher Rights of Audience, so the same solicitor who attends your first police interview can also advocate in the Crown Court.

The firm provides a committed and dedicated service to achieve the best possible outcome for the client and has been involved in some very high-profile, complex, and multi-jurisdictional criminal cases.

Chambers UK 2026 · Crime, Thames Valley (Band 1)

They combine real experience and expertise with a brilliant approach to client care. They have a combination of heavy-hitting senior lawyers with extremely impressive associates.

Chambers UK 2026 · client commentary

A boutique service that is closely tailored to the individual needs of each client. A strong team, well equipped to advise and represent individuals across the full range of criminal work.

The Legal 500 · Crime, South East

2008 Wells Burcombe LLP is registered at Companies House (OC336186) on 3 April 2008 by founding partners David Wells, Alan Burcombe and Ravinder Khumra, building a boutique criminal-defence practice from a West Drayton base.

2014 Ravinder Khumra joins the partnership in her current capacity, bringing twenty-plus years of criminal litigation experience and Higher Rights of Audience to the senior bench of the firm.

2022 The firm enters the Chambers UK guide ranked Band 1 for Crime in Thames Valley, with both Alan Burcombe and Ravinder Khumra ranked Band 1 individually. The St Albans office at 5 Holywell Hill anchors the Hertfordshire footprint.

2025 On 30 December 2025 the firm files at Companies House to change its trading name from Wells Burcombe LLP to BK LAW LLP, with the new identity reflecting the two surviving founding partners, Burcombe and Khumra.

2026 Chambers UK 2026 ranks the firm Band 1 for Thames Valley Crime for the fourth consecutive year. Both partners ranked Band 1 individually. Legal 500 lists the firm for Crime: General in London and across the South East. 18 years since the LLP wrapper was registered.

The specialism

Serious crime, appeals, and the Higher Rights partner on the same file from custody to Court of Appeal.

Most market-town criminal firms refer Crown Court advocacy out to chambers counsel. The two ranked partners here both hold Higher Rights of Audience (the SRA accreditation that lets a solicitor advocate at all levels of the Crown Court). That changes how a serious case is run.

Custody suite to the Crown Court, one solicitor

The partner who attends the police station for the first interview is the same partner who advocates at the plea-and-trial-preparation hearing and at the Crown Court trial. No handover memo to counsel; no retelling the story.

ii.

Appeals, miscarriages of justice, post-conviction review

Alan Burcombe's appellate practice covers single-judge applications to the Court of Appeal, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, and post-conviction review of historical convictions. The firm has acted on multi-jurisdictional cases cited in the Chambers commentary.

iii.

White-collar, financial crime, restraint and confiscation

Ravinder Khumra leads on white-collar, FCA and HMRC-led investigations, insider trading, false accounting, and the Proceeds of Crime Act restraint and confiscation work that runs in parallel with serious fraud. POCA hearings are handled in-house, not referred out.

Chambers UK 2026
Band 1, Crime
Thames Valley

What Band 1 actually means

Independently audited, year on year.

The Chambers ranking is built from interviews with judges, opposing counsel, and clients. Band 1 is the top tier in a given regional market. We have held it for the firm-level Crime, Thames Valley ranking for four consecutive years; both Alan Burcombe and Ravinder Khumra are individually Band 1.

The Legal 500 listing for Crime: General is a separate audit; we appear in London and across the South East. The SRA registration number 488294 is the public-record check. None of these are advertising; all three sit on chambers.com, legal500.com, and sra.org.uk.

The St Albans bench

Two ranked partners, three department heads, the people who run your file.

The Companies House rebrand on 30 December 2025 changed the name on the door from Wells Burcombe LLP to BK LAW LLP, drawing the lockup from the surviving founding partners (Burcombe and Khumra). The people on your file are unchanged; the SRA number (488294) is unchanged; the LLP number (OC336186) is unchanged.

Alan Burcombe

Partner, Criminal Defence

Chambers Band 1 · Thames Valley Crime

Ravinder Khumra

Partner HCA, Higher Courts Advocate

Chambers Band 1 · Crime Duty Solicitor Panel

Mandeep Randhawa

Head of Family Department

Melissa Vangeen

Head of Immigration Department

Sarah Steel

Head of Wills, Probate and Estate Planning

24 / 7

If you or someone you know has been arrested, the criminal-defence team takes calls out of office hours on a dedicated police-station line.

07592 034170

Make an enquiry

Tell us about the matter. We will come back the same working day.

Send a short note about the matter; the appropriate department head replies on the same working day, with a clear next step and a written cost estimate where the work allows. Urgent criminal-defence enquiries (police station, custody, arrest) should ring the 24-hour line on 07592 034170 rather than wait for an email reply.

Same-day response on enquiries submitted before 16:00
Free first conversation to assess the right department and route
Written cost estimate before any work begins on the file
The same solicitor on the file from first call to final order

Visit

5 Holywell Hill, two hundred metres from the Cathedral.

Holywell Hill is the historic cobbled street that runs from St Albans Cathedral down toward the River Ver. The office is roughly two hundred metres south of the Cathedral and the Abbey Gateway, with free on-site client parking behind the building.

St Albans office

5 Holywell Hill, AL1 1EU

5 Holywell Hill, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 1EU.

Phone 01727 840900

24/7 line 07592 034170

Email info@bklaw.co.uk

Trains St Albans City (~12 min walk), St Albans Abbey (~6 min walk)

Buses Stops outside: 321, 361, 601, 724, S4, S5, S8, S9

Parking Free on-site client parking behind the building

Holywell Hill The office sits on the heritage spine of the city, two doors from the fifteenth-century White Hart Hotel and a five-minute walk from Verulamium Park and the Roman ruins. The Crown Court at St Albans and the magistrates court are both a short walk north of the Cathedral.

Hours and out-of-hours

Mon to Fri, 09:00 to 17:00.

Monday09:00 to 17:00

Tuesday09:00 to 17:00

Wednesday09:00 to 17:00

Thursday09:00 to 17:00

Friday09:00 to 17:00

SaturdayClosed · emergency line staffed

SundayClosed · emergency line staffed

Out of hours The 24-hour emergency line (07592 034170) is staffed by the criminal-defence team for police-station attendance, custody-suite advice and PACE interviews across the M25 corridor and Hertfordshire, including Borehamwood, Watford, Stevenage and Luton.

5 Holywell Hill, St Albans AL1 1EU · 200m south of the Cathedral. Open in Google Maps ↗

Questions

Things clients ask on the first call.

Five questions we hear regularly from clients walking in for the first time. If yours is not here, ring the office on 01727 840900 or email info@bklaw.co.uk.

You are a Band 1 Chambers-ranked criminal firm. Do you really take instructions from St Albans walk-ins, not just London cases?

Yes. The St Albans office at 5 Holywell Hill is a full criminal-defence intake, with the same partners (Alan Burcombe and Ravinder Khumra) leading the file as on a London case. We act for clients across Hertfordshire and the home counties at police interviews, in the magistrates court, in the Crown Court at St Albans and at Luton, and on appeal at the Court of Appeal. The Chambers Band 1 ranking is the firm-level practice; the people behind it are the people you meet on Holywell Hill.

What does the rebrand from Wells Burcombe to BK Law actually change for clients?

Nothing about the people on your file, the SRA registration (still 488294), the LLP number (still OC336186), or your existing matter. The Companies House name change took effect on 30 December 2025 and brings the firm under the BK Law identity, drawing the initials from the two ranked founding partners (Burcombe and Khumra). Phone numbers, email, accreditations and ongoing files all carry over. Correspondence still headed Wells Burcombe LLP is still us; the old wellsburcombe.co.uk address forwards to the new domain.

I have just been arrested or had a family member arrested. Who do I call out of office hours?

The 24-hour emergency line is 07592 034170 and is staffed by the criminal-defence team for police-station attendance, custody-suite advice, and PACE interviews. We attend in person at police stations across the M25 corridor and Hertfordshire, including Borehamwood, Watford, Stevenage and Luton. If you are calling for someone else, have the police station name and the custody reference number ready if you can.

Where exactly is the St Albans office, and what is parking like?

5 Holywell Hill sits on the historic cobbled street that runs down from St Albans Cathedral toward the River Ver, in the AL1 1EU postcode, around 200 metres from the Cathedral and the Abbey Gateway. Free on-site client parking is available behind the building, which spares clients the metered Holywell Hill street parking. St Albans City station is around twelve minutes on foot, St Albans Abbey is about six. The bus stops directly outside are served by the 321, 361, 601, 724, S4, S5, S8 and S9.

Do you offer fixed fees, or is it all hourly?

Both, depending on the work. Fixed fees on most non-contested family and immigration matters, on wills and on Lasting Powers of Attorney, on uncontested probate. Hourly billing on contested litigation, complex criminal defence (where the file length is genuinely unpredictable), and on cases where the scope changes as evidence comes in. We send a written quote on the same working day with every disbursement (court fees, Land Registry fees, counsel fees) itemised up front.