7BR

Crime & Regulatory; Inquests and Inquiries; Civil & Family;

Vanessa Marshall KC has a unique practice consisting of both criminal and civil jurisdictions, which means she can offer the skills and experience gained as a criminal advocate but also the discipline and detail associated with civil paperwork and her expertise in complicated medical issues.

Vanessa has been regularly ranked and commended as a leading Junior and Silk in Crime in Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.

Crime & Regulatory

Her practice in crime is split between prosecuting and defending and she is well known as a specialist in rape matters and other difficult, complex sexual offences including historic allegations and those involving child witnesses. Vanessa possesses fine attention to detail and a strong work ethic, which combined with her relentless tenacity (particularly involving issues of disclosing) and effectiveness as a jury advocate, make her the obvious choice whether prosecuting or defending. It is a testament to this that within a week of taking Silk, she was instructed in the only two murders in the East Midlands by both the defence and prosecution involving stabbing by young defendants. In short, she always goes the extra mile and leaves no stone unturned, consistently achieving acquittals when defending ‘hopeless’ cases and regularly secures convictions in ‘difficult’ prosecution cases.

Her background as a Registered General Nurse at a London teaching hospital means that she is a first-choice candidate for criminal cases concerning complex medical issues and causation, including but not exclusively, baby shaking cases and those where there is a mental health element.

Having been in Silk for 6 years, she is regularly instructed nationally, for the prosecution and defence in the most serious of criminal offences, such as murders and manslaughters, serious violence, including robbery, kidnapping, modern slavery & high value drugs matters. She continues to prosecute serious sexual offences (RASSO), when a Silk is warranted and has a growing private practice, defending serious sexual offences too.

As a junior, she had extensive experience being led in multi-handed murder inquiries for both prosecution and defence, which has given her a wealth of experience when she transitioned to Silk. One of the largest cases she did as a junior was acting for the prosecution on the Hilda Murrell investigation, where her pre-trial work included heading up a police team reviewing 100,000 documents for the purposes of disclosure and PII hearings, as well as covert work involving the security services and civilian informants. She also defended GPs accused of sexual offences against patients in the Crown Court, for the medical defence organisations.

Inquests and Inquiries

Vanessa’s practice also extends into the regulatory/disciplinary arena. Over the years, she has appeared in the Care Standards Tribunal, where she successfully defended a social worker who was challenging the decision to include him on a list of those deemed unsuitable to work with children. Given her clinical negligence experience and the work she does for the medical defence organisations, defending doctors in the Crown Court, she is well placed to represent professionals in disciplinary proceedings and has appeared before the General Dental Council on behalf of a dentist facing allegations of gross misconduct. A good example of her dual practice is that she then represented the same dentist in a civil fraud action bought by the NHSLA in the QBD. She also has experience in prison law, having been instructed in both adjudication and parole board hearings in prisons around the country.

In 2009-10, she was Counsel to the Airedale Inquiry, conducted by Kate Thirlwall QC (now Lady Justice) and instructed by Weightmans Solicitors, which included calling and cross-examining hospital managers, doctors and nurses into the management and practices of Night Nurse Practitioners at Airedale NHS Trust. The terms of reference reviewed nurse prescribing and IV administration of opiates, following a stayed murder prosecution against a senior NNP (she took her own life before the trial) who was believed to have being deliberately administering opiates to elderly patients without authority. It was through her meticulous analysis of the voluminous amount of documentation that Vanessa discovered a file that had been missed by the prosecution team, (showing that she had been trained and authorised to administer the opiates), which wholly exculpated the NNP from any wrong-doing.

Civil & Family

Whilst Vanessa used to be regularly instructed as a Junior in inquests and clinical negligence, predominantly acting for claimants, since taking Silk, she has concentrated on serious crime. However, her previous practice means that she has accrued a vast amount of knowledge and experience representing patients both at trial and in mediations, concerning complicated medical issues. Importantly, she has been able to deploy those skills at the criminal bar, especially when cross examining expert witnesses.

Equally, her experience prosecuting baby shaking cases, combined with her detailed understanding of the medical issues involved, has led to her being instructed in the family court, before a HCJ, leading a family junior, in a fact-finding hearing, defending a father accused of shaking his baby, where the medical science was extremely complicated.

Clinical Negligence

Vanessa has been recognised as an up and coming junior in the field of clinical negligence by The Legal 500. Her practice is primarily Claimant based. Her experience includes spinal injuries, cardiac, surgical procedures, neo-natal, birth mismanagement and cerebral palsy, dental, gynaecological and delayed diagnosis cases.

Her previous career, as an RGN specialising in acute medicine and surgery, has proved invaluable for this area of practice, not only in relation to the practical experience gained in the clinical setting, but also as to the day to day operations of a busy hospital and the multi-disciplinary teams working within it.

Called 1994, Gray’s Inn. Member of 7 Bedford Row from pupillage to the present day.

Criminal Bar Association PNBA

St Maurs Convent/St George’s College, Weybridge, Surrey; St Thomas’ Hospital, London (1989 RGN); University College London (1993 LLB Hons 2:1).