Claire Robinson.
What others say:
Chambers & Partners 2024, Professional Discipline Leading Juniors
‘Claire has a fabulous bedside manner with clients. She is always reassuringly calm and never gets flustered. She easily puts clients at ease, when they are typically facing serious allegations and at a time of great worry. Her written legal arguments are first-class and always very thorough. She is a cunning advocate and always delivers robust cross-examination in trials.’ Legal 500 - Crime, Leading Juniors 2024
'A measured and very able advocate.' Legal 500 - Professional Disciplinary and Regulatory Law, Leading Juniors 2024
'She has a really relaxing and calming influence on the clients. She is so on top of things and sensible, and is a skilled advocate' Chambers & Partners 2023, Professional Discipline
- 'Excels in the disciplinary field' Legal 500 - Professional Disciplinary and Regulatory Law, Leading Juniors 2023
- Legal 500 - Crime, Leading Juniors 2023
- Professional Discipline and Regulatory Law – Leading Juniors (Legal 500 – 2022)
- ‘Claire is a very strong advocate who comes across as someone with full command of the documents and detail. She is a very calming influence on clients and has a clear way of explaining things for their benefit.’ - Professional Discipline and Regulatory Law – Leading Juniors (Legal 500 – 2021)
- ‘Her work includes discipline cases involving alleged sexual misconduct and dishonesty’ – Professional Discipline and Regulatory Law – Leading Juniors (Legal 500 – 2020)
Practice Profile:
Claire is an experienced barrister who regularly acts as leading junior and junior counsel in cases of all levels of seriousness and complexity. She is respected for her attention to detail, thorough preparation and calm approach to cases.
Claire both defends and prosecutes which compliments her balanced approach. She has particular expertise both as a leading counsel and junior alone in cases involving serious sexual offences, fraud, money laundering, serious violence and drugs. Claire's meticulous and methodical approach is perfectly suited to cases with high page counts and the need for attention to detail.
Claire is a leading junior in the field of professional discipline and undertakes some of chambers’ most complex and serious work. She represents clients who face allegations of misconduct, lack of competence and health conditions before a multitude of regulators, most recently at Police Misconduct Hearings (Ministry of Defence police), the Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal and the Nursing and Midwifery Council as well as the General Medical Council.
Claire is a level 4 prosecutor for the CPS and is on the CPS panel of approved advocates for rape cases.
Claire is a Legal Adviser to the Fitness to Practice Committees of the General Dental Council.
Present and recent instructions:
- R v W Instructed as led junior counsel to defend a 14 year old charged with joint enterprise murder.
- R v E Instructed to represent defendant in historic allegations of rape. The case involves s 28 cross-examination.
- HCPC v F Instructed to defend a Biochemical Scientist charged with allegations of misconduct and lack of competence.
- Architects Registration Board v GDS Defended an architect charged with unacceptable professional conduct in respect of the adequacy of terms of engagement provided to a client.
- R v I Represented an accountant in an 8 handed trial concerning allegations of supplying false or misleading information to the Charities Commission.
- R v S Represented a defendant charged with producing false business documents which were used to support VAT returns. Approximately £7 M was reclaimed over the timeframe of the indictment.
- R v C Represented a defendant charged with sexual assaults on his daughter. The case involved s 28 cross-examination of three young witnesses.
Qualifications:
- MA (Oxon)
- Diploma in Law
- BVC at the Inns of Court School of Law
Professional memberships:
- Criminal Bar Association.
- Association of Regulatory & Disciplinary Lawyers.
Claire is qualified to accept instructions from clients through the Direct Access scheme.
Practice Areas:
Claire is regularly instructed as both leading junior and junior counsel to deal with single and multi-handed cases involving serious violence, drug supply and modern slavery offences. She has particular experience in dealing with sensitive cases involving serious sexual offences, including historic offences and offences against children and is used to dealing with cases in which special measures are required, including the use of the section 28 provisions for pre-recorded cross-examination.
Claire has significant experience in multi-handed cases involving allegations of fraud and money-laundering. Her attention to detail and meticulous preparation mean that she has the skills and temperament required for these types of cases.
Claire is known as a leading practitioner in the field of professional discipline and regulatory law. She regularly defends registrants before fitness to practice committees and is sought after for cases which involve sexual misconduct or require consideration of third-party material.
She has particular experience before the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Health and Care Professions Council, General Pharmaceutical Council and at General Medical Council hearings before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.
Claire also regularly appears on behalf of medical professionals at inquests, including those requiring a jury.
Claire is a Legal Adviser to the General Dental Council fitness to practice committees.
Notable cases:
R v L (2020)
Prosecution counsel. Historic sexual offences against a step-daughter. Oxford Crown Court.
R v Y (2020)
Defence counsel. A 16-year-old schoolboy who stabbed a rival. Isleworth Crown Court.
R v T (2019)
Defence counsel. Shop owner accused of a modern-day slavery offences. Blackfriars Crown Court.
R v J (2019)
Prosecution counsel. Historic sexual offences against a foster daughter. Aylesbury Crown Court.
R v M (2019)
Junior prosecution counsel, led by Kate Lumsdon QC. Historic sexual offences committed by a Roman Catholic priest against children in his congregation in the 1970’s. Aylesbury Crown Court.
R v N (2018)
Prosecution counsel. Defendant who carried out a campaign of stalking her ex-boyfriend; sending malicious communications to both him and his work colleagues and perverting the course of justice, which involved her staging her own kidnap and then hiding in Scotland. Snaresbrook Crown Court.
R v. C [2017]
Defence counsel. Historic sexual offences against his sister.
R v H & Others [2015]
Junior defence counsel led by Vince Coughlin QC. Represented the first defendant, an 18 year old charged with multiple counts of rape and gang rape of a young and vulnerable complainant over a two year period.
R v G & others (2020)
Leading prosecution counsel. Multi-handed conspiracy to launder money; large quantities of cash collected around the UK and intercepted at airports (Op Leadbelly).
R v. Lawrence [2015]
Prosecution counsel. 78 year old defendant who defrauded his partner of £160,000 to fund his affair with his mistress aged 27 years. Croydon Crown Court.
R v. O & Others [2013]
Leading prosecution counsel. Six defendants charged with conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law.
R v. Mayiger & Others [2012]
Leading prosecution counsel in a conspiracy to defraud. Non-transferrable tickets to Premiership football matches and Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships were purchased and then sold online at inflated prices. Members of the public who has purchased tickets were stopped when they attended the matches and in some instances were refused entry. Southwark Crown Court.
Architects Registration Board v GDS (2023)
Defended an architect charged with unacceptable professional conduct in respect of the adequacy of terms of engagement provided to a client.
Ministry of Defence Police v PC KPG (2022)
Defended a transgender officer who faced allegations of inappropriate and one-sided romantic infatuations with three women, sent large quantities of romantic or suggestive correspondence and behaved in a way that amounted to harassment. The officer had been formally warned about the behaviour but persisted. There were also allegations of stroking and punching a colleague’s arm and kissing his ear.
The case involved sensitive issues because the officer who, before being suspended, was a firearms officer and had been in the Ministry of Defence Police during transition. At the time of the final hearing the officer had mental health vulnerabilities which had to be carefully managed during the hearing.
The Venerable Derek Andrew Broom v The Reverend J B (2022)
Defended Reverend JB at a Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal hearing. Reverend JB faced charges of conduct unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders and with a failure to comply with the duty to have due regard to the House of Bishops’ guidance on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. This was one of the first cases in which a failure of the duty to have due regard has been litigated and concerned Reverend B’s conduct in handling a complaint made by a survivor of historic sexual abuse against a man who was still a member of the parish.
Teaching Regulation Agency v DM (2021)
Defended a teacher facing allegations of unacceptable professional conduct and /or conduct that may bring the teaching profession into disrepute, arising out of an incident in which he failed to take timely action to stop a classroom incident and to safeguard the wellbeing of a pupil.
Ministry of Defence Police v Police Sergeant DH (2021)
Defended Police Sergeant DM during his Ministry of Defence gross-misconduct hearing arising out of allegations that he had plagiarised part of his portfolio of work required to be signed off in order to complete his promotion to Sergeant.
Inquest touching upon the death of B B K (2021)
Acted for a dietician at the inquest into the death of a man who died at a residential care home whilst held under the Mental Health Act.
NMC v L & others (2019)
A senior nurse who faced serious misconduct charges arising from her employment at HMP Liverpool. The prison was part of the failed Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust, which no longer exists, and which was reviewed in the Kirkup inquiry, published in 2018.
GMC v P (2018)
A doctor accused of using his mobile phone camera to view a male colleague under the partition between two toilet cubicles.
NMC v F (2017)
Defended a psychiatric nurse accused of historic sexual misconduct against a patient in his care.
Policies:
Claire Robinson news.
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An update on recent cases and guidance
An important case - but is there more to come?
A useful update for any regulatory practitioner
