We have adopted a specialist team approach to our practices for many years. We feel that this is the way our clients want us to work, and that specialisation leads to the provision of a better service.
‘Mary is incredibly hardworking and brilliant in court. She is a great all rounder who is an asset to any serious and complex case.’
Lucy Northeast
Practice Director - Crime & Sports
0117 930 9000
Click here to email
Grant Bidwell
Practice Manager - Crime
0117 930 9000
Click here to email
Shannon Cregg
Assistant Practice Manager - Crime
0117 930 9000
Click here to email
Mary is a criminal barrister and one of the ‘first choice’ advocates for serious fraud cases.
She provides an often hard-to-find combination of careful legal analysis and robust, persuasive advocacy. Now often called upon to provide advice at the earliest stages of a case, she has been particularly complimented on her ability to provide advice in plain English about more abstruse areas of law, to think tactically, and to gain the trust of judges and juries alike.
Other than her specialism in fraud work, Mary undertakes other serious criminal cases; often those involving expert evidence or unusual points of law. She has a reputation for being an impressive lawyer as much as a powerful advocate, and for being someone who can confidently build a case, lead a team and chart a path through factual or legal complexities. She was described in one legal directory as ‘a class act: precise, considered, clever and persuasive’.
Mary is a member of the Criminal Bar Association Law Reform Committee, and currently edits the Fraud blog. She has been a pupil supervisor, co-edited and contributed to a book about Criminal Advocacy, and acts as a mentor with the Inner Temple and as an advocacy trainer on the Western Circuit. Mary also provides legal training to prosecuting authorities and defence solicitors.
Mary has a substantial practice in relation to cases of Fraud and Financial Crime. She has appeared as a leading junior, alone, and as part of a Silk-led team in cases of this type. She is a member of both the CPS Serious Economic and Organised Crime panel and the Serious Fraud Office panel.
Mary has been instructed to defend and prosecute allegations of all forms of fraud and conspiracy to defraud, fraudulent trading, forgery and FSMA offences arising from a variety of different contexts, both personal and corporate. She has called and challenged evidence in relation to forensic accountancy, share valuation and intellectual property rights among other areas.
Mary is also instructed in relation to Confiscation proceedings and has advised on ancillary matters, such as challenges to Restraint Orders, and Civil Contempt relating to breaches of such orders.
Operation Sheridan (ongoing)
Instructed by CPS SFD as a led junior in a case involving allegations of misconduct in a public office
R v Freckleton and Jay, Southwark CC (2023)
Instructed by CPS SEOCID to prosecute an unusual ‘cryptocurrency boiler room’ conspiracy. Mary appeared alone against a silk instructed by the defence to deal with preliminary legal argument before the 5-week trial commenced
“Operation Recoil”, Bristol CC (2023)
Instructed as leading junior to defend a chartered accountant charged with £7.5 million fraud
R v Alaghband, Southwark CC (2022/2023)
Instructed by the SFO as a part of a silk-led team in a 20 week trial concerning allegations of conspiracy to defraud on the part of Balli Steel, who went into administration with debts of over $500 million.
R v Riley, Bristol CC (2021)
Mary prosecuted as a led junior, in a case involving allegations of fraud by abuse of position and attempted murder.
Mary is often called upon to appear in other serious and complex criminal cases where there may be multiple complicating factors: whether dealing with multiple experts, unusual legal points or clients/witnesses who need additional assistance in navigating the criminal courts, Mary provides calm, confident advice.
R v KH (ongoing)
Pre-charge advice in a homicide investigation with experts in extreme cold, neurology and pathology
R v W (ongoing)
Pre-charge advice in modern slavery case involving allegations that a woman had been subject to forced or compulsory labour for much of her adult life
R v MS (ongoing)
Defending a former soldier charged with murder
Lucy Northeast
Practice Director - Crime & Sports
0117 930 9000
Click here to email
Grant Bidwell
Practice Manager - Crime
0117 930 9000
Click here to email
Shannon Cregg
Assistant Practice Manager - Crime
0117 930 9000
Click here to email
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