Michael Grieve QC

Michael Grieve, Queen's Counsel since 1998, is a criminal defence specialist, with particular expertise in fraud, corruption and related cases. He also takes on major cases of all kinds - including murder, drugs and terrorism trials - and has long been recommended as a leading silk in both the general crime and criminal fraud sections of Chambers Directory.

Over recent years, large-scale and high profile criminal fraud and corruption trials in which he has appeared include: R v Eardley & Ors. - the ground-breaking international internet piracy case; R v Brophy & Ors. , in which he defended a company finance director in the Millennium Dome corruption case; R v Moghrabi & Ors. - £50 million money-laundering at the Queensway bureau de change; R v Young & Ors. - the celebrated Deutsche Morgan Grenfell sex-change fund manager case. In 2007, he represented George Michael when the question of his fitness to drive gave rise to complicated scientific issues.

He also defended: an administrator at Sotheby's in the trial which took the lid off the Antiquities Department (R v Hodges - see Peter Watson's book "Inside Sotheby's"), the UK Managing Director of the world's leading railway track maintenance company - Plasser & Theurer - for alleged corruption of British Rail engineers; the Deputy Chairman of European Leisure plc for his alleged part in a Guinness-style share support scheme during a major City takeover bid (R v Ward & Howarth); one of eight teachers subjected to a test case prosecution for allegedly cruel "Pindown" type activities at a therapeutic residential school for disturbed children (R v Cross & Ors.); and Azil Nadir's right-hand woman in R v Forsyth.

Recent murder trials in which he has appeared include Tamil gang killings, the Nottingham turf-war murder (R v O'Brien) which gave rise to the double killing of the elderly couple in Skegness, the case of the notorious Nottingham family which starved beat and bullied a daughter-in-law to death (R v Hudson) and most recently the Tooting "Chicken Cottage" double murder (R v Butt & Ors). Amongst the numerous drugs cases in which he has been involved in recent years was R v Naggs & Ors, which raised difficult and interesting surveillance issues.

For the past twenty years, he has been instructed frequently in capital and other appeals to the Privy Council. Since the landmark identification case of R v Reid, Wyllie & others from Jamaica, in which he represented three Appellants whose capital convictions were quashed, he has appeared in further cases from Jamaica as well as Grenada, Trinidad, the Bahamas, Dominica and Belize.

Throughout his career he has had a special interest in issues of freedom of the press, and appeared in the last blasphemy trial to take place in the UK - Mary Whitehouse's prosecution of Gay News and its editor, Denis Lemon, whom he represented, led by John Mortimer QC. He has gone on to advise numerous publications on libel, blasphemy and obscenity as well as writing and broadcasting on these topics. Also with John Mortimer, he advised the Monty Python team on the need to remove certain blasphemies from their film, "The Life of Brian" - advice which they ignored with total impunity!

Michael Grieve was legal advisor on every series of John Mortimer's "Rumpole of the Bailey" (Thames TV), the BBC "Law and Order" series, as well as legal consultant to the long-running Granada TV programme "Crown Court".

A former Vice-chairman of the Bar's Public Affairs Group, he has frequently taken part in television and radio broadcasts on legal issues. He is a long-standing member of the editorial board of Counsel Magazine and is a regular contributor to this and other publications.

last updated October 2007

Year of Call

1975

Year of Silk

1998

Education

BA (Hons) PPE

Email Address

m.grieve@doughtystreet.co.uk

Specialist Teams

Michael Grieve QC is a member of the following specialist law teams:

• Criminal Law
• Human Rights
• Regulatory and Financial Crime