Wafa Shah

About Introduction Professional Discipline Inquests Defence Extradition Notable Cases Qualifications

AREAS OF EXPERTISE Advising Regulators Crime Defence Defending Professionals Drugs Employment Financial Crime & Fraud Health & Safety Inquests International Criminal Law International Human Rights Law International Law Police Discipline Professional Discipline Professional Negligence Regulatory Removal & Deportation Sexual Offences Violent Crime Introduction

A specialist in professional discipline, inquests and criminal defence.  She appears regularly before the major healthcare regulators defending in serious and high profile regulatory prosecutions.  Her Crown Court Criminal defence practice includes a whole spectrum of serious and sensitive criminal cases. She has appeared as leading counsel in a multi-handed conspiracy and is particular adept at defending in criminal cases involving expert witnesses.

A persuasive, skilled and tenacious advocate, she has been praised for her compassionate approach with clients and meticulous preparation, both by professional and lay clients.

Areas of Specialism

Professional Discipline & Regulatory Law

Her major area of practice is that of Professional Discipline with particular expertise in the healthcare field. She is instructed on a regular basis to act on behalf of regulated professionals before bodies.

Cases she has been instructed on high profile, sensitive and complex cases including cases involving serious allegations of patient abuse, sexual misconduct and factually complex allegations. She has represented regulated professionals in cases which involve dishonesty, patient deaths, data loss. She has a particular expertise in representing registrants with learning disabilities, whistle blowers and registrants who have been the the victims of bullying and harassment. She has extensive experience handling experts in examination and cross-examination.

She also has considerable experience in financial regulation and has advised and represented individuals and companies regulated by the FCA in disputes involving permission to conduct regulated activities.

Criminal Defence

She is a specialist criminal defence practitioner. She has extensive experience defending in cases involving drugs, serious violence, sexual offences and fraud.

International Law

From 2011-2013 she was part of a team of lawyers involved in ongoing work with Peace Brigades International on Colombia. She was part of a team of barristers who submitted an Amicus brief to the Supreme Court of Colombia on the San Jose de Apartado case. She provided the expertise on the principles of attributing liability in international humanitarian law.

Protest Law

Wafa has defended in numerous protest law cases. She successful represented a number of individuals facing criminal charges arising out of the DSEI protests. Her clients were protesting against an arms fair being held in the London and Wafa successfully raised a defence based on the right to protest and peaceful assembly under the ECHR.

Wafa has also represented protestors when criminal charges have been brought against them for breaching lesser known regulations designed to protect monuments or protected spaces. For example she defended protestors who had been charged with breaching the Stonehenge Regulations. She was successful in having a majority of the offences dismissed and secured conditional discharges in respect of the remaining matters.

Other Work

Recent publication include:

Contributed Chapter on England and Wales to Rechtshilferecht in Strafsachen (2014). Edited byKai Ambos (Hrsg.) / Peter Rackow (Hrsg.). Currently writing the update.

Fast Track Extradition at the expense of justice?’, Magistrates’ Magazine, February 2010, p4-5 (co-authored with Catherine Heard, Former Head of Policy at Fair Trials International).

‘The Promise of International Criminal Justice: The key components of the new era of international criminal accountability and the International Criminal Court’, JUSTICE Journal, Vol. 6(1), May 2009, p8-27.

Before being called to the Bar, she was a Legal Caseworker at Fair Trials International. She represented individuals facing trial in a country other than their own. As part of her role she worked with legal terms around the world for fair trial rights to be upheld in individual cases and conducted policy and campaigning work to aid systemic change within countries. She drafted interventions, submitted applications to the regional human rights tribunals (including the ECHR) and provided advice and assistance to pro-bono lawyers representing individuals in high court and Supreme Court.

Qualifications

LL.M Public International Law, Leiden University

LL.B (Hons), Bristol University

Middle Temple Benefactors’ Scholarship

Affiliations

Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers