Natalie Bird

Prosecution

Natalie is a CPS Level 1 Prosecutor, prosecuting in the Crown Court, Youth Court, and Magistrates’ Court.

Defence

Natalie has developed a strong defence practice in the Crown Court, Youth Court, and Magistrates’ Court, including trial advocacy and POCA proceedings.

In late 2018 she was led by Bill Clegg QC in a two-week trial regarding domestic violence and controlling and coercive behaviour, resulting in the client being acquitted of all charges.

Prior to commencing pupillage at 2 Bedford Row, Natalie was employed by Norton Rose Fulbright as a paralegal within the fraud and economic crime team. In this role, she defended cases prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office, the Health and Safety Executive, and the Department of Justice involving allegations of bribery and corruption, fraud by false accounting, and corporate manslaughter. Now a barrister at 2 Bedford Row, Natalie has been instructed to defend in cases relating to fraud, dishonesty, and tax-related offences.

CASES:

• R v M (2017): Acquittal of a vulnerable client who faced an allegation of failing to provide driver information, avoiding the activation of a suspended custodial sentence.
• N v H (2017): Claimant was persuaded to drop their County Court application to commit H to prison for breaching an Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction, on the basis of a written skeleton argument applying to strike out their case.
• R v B (2017): Acquittal of an ex-police officer accused of a public order offence involving threats of violence against a ticket operator at a train station, despite CCTV footage and the independent eye-witness account of a university professor.
• R v H (2017): Following legal argument about disclosure failings, the Prosecution were compelled to drop an allegation of assault against a 50-year-old man with no previous convictions.
• R v J (2017): Persuaded the Magistrates to find exceptional hardship, saving J from a 6-month totting ban which would have terminated his employment as a Class 1 HGV driver and forced him to sell his family’s home.
• R v H (2018): Acquittal of a man accused of domestic violence, despite three prosecution eye-witnesses all giving corroborative evidence.
• R v M (2018): Acquittal of a man accused of attacking his father with a belt, following careful exploration of his father’s evidence in cross-examination, avoiding the activation of a suspended custodial sentence.
• R v T (2018): Acquittal of a man accused of domestic violence following a successful application to adduce the complainant’s bad character (not relating to a conviction). The client’s c.£4,000 worth of outstanding Court fines were then written off due to the time he had spent in custody.
• R v S (2018): Led by Bill Clegg QC in a two-week trial regarding domestic violence and controlling and coercive behaviour, resulting in the client being acquitted of all charges.
• R v R (2019): Client was acquitted by the jury of the most serious of three counts of theft despite the jury seeing text messages purportedly from the client explicitly contradicting his defence.

Professional Discipline

Natalie regularly defends regulated professionals in front of their regulator’s Fitness to Practise Committee. Her experience in this field stems from her 8-month secondment with the Association of Optometrists in 2018, during which she managed a large number of cases, drafting representations to Case Examiners.

Following her secondment, Natalie is regularly instructed to represent professionals in cases in which the regulator has seen fit to apply for an interim order to restrict the professional’s continued practice, and/or to refer the matter to the regulator’s Fitness to Practise Committee for a substantive hearing.

CASES:

• NHS England v C (2018): Client’s conditions of practice were removed following a substantive finding by the GOC of sexual impropriety with a patient.
• GOC v S (2019): Client’s conditions of practice were removed leading up to his substantive hearing relating to an investigation of dishonesty.