Grade A Panel List Counsel, Attorney General’s Specialist Regulatory List
Shortlisted – Pro Bono Junior Barrister of the Year
BCL in Jurisprudence (Distinction) – Balliol Coll., Univ. of Oxford
Director, Trustee, Council Member, Incorporated Council for Law Reporting
FCDO-appointed Legal Expert on human trafficking and migrant smuggling
Cross-examiner for the Expert Witness Institute of applicants for accreditation
Law tutor, London School of Economics (undergraduates and postgraduates)
Panel Chair (April 2024), scholarship interviews, Middle Temple
Assistant Head of Pupillage Advocacy, Middle Temple (led by Paul Garlick KC)
Inns of Court College of Advocacy [ICCA international committee]
Secretary, ICCA’s Working Group on Advocacy for Examining Child Witnesses
Trustee, Kalisher Trust (trustee responsible for scholarships & Masters awards)
Treasurer & Executive Council member, British Academy of Forensic Sciences
Bar Council elected representative & ethics committee helpline volunteer
Forensic Science Regulator’s Advisory Council (Statutory Regulation)
Forensic Science Regulator’s Specialist Sub‑Group: Interpretating Evidence
Guest lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, KCL
Diploma in Forensic Medical Sciences, Dip.FMS, - Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
Visiting Scholar (2022), Instituto Internacional De Sociologia Juridica De Onati – link here
Visiting Scholar (2019), Villa Grébovka, CEELI Institute, Prague – link here
Bar Vocational Course (2010) – the Queen Mother Scholarship, Middle Temple
Honorary faculty researcher (2007 – 2009), All Souls College, Univ. of Oxford
Honorary teaching assistant (Jurisprudence) (2006 – 2010), UCL and Univ. of Oxford
‘… relishes complex questions to do with special jurisdiction arising in public, civil, and criminal law.’
‘… frequently appears as sole counsel against Silks when instructed in cases of real complexity.’
‘… a fearless and fair opponent.’
Call Abigail’s Senior Criminal Clerk, Matt Butchard, 02074041313, to discuss Abigail’s depth of knowledge and range of experience in special jurisdiction criminal work as sole and leading counsel.
Call Abigail’s Senior Civil Clerk, Sian Wilkins, 02074009087, to discuss Abigail’s suitability to advise on public law claims, regulatory cases, professional discipline hearings and general civil law.
Abigail is an immensely experienced jury advocate having led in terrorism and high value fraud trials. In FEBRUARY 2025, Abigail will defend alone and first on the indictment at a multi-handed trial (Operation Mahomes) of an alleged conspiracy to import tens of kilograms of cocaine. In MARCH 2025, Abigail will defend a company director in a trial (Operation Meazza) of an alleged cross-border conspiracy to transfer the proceeds of multiple company frauds. In AUGUST 2025, Abigail will appear alone to defend a sixteen-year-old child accused of multiple counts of rape of a then six-year-old child. As a reasonable adjustment for age, conferences are taking place at the young defendant’s home.
Abigail’s early successful challenges of search warrants & production orders are reported as Practice Notes at [2014] 1 W.L.R. 1647, [2014] EWHC 2179 (Admin) & [2014] 1 W.L.R. 1647.
Abigail appeared in the IPT for a former MP re ECHR art.8, art.9 & art.10): (1) Caroline Lucas MP, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb AM; (2) George Galloway v. Security Service, Secret Intelligence Service, Government Communications Headquarters, Secretary of State for The Home Department, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Case Nos: IPT/14/79/CH; IPT/14/80/CH; IPT/14/172/CH) – judgment here.
From 2021 to 2023, Abigail appeared for the first defendant on the indictment in three linked very high value fraud trials at Southwark Crown Court (Operation Larkspur; Operation Hussain; Operation Castrum) re conspiracies to defraud the public purse – one conspiracy concerned £9.1m in legal aid fees – arising from fraudulent solicitors’ bills for trials at the Central Criminal Court. Abigail still defends the first defendant in the ancillary proceeds of crime applications. Abigail has defended in several long ‘boiler-room’ fraud trials at Southwark Crown Court.
Abigail was a legal assistant at MIND when it intervened in a House of Lords’ appeal in Savage v. South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MIND and others intervening) [2009] 1 A.C. 681 – see here. The Interveners – Inquest, Justice, Liberty, and MIND – showed that the State assumes a special responsibility to safeguard life when using coercive Mental Health Act 1983 detentions.
FEBRUARY 2024 and OCTOBER 2024: the FCDO (via its overseas rule of law programme) funded Abigail to travel to train Ukrainian prosecutors – for the Prosecutor General of Ukraine – in Warsaw and Gdansk. In FEBRUARY 2025, Abigail will train Ukrainian prosecutors in Krakow.
JUNE 2024: Abigail worked with Martin Westgate KC to assist AA, a Jamaican British athlete, re AA’s eligibility to compete in the Olympic Games 2024. The topic for advice concerned AA’s prospects of challenging her Federation’s decision to dismiss her from her Federation. Abigail advised urgently on a conflict of laws question: Had the Federation breached its sponsorship contract with the athlete?
JULY 2024: Abigail was instructed to advise a London-based partner of a major US law firm on the contents of a non-disclosure agreement arising from the firm’s misconduct investigation.
OCTOBER 2024: Abigail succeeded on appeal and a court set aside a sexual harm prevention order (‘SHPO’) because the test for making the order was not met (A v. Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis).
DECEMBER 2024: Abigail’s Turkish client, a journalist – convicted of tens of terrorism offences in a Turkish court – was awarded immediate just satisfaction of 3,000 euros by the European Court of Human Rights for his claim against Turkey pursuant to Article 5 § 3 ECHR: Deniz and Others v. Republic of Turkiye (Applications nos. 43382/19 and 236 others) – judgment here.
DECEMBER 2024, Edward Fitzgerald KC and Abigail advised a convicted foreign national extraditee, the Secretary of State having moved to transfer him to serve his English sentence in Italy pursuant to the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons 1997. Twelve years earlier, Edward and Abigail had persuaded a special constitution of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) to set aside the prisoner’s whole life term as wrong in principle: [2013] 3 W.L.R. 137 – link here.
JANUARY 2025, Abigail successfully defended her lay client in asset forfeiture proceedings (B v. Chief Constable) initiated pursuant to s. 303Z14(2) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Magistrates’ Courts’ (Freezing and Forfeiture of Money in Bank and Building Society Accounts) Rules 2017.
In 2012, Abigail exceptionally obtained a solicitors’ representation order in Mildred Yesenia Terraza De Leon [2013] EWCA Crim 198 – see here. Make the exceptional type of award, Lord Leveson, granting legal aid both for solicitor and counsel, said: ‘[T]hat would be extremely unusual, wouldn't it? I can't think of a sentence appeal where we would normally afford a representation both for solicitor and counsel.’
In 2017, Abigail obtained the first reporting restriction to be granted to an acquitted rape defendant, for rest of the acquitted man’s life. Granting the application, the judge said ‘It is rare, in practice, for the public interest not to be served by the press having freedom to publish (at a minimum) the fact of an acquittal and the name in which a defendant was indicted or otherwise known at a trial. Counsel [Abigail Bright] has addressed the Court on exactly how two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, articles 2 and 10, exceptionally, were engaged.’
In 2020, in the very first extradition case concerning the UK leaving the European Union, Abigail’s lay client, a German national, was granted permission to appeal, relying on Germany’s constitutional non-reciprocity [nationality] bar. Abigail was led by Edward Fitzgerald Q.C. and instructed by Karen Todner.
In 2021, Abigail successfully argued that the Criminal Procedure Rules 2015, by means of Rule 50.27, admit exceptional jurisdiction to entertain an application to re-open a Single Judge’s decision to refuse permission: Oleantu-Ursache v. Romania; Majewski v. Poland [2021] A.C.D. 90 – see here. Abigail’s lay client ultimately was discharged from proceedings by means of a consequential order.
In 2022, The Times’ Register reported as of major public significance Edward Fitzgerald KC’s and Abigail’s appellate work in Cleeland v. Criminal Cases Review Commission [2022] 4 WLR 8 – see here.
When not watching UKSupremeCourt, Abigail sails with (and is the Treasurer of) London Sailing Club, a not-for-profit RYA-accredited club. In January 2022, Abigail and four friends bought and refurbished a 29ft classic lines British-built yacht that they keep in the Hamble river, primed for cross-Channel runs.
