'Allison is amazing both on paper and as an advocate. She is a powerhouse.' Chambers UK Financial Crime: Corporates (2026)
'Allison is very impressive and produces a very high quality of work. Judges find her advocacy extremely attractive and easy to listen to.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2026)
'Allison is exceptional. Her forensic mind, concise and direct advocacy and ability to judge the mood of the courtroom yields fantastic results. She leads from the front.'
Chambers UK 2025‘She is so good with clients, organised, and also good with solicitors. She can do massive, complicated cases and you want to work with her.' Chambers UK 2025
'Allison is a ferocious advocate. She is fearless in the face of stout opposition or hostile judges. Her understanding of the evidence and instructions from clients is swift, confidence-inspiring and accurate.' Legal 500 2025
Overview
A phenomenal advocate; fiercely intelligent and fearless. Allison Clare KC is a true expert in the field of Corporate and Financial Crime.
- Awarded Corporate Crime Silk of the Year : September 2025 Legal 500 Bar Awards
- Times ‘Lawyer of the Week’, 22nd February 2024
Corporate & Financial Crime
Allison specialises in advising and acting for corporates and individuals on all aspects of financial crime, corruption and money laundering. She has a particular interest in complex markets-based frauds and the evolving area of corporate criminal liability. She defends contentious allegations alongside advising in related pre-contentious or non-contentious matters. She is recognised for her incisive analysis, clear advice, tactical acumen, and commercial pragmatism, making her a sought-after advocate and adviser in high-profile cases.
Allison has acted in three deferred prosecution agreements, including the largest UK DPA to date and has a particular interest in the operation of these agreements.Chambers and Partners UK 2025: Silks Band 1 in Financial Crime: Corporates
Chambers and Partners UK 2025: Silks Band 2 in Financial Crime: Individuals
Ranked as Financial Crime Silk in Chambers and Partners, July 2024, High Net Worth Legal Guide.
Reviews
Chambers UK 2026: Financial Crime: Corporates - Band 1; Financial Crime - Band 2
Legal 500 2025: Winner Corporate Crime Silk of the Year
'Allison is amazing both on paper and as an advocate. She is a powerhouse.' Chambers UK Financial Crime: Corporates (2026)
'Allison is very impressive and produces a very high quality of work. Judges find her advocacy extremely attractive and easy to listen to.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2026)
'Allison is a ferocious advocate. She is fearless in the face of stout opposition or hostile judges. Her understanding of evidence and instructions from clients is swift, confidence-inspiring and accurate.' Legal 500 (2025)
'Allison’s technical skill is unmatched, but she is also one of the best advocates. She is able to take extremely complicated material and break it down to present with precision and simplicity. This is critical in proceedings, for her clients, and for the solicitors she works with.' Legal 500 (2025)
'She is so good with clients, organised, and also good with solicitors. She can do massive, complicated cases and you want to work with her.' Chambers UK (2025)
'Allison is exceptional. Her forensic mind, concise and direct advocacy and ability to judge the mood of the courtroom yields fantastic results. She leads from the front.' Chambers UK (2025)
'Allison is completely immersed in the detail of the cases in every aspect. She is a really strong leading counsel.' Chambers UK (2025)
Ranked as "Financial Crime" Silk in Chambers and Partners July 2024 High Net Worth Legal Guide. High Net Worth Legal Guide (2024)
'Allison is always on top of the detail of a case. She has well-developed client handling skills and an easy manner with her team. She is a true expert in financial crime cases, understated and effective. Legal 500 (2024)
Chambers UK: Leading Fraud Silk for both corporates (Band 1) and individuals (Band 2)
Legal 500: Leading Silk in Fraud and Business & Regulatory Crime (including global investigations)
'Allison is very pragmatic in terms of her advice.' Chambers UK (2023)
'She is absolutely first-rate.' Chambers UK (2023)
'She is absolutely first-class and a very bright fraud specialist.' Chambers UK (2022)
'Absolutely outstanding.' Chambers UK (2022)
'She is tremendously impressive, and commands respect.' Chambers UK (2022)
'She is really easy going but remarkably hard-working.' Chambers UK (2021)
'She is a very good tactician and can spot the points that others do not. She has a keen attention to detail and is very meticulous. She injects into litigation a high level of integrity and discipline because of her breadth of knowledge.' Chambers UK (2021)
'She has an incisive mind and authoritative approach to cases.' Legal 500 2022 and 2021
'Allison is fabulous. Her advice is always of the highest quality. She is down to earth and a pleasure to instruct.' Legal 500 2022 and 2021
'Brings a degree of clarity and circumspection to a case and is really able to sense-test what you do, if a matter goes to trial her technical ability is second to none, and she is excellent for those who want to properly challenge on an evidential basis.' Chambers UK (2020)
'She has a first-class mind and a lot of experience.' Chambers UK (2020)
'She is clever, commercial and pragmatic, and she understands the client's needs.' Chambers UK (2019)
'Has total mastery of the factual elements of her brief. Her rigorous legal analysis results in clear and practical advice on matters which have no precedent.' Chambers UK (2019)
'Clever, commercial and pragmatic - she understands clients' commercial needs while staying legally robust.' Legal 500 (2019)
'Has a very strong claim to be simply the best junior Fraud lawyer in the market. She has an extraordinary eye for detail and an immense work ethic.' Chambers UK (2018)
'Really strong intellectually and the master of her brief.' Chambers UK (2017)
'She has a very impressive eye for detail.' Legal 500 (2017)
'Her legal analysis is second to none and her attention to detail faultless.' Legal 500 (2017)
'She is incredibly thorough, really hard-working and an all-round excellent lawyer and advocate.' Chambers UK (2015-16)
'She takes a sound commercial attitude.' Legal 500 (2015-16)
'Sought after by major corporate clients to advise on criminal law issues.' Chambers UK (2013-14)
'Able to reduce the complex to easily understood propositions of fact or law.' Legal 500 (2012-2013)
'An accomplished senior junior...cerebral yet user friendly...great at translating complex facts into digestible plain English.' Chambers UK (2011-2012)
'Committed to producing work of the highest standard.' Chambers UK (2010-2011)
Appointments
- Appointed Silk 2020
- SFO – KC Panel
- Member of the Bar Council’s Money Laundering Working Group
Professional Membership
- Volunteer for Advocate (Bar’s Pro Bono unit providing free legal advice)
- Pro Bono work for Innocence Project London
- Women’s White Collar Defence Association
- Committee Member of Fraud Lawyers Association
- South Eastern Circuit Equal Pay & EDI committee
- Criminal Bar Association
Education
- BA Law (Hons), Oxon
- Bachelor of Civil Law (postgraduate), Oxon
Publications, Lectures & Training
- Montgomery & Ormerod on Fraud (Oxford University Press), Chapter Author
- Lloyd's Law Reports: Financial Crime, Case Note Author
- Archbold: Criminal Pleading Evidence & Practice (Sweet & Maxwell)
- 'This is not about us' - Complacency about the Bar's Gender Pay Gap, Bar Council blog, March 2021
- Bribery - Corporate Culture in the Spotlight, New Law Journal, July 2021, Vol 171. An article considering the legal basis for adequate procedures defence
- Allison has spoken at a number of conferences and round tables about money laundering, bribery, failure to prevent fraud and corporate criminal liability
News
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QEB Hollis Whiteman is proud to continue its commitment to widening access to the Bar through its partnership with Bridging the Bar charity. As part of the initiative, members of chambers play a leading role in designing and delivering specialist advocacy...
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At the Legal 500 Bar Awards which took place last night (25 September 2025), members of chambers and QEB Hollis Whiteman were recognised with the following awards: Sean Larkin KC was named ‘Financial Crime Silk of the Year’ Eleanor Laws ...
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On Sunday 21 September, Allison Clare KC, newly appointed Head of QEB Hollis Whiteman’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee, and pupil Nora Nanayakkara of QEB Hollis Whiteman spoke at the launch weekend of the BVL Model Law Commission ...
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QEB Hollis Whiteman is delighted to have been ranked as a Band 1 set in the 2025 edition of Chambers & Partners’ High Net Worth Guide. Additionally, we celebrate individual rankings for ten members of chambers in Financial Crime: High Net Worth Indi...
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On 20 June 2025, Allison Clare KC of QEB Hollis Whiteman took part in the Fraud Lawyers Association Economic Crime Conference, held at A&O Shearman.The in-person event brought together senior legal professionals, academics and regulators to discuss curren...
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QEB Hollis Whiteman is pleased to announce its shortlisting in several categories at The Legal 500 Bar Awards 2025, including an impressive trio of nominations for Set of the Year in Corporate Crime, Financial Crime, and Professional Disciplinary and Regu...
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QEB Hollis Whiteman are delighted to announce that Allison Clare KC is joining Chambers. Allison is a most welcome addition to our Corporate and Financial Crime team. She has long had a stellar reputation in the world of business crime. She acts and advis...
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Congratulations to Allison Clare KC who has been shortlisted in the "Barrister of the Year" category in The Lawyer Awards 2024. Allison specialises in all aspects of corporate and individual white collar crime, acting in criminal cases and advising major ...
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Congratulations to Allison Clare KC who has been awarded "Lawyer of the Week" by The Times newspaper following the recent Court ruling of "No Case to Answer" for her client Suhail Zina in the FCA prosecution for Insider Dealing and Fraud. Read the full in...
Corporate and Financial Crime
Tactically astute, forensically minded, as collaborative as she is a leader, Allison Clare KC is first choice in this field.
Overview
Allison advises on and acts in all aspects of white-collar crime, corruption and money laundering cases for both corporates and individuals. Her areas of expertise include corruption, corporate criminal liability and failure to prevent offences, deferred prosecution agreements, money laundering (civil and criminal), business crime related internal investigations, and insider dealing. She regularly defends contentious allegations and provides advice and guidance on pre-contentious and non-contentious matters. Known for her legal and factual acumen, clear and practical advice, tactical insight, and commercial approach, she is a sought-after and persuasive advocate in high-profile business crime cases.
Allison has acted in three deferred prosecution agreements, including the largest UK DPA to date. She has a strong interest in their legal and practical limitations, especially as regards individuals.
Experience
Bribery and Corruption
With an established bribery and corruption practice, Allison brings hands on experience and expertise to any corporate or individual facing an international corruption investigation. Allison has acted for individuals suspected in large SFO and HMRC corruption investigations, as well as in three international corruption DPAs. She advises corporate clients both here and overseas on a range of bribery related issues, including internal investigations and self-reporting.
Insider Dealing & Financial Markets
Allison defends in several FCA insider dealing prosecutions and regulatory investigations, successfully arguing a submission of no case to answer at the close of the prosecution case in her first such case.
Allison also has considerable experience of defending in and advising on other complex financial markets-based frauds, having acted for an investment bank whose employee faced trial for ‘rogue trading’ and successfully defended a bank trader prosecuted for the same.
Money Laundering
Regularly acting and advising in Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 [POCA] part 5 (civil recovery) and part 7 (criminal offences) matters for individuals and corporates across both contentious and non-contentious cases, including all SAR related issues. Well accustomed to acting in contested confiscation proceedings under POCA part 2.
Experienced in providing urgent, practical advice on anti-money laundering [AML] matters arising mid corporate transaction or as part of ongoing litigation, as well as longer term advice for companies acting in high risk industries, including where core business is lawful abroad but prohibited or restricted in the UK .
Allison also regularly provides guidance on AML obligations more generally, especially to law firms and corporates.Possessing in-depth knowledge of POCA, Allison is also a member of the Bar Council’s Money Laundering Working Group.
Fraud
Many years’ experience defending in a wide range of contested criminal fraud cases, including investment frauds, revenue fraud and complex trading frauds.
Allison regularly speaks on the impact of the new Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and the failure to prevent fraud offence.
She also has a special interest in the operation of secondary liability in financial crime offences.Reviews
Legal 500 2025: Winner Corporate Crime Silk of the Year
'Allison is a ferocious advocate. She is fearless in the face of stout opposition or hostile judges. Her understanding of evidence and instructions from clients is swift, confidence-inspiring and accurate.' Legal 500 (2025)
'Allison’s technical skill is unmatched, but she is also one of the best advocates. She is able to take extremely complicated material and break it down to present with precision and simplicity. This is critical in proceedings, for her clients, and for the solicitors she works with.' Legal 500 (2025)
'She is so good with clients, organised, and also good with solicitors. She can do massive, complicated cases and you want to work with her.' Chambers UK (2025)
'Allison is completely immersed in the detail of the cases in every aspect. She is a really strong leading counsel.' Chambers UK (2025)
Ranked as "Financial Crime" Silk in Chambers and Partners July 2024 High Net Worth Legal Guide. High Net Worth Legal Guide (2024)
'Allison is always on top of the detail of a case. She has well-developed client handling skills and an easy manner with her team. She is a true expert in financial crime cases, understated and effective.' Legal 500 (2024)
'Allison is very pragmatic in terms of her advice.' Chambers UK (2023)
'She is absolutely first-class and a very bright fraud specialist.' Chambers UK (2022)
News
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On 20 June 2025, Allison Clare KC of QEB Hollis Whiteman took part in the Fraud Lawyers Association Economic Crime Conference, held at A&O Shearman.The in-person event brought together senior legal professionals, academics and regulators to discuss curren...
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QEB Hollis Whiteman are delighted to announce that Allison Clare KC is joining Chambers. Allison is a most welcome addition to our Corporate and Financial Crime team. She has long had a stellar reputation in the world of business crime. She acts and advis...
-
Congratulations to Allison Clare KC who has been shortlisted in the "Barrister of the Year" category in The Lawyer Awards 2024. Allison specialises in all aspects of corporate and individual white collar crime, acting in criminal cases and advising major ...
-
Congratulations to Allison Clare KC who has been awarded "Lawyer of the Week" by The Times newspaper following the recent Court ruling of "No Case to Answer" for her client Suhail Zina in the FCA prosecution for Insider Dealing and Fraud. Read the full in...
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