'Karen is very smart, hard-working and a very solid advocate. She is extremely practical and goes the extra mile for her clients.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2026)
'She is very approachable and knowledgeable. She does not over promise and under deliver. Karen is first-class.' Chambers UK Crime (2026)
'Karen is a formidable junior. She is relentlessly hard-working, with a mastery of the evidence that is second to none.' Legal 500 Crime (2026)
Called to the Bar:2000
Overview
An asset to any team, Karen Robinson brings keen intellect, shrewd judgement and class advocacy to every case.
Karen Robinson prosecutes and defends in cases of corporate and financial crime. She has experience of prosecuting for the most significant financial crime prosecuting authorities and of defending senior parties against allegations of corruption. She has vast experience of HMRC MTIC fraud cases at all levels. She has expertise in an array of fraud and money laundering cases and is adept at dealing with the complexities that arise with them. Karen is an assured advocate who breeds confidence with her mastery of the complex, attention to detail and exacting standards; she is a crucial member of any team dealing with corporate and financial crime.
Karen Robinson prosecutes and defends in cases of serious and organised crime, as a sole, leading and led junior. She covers the whole criminal spectrum including murder, drugs, armed robbery, human trafficking, terrorism and health and safety offences. She is frequently sought out for highly sensitive and complex matters.
Karen Robinson has significant experience in the field of regulatory law, presenting on behalf of disciplinary bodies and representing individuals facing allegations in connection with their conduct and competence, particularly in the law enforcement and medical arenas. She has experience of inquests and inquiries, and is currently instructed on behalf of a core participant in the UCPI.
Chambers UK 2026: Financial Crime - Band 3; Crime - Band 5
Legal 500 2026: Crime - Leading Junior - Tier 3
Chambers High Net Worth 2025: Financial Crime: High Net Worth Individuals – Band 3
'Karen is very smart, hard-working and a very solid advocate. She is extremely practical and goes the extra mile for her clients.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2026)
'She is very approachable and knowledgeable. She does not over promise and under deliver. Karen is first-class.' Chambers UK Crime (2026)
'Karen is a formidable junior. She is relentlessly hard-working, with a mastery of the evidence that is second to none.' Legal 500 Crime (2026)
'She is incredibly organised and has a fantastic ability to weed out relevant material. She is very personable, accessible and practical in the advice she gives.' Chambers UK Crime (2025)
'Karen is super. She is remarkable in how quickly she picks ups a case. She has it all in terms of the advocacy and her written skills.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2025)
‘Karen is a brilliant senior junior. She is very hard working, down to earth, tenacious and has great strategic skills.’ Legal 500 Crime (2024)
'She is really thorough and detailed, able to hold her own and bring some joy to cases. She is a very good advocate.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2024)
'She's got terrific judgement, she's very practical and she's good with clients.' Chambers UK Crime (2024)
'Karen is a highly persuasive advocate' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2023)
'Her advice is clear, straight to the point and no-nonsense' Chambers UK Crime (2023)
‘She produces hugely compelling submissions in no time at all, and her strategic and tactical advice is always spot-on and hugely-appreciated by clients.’ Legal 500 Crime (2023)
'Extremely clever and hard-working. Very professional and efficient.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2022)
'Karen is an extremely impressive barrister, who consistently demonstrates phenomenal drafting skils, insightful legal analysis and strategy, and an ability to produce extremely high-quality very quickly even in the middle of complex and fast-moving proceedings. She has rapidly become a go-to senior junior for any complex criminal case.' Legal 500 Crime (2022)
'Has a strong practice and is fully committed to her cases.' Chambers UK Crime (2021)
'A highly persuasive advocate with a calm and reassuring manner.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2021)
'Karen is hugely hard-working, dedicated to her cases and persistent in securing the right result. She brings great organisational skill and thoroughness to her preparation and presentation of evidence. She has a terrific brain.' Legal 500 Crime (2021)
‘An exceptionally talented junior.’ Legal 500 Crime (2020)
‘Karen Robinson has significant experience with white-collar defence matters and handles major financial investigations in relation to fraud and regulatory issues’. ‘Very good and a top-level junior’. Chambers High Net Worth (2019)
Recent Cases
William Boyce KC and Karen Robinson prosecute man for 1991 murder, following his acquittal for the same offence.William Boyce KC and Karen Robinson prosecuted David Smith for the murder of Sarah Crump in 1991. Smith had been tried for, and acquitted of, t...
The SFO offered no evidence and accepted liability for defence costs today in the trial against ex-Serco executives accused of providing false information to the Ministry of Justice under an offender-tagging contract. Two former executives at outsource...
Simon Finch, a former defence worker has been jailed for disclosing “damaging” and top secret details of a UK missile system, which he initially claimed to have shared with “hostile states”. Karen Robinson was instructed by the Cro...
In one of the most high profile of the oligarch disputes before an English Court, an application by Oleg Deripaska for permission to judicially review the DPP’s decision to take over and discontinue the private prosecution of their client, Vladimir ...
William Boyce QC and Karen Robinson are instructed to defend one of the Senior Executives of Barclays as a result of the banks capital raising in 2008 and a US$3 Billion loan to Qatar.
The fraud trial of four former Barclays executives began on 23/01.
Crispin Aylett QC and Ben FitzGerald acted for Barclays plc and Barclays Bank plc.
Karen Robinson prosecuted in connection with alleged breaches of Health & Safety legislation.
Karen Robinson prosecutes two males alleged to have planned an attack on 10 Downing Street armed with an improvised bomb, suicide vest and knives.
Karen Robinson is prosecuting a defendant accused of enlisting three men in a terrorist cell to help plan terrorist attacks in the UK.
Karen Robinson prosecutes in joint police counter terrorism and ministry of defence operation.
Karen Robinson prosecutes two males aged 26 in relation to funding the terror attack in Brussels airport.
Zoe Johnson QC and Karen Robinson prosecuted a company and its director in connection with the death of two members of Fisherman's Friends, a group of singers.
In February 2013 a large folding door collapsed at the GLive concert venue in Guildford.
News
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...
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...
Chambers and Partners released their rankings for Financial Crime: High Net Worth Individuals and QEB Hollis Whiteman and its members are acknowledged as leaders in the field.Chambers is ranked as Band 1 and nine members of Chambers are ranked as leader...
William Boyce KC and Karen Robinson prosecute man for 1991 murder, following his acquittal for the same offence.William Boyce KC and Karen Robinson prosecuted David Smith for the murder of Sarah Crump in 1991. Smith had been tried for, and acquitted of, t...
Chambers and Partners released their rankings for Financial Crime: High Net Worth Individuals today and QEB Hollis Whiteman and its members are acknowledged as leaders in the field.Chambers is ranked as Band 1 with sources describing us as "a set of chamb...
QEB Hollis Whiteman, Hickman & Rose and Peters & Peters hosted a webinar - The Serco Trial: What Went Wrong?In the webinar, the defence lawyers in the Serco prosecution considered the factors which led to the collapse of the case. Adrian Darbishire Q
The SFO offered no evidence and accepted liability for defence costs today in the trial against ex-Serco executives accused of providing false information to the Ministry of Justice under an offender-tagging contract. Two former executives at outsource...
William Boyce QC and Karen Robinson have written in The Lawyer about their recent experience of private prosecution in the case of Deripaska v Chernukhin and R (on the application of Deripaska) v DPP [2020].Bill and Karen consider the private prosecutor ...
William Boyce QC and Karen Robinson represented Richard Boath, former head of Barclays Financial Institutions Group EMEA, who has been unanimously acquitted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court.Mr Boath faced allegations (in the alternative) of conspir...
Chambers & Partners’ High Net Worth publication ranks the top lawyers and law firms for international private wealth.Its 2019 edition launched on Thursday 11th June and marks the first time that Chambers HNW has featured barristers who specialise in...
The fraud trial of four former Barclays executives began on 23/01.
Crispin Aylett QC and Ben FitzGerald acted for Barclays plc and Barclays Bank plc.
Karen Robinson appeared on behalf of a 17 year old girl (16 at the time of the offence) accused of murdering a 23 year old man in an underpass in the Bretton area of Peterborough in May 2014. Four teenagers were found not guilty of all charges in connect...
A professional trustee, who dishonestly managed the affairs of four trusts thereby depriving the beneficiaries of nearly £200,000.00 they were entitled to receive, was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. Following a long and highly complex inquiry by the C...
In 1999, the body of 28 year old Fatima Kama was found in a suitcase at Heathrow Airport. She had been repeatedly stabbed. By the time the defendant was identified as a suspect he had fled to the Levant. He subsequently changed his name and began a new...
Articles
Dennis McGrory, 75, was imprisoned for the murder and rape of a 15-year-old girl in 1975. He was sentenced to Life, with a minimum term of 25 years, after his conviction in the oldest double jeopardy case in the legal history of England and Wales.William ...
William Boyce QC and Karen Robinson have written in The Lawyer about their recent experience of private prosecution in the case of Deripaska v Chernukhin and R (on the application of Deripaska) v DPP [2020].Bill and Karen consider the private prosecutor ...
Corporate and Financial Crime
A real brain when it comes to corporate and financial crime, Karen Robinson is calm, meticulous, incisive and self-assured; she brings absolute confidence to a case.
Karen Robinson defends and prosecutes in cases of corporate and financial crime. She represents professional clients facing high-profile allegations of financial crime. She is ranked in Crime, Financial Crime and Financial Crime: High Net Worth Individuals by Chambers & Partners.
In 2021, Karen was part of the team which secured the acquittal of the former financial director of Serco Home Affairs who was charged with fraud and false accounting in proceedings brought by the SFO in respect of the operation of contracts with the Ministry of Justice for electronic tagging.
Karen was also part of the team which secured the acquittal of the former European head of Barclays' financial institutions group in criminal proceedings arising from the bank's capital raising from Qatar during the financial crisis.
Karen has been instructed by HMRC's MTIC team to present a large number of cases involving factually complex allegations of missing trader fraud before the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) and before the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber), often appearing against specialist practitioners in indirect tax law. In these, Karen has been instructed both as a sole junior and as a leading junior.
Karen has experience in cases involving Deferred Prosecution Agreements, contentious investigation or disclosure issues, particularly in the context of large-scale investigations, and cases which involve specialist business sectors. She has advised and acted in cases with a multi-jurisdictional dimension, and is familiar with MLA requests and relevant treaties, and was specifically instructed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in the Seychelles as part of the prosecution team in a case alleging fraud and corruption against various individuals, including the economic adviser to the former President, and which involved significant cross-border enquiries and evidence.
Karen accepts instructions to advise, prosecute and defend individuals and companies in private prosecution proceedings. She brings her very considerable experience in prosecuting and defending serious and complex fraud and general crime to this specialist jurisdiction and is fully conversant with the particular duties, procedural requirements and practical issues which arise. She was recently
R v JA and others (2023)
Leading counsel for the prosecution in proceedings against JA and three others in respect of one of the biggest investment fraud cases investigated by City of London Police.
R v NW and another (2021)
Junior counsel for the acquitted former finance director of Serco Home Affairs, alleged to have been involved in devising a scheme to understate the true profitability of the company's contract in financial models submitted to the Ministry of Justice.
R v RB and others (2017-2020)
Junior counsel for the acquitted former European head of Barclays' financial institutions group, in an SFO prosecution relating to fees paid by Barclays to Qatar in the 2008 capital raisings.
R (on the application of Deripaska) v DPP (2020)
Junior counsel instructed by the Specialist Fraud Division of the CPS in Mr Deripaska's application to judicially review the DPP's decision to take over and discontinue his private prosecution for perverting the course of justice (by relying on false documents during the course of arbitration and Commercial Court proceedings between the two over the ownership of significant property holdings in Moscow).
Umaad Butt v HMRC (2013-2019)
Junior counsel instructed by HMRC in penalty proceedings against the director of a company alleged to have dishonestly evaded VAT.
R v Chief Constable of Devon & Cornwall Police (2018-2019)
Junior counsel instructed by the Special Crime Division of the CPS in proceedings against the police force of Devon & Cornwall for breaches of health and safety laws in relation to its use of emergency response belts as bite and spit guards.
Chambers UK 2025: Financial Crime - Band 3
Chambers High Net Worth 2024: Financial Crime: High Net Worth Individuals – Band 3
'Karen is super. She is remarkable in how quickly she picks ups a case. She has it all in terms of the advocacy and her written skills.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2025)
'Karen is a highly persuasive advocate' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2023)
'Extremely clever and hard-working. Very professional and efficient.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2022)
'Karen Robinson is very, very good; she knows her stuff." Chambers High Net Worth 2021
'She is very impressive. She is hard-working, incredibly efficient and effective. I like working with her a lot. She anticipates what you're going to ask for an just gets on with doing it.' Chambers High Net Worth 2021
'A highly persuasive advocate with a calm and reassuring manner.' Chambers UK Financial Crime (2021)
'Very good and a top level junior.' Chambers High Net Worth 2019
‘Karen Robinson has significant experience with white-collar defence matters and handles major financial investigations in relation to fraud and regulatory issues’. ‘Very good and a top-level junior’. Chambers High Net Worth (2019)
Recent Cases
The SFO offered no evidence and accepted liability for defence costs today in the trial against ex-Serco executives accused of providing false information to the Ministry of Justice under an offender-tagging contract. Two former executives at outsource...
In one of the most high profile of the oligarch disputes before an English Court, an application by Oleg Deripaska for permission to judicially review the DPP’s decision to take over and discontinue the private prosecution of their client, Vladimir ...
William Boyce QC and Karen Robinson are instructed to defend one of the Senior Executives of Barclays as a result of the banks capital raising in 2008 and a US$3 Billion loan to Qatar.
The fraud trial of four former Barclays executives began on 23/01.
Crispin Aylett QC and Ben FitzGerald acted for Barclays plc and Barclays Bank plc.
Karen Robinson prosecuted in connection with alleged breaches of Health & Safety legislation.
Zoe Johnson QC and Karen Robinson prosecuted a company and its director in connection with the death of two members of Fisherman's Friends, a group of singers.
News
Chambers and Partners released their rankings for Financial Crime: High Net Worth Individuals and QEB Hollis Whiteman and its members are acknowledged as leaders in the field.Chambers is ranked as Band 1 and nine members of Chambers are ranked as leader...
Chambers and Partners released their rankings for Financial Crime: High Net Worth Individuals today and QEB Hollis Whiteman and its members are acknowledged as leaders in the field.Chambers is ranked as Band 1 with sources describing us as "a set of chamb...
QEB Hollis Whiteman, Hickman & Rose and Peters & Peters hosted a webinar - The Serco Trial: What Went Wrong?In the webinar, the defence lawyers in the Serco prosecution considered the factors which led to the collapse of the case. Adrian Darbishire Q
William Boyce QC and Karen Robinson have written in The Lawyer about their recent experience of private prosecution in the case of Deripaska v Chernukhin and R (on the application of Deripaska) v DPP [2020].Bill and Karen consider the private prosecutor ...
William Boyce QC and Karen Robinson represented Richard Boath, former head of Barclays Financial Institutions Group EMEA, who has been unanimously acquitted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court.Mr Boath faced allegations (in the alternative) of conspir...
Chambers & Partners’ High Net Worth publication ranks the top lawyers and law firms for international private wealth.Its 2019 edition launched on Thursday 11th June and marks the first time that Chambers HNW has featured barristers who specialise in...
The fraud trial of four former Barclays executives began on 23/01.
Crispin Aylett QC and Ben FitzGerald acted for Barclays plc and Barclays Bank plc.
Articles
William Boyce QC and Karen Robinson have written in The Lawyer about their recent experience of private prosecution in the case of Deripaska v Chernukhin and R (on the application of Deripaska) v DPP [2020].Bill and Karen consider the private prosecutor ...
A well regarded junior with considerable experience across the full spectrum of general crime, Karen Robinson continues to stand out.
Karen Robinson prosecutes and defends in cases of serious and organised crime, as a sole, leading and led junior. She covers the whole criminal spectrum including murder, drugs, armed robbery, human trafficking, terrorism and health and safety offences. She is frequently sought out for highly sensitive and complex matters, particularly those with sensitive disclosure issues.
Karen Robinson’s experience in the field of general crime extends to a vast array of offences both for the prosecution and for the defence. The mainstay of her practice is in serious and organised crime where she has prosecuted and defended charges that have included: murder (including ‘baby- shaking’), high value drug offences, human trafficking, armed robbery, terrorism, misconduct in public office and health and safety offences.
Karen is particularly adept at tackling difficult and often sensitive legal issues. She has expertise in cases involving complex disclosure issues, PII and third-party material. She has experience in obtaining mutual legal assistance from a foreign judicial authority. She has also dealt with cases where the mental health of the defendant has been in issue.
Karen’s vast experience has meant that she is often asked to train others in the industry on the areas that she has worked in. She has lectured local government lawyers on directed surveillance and covert human intelligence sources, has provided web-based training in the provisions of the Bribery Act 2010, and has co-authored a chapter on Disclosure in ‘Vulnerable People and the Criminal Justice System’ (Cooper and Norton, 2017).
Karen is a Grade 4 prosecutor. She is regularly instructed by the specialist headquarter divisions of the CPS, including the Appeals Unit (including in cases in which she was not trial counsel), the Homicide Division, the Special Crime Division, the Organised Crime Division and the Counter Terrorism Division.
Where a case requires focus, dedication and polished and determined advocacy, Karen is the ideal junior.
R v MB and eight others (2024)
Leading counsel for the prosecution in proceedings against 9 defendants for drugs and firearms offences.
R. v DS (2023)
Junior counsel for the prosecution of DS for the historic murder of Sarah Crump in 1991. This was a so-called ‘double jeopardy’ case, DS having been tried and acquitted of the murder in 1993. Karen was instructed both in the application to quash the acquittal before the Court of Appeal Criminal Division, and at the subsequent trial. Unusually, the ‘new and compelling’ evidence on which the application to the CACD was based comprised almost entirely evidence of bad character, primarily DS’s subsequent conviction for murder.
R v SF (2020)
Junior counsel for the prosecution of SF for recording and disclosing information in breach of the Official Secrets Act. SF worked in a variety of roles in the defence industry, both with the Ministry of Defence and for two private companies. He pleaded guilty to the offences charged after two weeks of the trial had elapsed.
R v AD and others (2017-2018)
Junior counsel for the prosecution in proceedings in respect of allegations of membership of a terrorist organization (National Action) brought against a student and two (then) serving soldiers following a joint police counter-terrorism and Ministry of Defence operation.
Legal 500 2026: Crime - Leading Junior - Tier 3
Chambers UK 2025: Crime - Band 5
'Karen is a formidable junior. She is relentlessly hard-working, with a mastery of the evidence that is second to none.' Legal 500 Crime (2026)
'She is incredibly organised and has a fantastic ability to weed out relevant material. She is very personable, accessible and practical in the advice she gives.' Chambers UK Crime (2025)
'Her advice is clear, straight to the point and no-nonsense' Chambers UK Crime (2023)
‘She produces hugely compelling submissions in no time at all, and her strategic and tactical advice is always spot-on and hugely-appreciated by clients.’ Legal 500 Crime (2023)
'Karen is an extremely impressive barrister, who consistently demonstrates phenomenal drafting skils, insightful legal analysis and strategy, and an ability to produce extremely high- quality very quickly even in the middle of complex and fast-moving proceedings. She has rapidly become a go-to senior junior for any complex criminal case.' Legal 500 Crime (2022)
'Has a strong practice and is fully committed to her cases.' Chambers UK Crime (2021)
'Karen is hugely hard-working, dedicated to her cases and persistent in securing the right result. She brings great organisational skill and thoroughness to her preparation and presentation of evidence. She has a terrific brain.' Legal 500 Crime (2021)
‘An exceptionally talented junior.’ Legal 500 Crime (2020)
Recent Cases
William Boyce KC and Karen Robinson prosecute man for 1991 murder, following his acquittal for the same offence.William Boyce KC and Karen Robinson prosecuted David Smith for the murder of Sarah Crump in 1991. Smith had been tried for, and acquitted of, t...
The SFO offered no evidence and accepted liability for defence costs today in the trial against ex-Serco executives accused of providing false information to the Ministry of Justice under an offender-tagging contract. Two former executives at outsource...
Simon Finch, a former defence worker has been jailed for disclosing “damaging” and top secret details of a UK missile system, which he initially claimed to have shared with “hostile states”. Karen Robinson was instructed by the Cro...
Karen Robinson prosecutes two males alleged to have planned an attack on 10 Downing Street armed with an improvised bomb, suicide vest and knives.
Karen Robinson is prosecuting a defendant accused of enlisting three men in a terrorist cell to help plan terrorist attacks in the UK.
Karen Robinson prosecutes in joint police counter terrorism and ministry of defence operation.
Karen Robinson prosecutes two males aged 26 in relation to funding the terror attack in Brussels airport.
In February 2013 a large folding door collapsed at the GLive concert venue in Guildford.
News
William Boyce KC and Karen Robinson prosecute man for 1991 murder, following his acquittal for the same offence.William Boyce KC and Karen Robinson prosecuted David Smith for the murder of Sarah Crump in 1991. Smith had been tried for, and acquitted of, t...
Dennis McGrory, 75, was imprisoned for the murder and rape of a 15-year-old girl in 1975. He was sentenced to Life, with a minimum term of 25 years, after his conviction in the oldest double jeopardy case in the legal history of England and Wales.William ...
Regulatory
An established junior in the field of professional discipline, Karen Robinson is instructed by regulators and professionals alike for her vast knowledge, commitment and commanding advocacy.
Karen Robinson’s experience in the field of regulatory law is vast with instructions for both the prosecution and the defence across a variety of disciplines across many categories of hearing.
Karen has considerable experience of regulatory and disciplinary proceedings. She has been instructed to appear in the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT), the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), the General Dental Council (GDC), the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the General Social Care Council (GSCC) (including allegations of social workers being under the influence of alcohol on duty and allegations of social workers making inappropriate sexual advances towards vulnerable service users). As well as her experience of a variety of tribunals she also has experience of a vast range of allegations and type of hearing.
Karen has experience of both prosecuting and defending at professional disciplinary hearings: she has presented on behalf of the General Medical Council, the GDC and the GSCC; she has presented and defended at the NMC; and she has defended at the SDT (including allegations that a solicitor failed to fulfil an undertaking). Karen also has experience of police discipline and has advised the Independent Police Complaints Commission in relation to whether proceedings should be brought against various officers.
Karen’s experience means that she is often asked to lecture in this field, for example: she has lectured lawyers from the Royal College of Nursing on the topic of developments in the law surrounding applications for interim suspension orders.
Because of Karen’s expertise in both crime and professional regulation, she is able to conduct and manage cases that have investigations running in tandem across both fields. She also has experience of inquests is of benefit where an investigation or allegation involves a death and leads to proceedings in the Coroner’s Court.
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