Umar (Phillip) Harkins
Experience from Both Sides of the System
Umar Harkins brings more than two decades of first-hand experience across the US and UK criminal justice systems.
His work has developed at the intersection of lived institutional experience, legal research and procedural analysis, with particular experience in post-conviction matters, criminal appeals, federal habeas corpus, extradition and complex appellate proceedings.
His perspective is not based solely on studying the justice system from the outside. It has been shaped by navigating it, working within it, and examining it from the inside.
That experience includes nearly 15 years of sustained involvement in a complex extradition defence in the United Kingdom, as well as more than six years working as a Certified Inmate Law Clerk and Senior Law Clerk within the Florida Department of Corrections.
Forged in Conflict: From Adversity to Experience
Umar's understanding of the criminal justice system was shaped by personal experience as well as legal work.
After being extradited to Florida on capital murder charges, he navigated the criminal proceedings and identified issues concerning the prosecution's case that ultimately contributed to a negotiated resolution.
While serving his sentence within the Florida Department of Corrections, Umar became a Certified Inmate Law Clerk and subsequently worked as a Senior Law Clerk.
He assisted other incarcerated individuals with civil and criminal appeals, state post-conviction proceedings and federal habeas corpus matters. His work included cases involving lengthy and life sentences, giving him first-hand experience of the practical realities that sit behind the written record.
That experience became the foundation for Lexis Bridge Atlantic.
It taught him something that cannot be learned from a casebook alone:
how the system looks from the inside.
Dual-Jurisdiction Experience
Florida Post-Conviction Experience
Over more than six years within the Florida Department of Corrections, Umar worked extensively with the state's post-conviction system.
His experience includes Rule 3.850 and Rule 3.800 proceedings, appeals through Florida's District Courts of Appeal and matters reaching the Florida Supreme Court.
His work has also included federal habeas corpus petitions under §2254, Eleventh Circuit appeals and petitions for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court.
This experience developed a detailed understanding of the procedural relationships between state post-conviction proceedings and subsequent federal review, including issues of exhaustion, procedural default and the AEDPA framework.
UK Extradition & Appellate Experience
In the United Kingdom, Umar has spent nearly 15 years involved in a complex extradition defence.
The proceedings required sustained engagement with the Magistrates' Court, High Court and European Court of Human Rights, as well as extensive research into UK, European and international law.
His work has involved preparing legal research and procedural analysis across multiple jurisdictions, including the United States, Canada, Germany and Trinidad and Tobago.
He has also contributed to appellate and High Court proceedings involving complex questions of extradition, human rights and procedural law.
Sentencing & Criminal Justice Experience
Umar's experience extends beyond appellate and post-conviction litigation.
He has worked on sentencing and mitigation matters in both the United States and United Kingdom, including a Scottish fatal road-traffic case in which strategic intervention and early pleading contributed to a significant reduction in the eventual sentence.
He has also worked extensively with incarcerated individuals dealing with parole, life-sentence, civil-rights and other legal matters.
What Experience Adds to the Record
A transcript records words. An order records a decision. A judgment records the court's reasoning. But a case is more than the documents that describe it. Understanding a criminal case can require an appreciation of the institutions, procedures and human behaviour behind the record.
That is where Umar's experience informs the work of Lexis Bridge Atlantic. He does not approach a record simply by asking what it says. He asks what happened, how the system arrived there, what may have been overlooked, and which questions deserve to be examined more closely.
Technology can help process a record. Legal professionals interpret the law. Experience can reveal what neither may immediately see.
That is the perspective Umar brings to Lexis Bridge Atlantic.