Neelie Sharma

Neelam practices in all areas of criminal law, both prosecuting and defending in equal measure. She has been designated a Grade 3 prosecution advocate and is on the prosecution list of accredited rape advocates. Neelam has been instructed in a wide range of serious criminal matters, both in her own capacity and as junior counsel, including murder, firearms, drug importations and money laundering offences. Unusually for her call she has gained significant experience and a strong reputation as a specialist defence advocate in serious sexual offences. In recent years, her practice has developed with a particular emphasis in complex fraud offences. Notable cases include: R v Rastogi and others (second junior in one of the largest multi-million-pound global frauds to be prosecuted in the UK, she was heavily involved in preparing the cross examination and drafting the legal arguments); R v Rigden and others (junior counsel in complicated ‘phoenix’ fraud); R v Fensham and others (junior counsel in carousel fraud); R v Naeem and others (instructed in her own capacity in £2m banking fraud); R v M [2005] (instructed in her own capacity in a case of stranger rape/indecent assault on a disabled complainant); R v H [2005] (instructed in her own capacity where the defendant was charged with nine counts of rape and the prosecution were given leave to call evidence of seven previous allegations of rape by a previous complainant); R v H [2006]; R v K [2007]; and R v W [2008] (instructed in her own capacity as defence advocate in historical rape allegations, ‘date’ rape and allegations involving child complainants).

St Augustine’s Priory; University of London (1994 BSc economics); University of Cambridge (1998 LLB Cantab; 2003 LLM).