Vanessa Mistry

Vanessa Mistry

“It means a lot to me to have had you on my side and fight my case and most of all, thank you for believing in my innocence.”  – A former client.

YEAR OF CALL 2008

Education

LL.B (Hons), Queen Mary, University of London
LL.M (Criminal Law), University College London
Bar Vocational Course: College of Law

Memberships

Gray’s Inn
Criminal Bar Association
Criminal Litigation Accredited, The Law Society
Women in Criminal Law

Appointments

Member of the Legal Reference Panel, Centre for Women’s Justice
CPS Advocate Panel Level 2
SFO Advocate Panel Grade C

Other languages spoken

Gujarati

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Overview of Practice

Vanessa Mistry is a criminal and regulatory barrister with extensive experience in serious criminal advocacy, professional discipline, complex disclosure, legal professional privilege and document review. She prosecutes and defends in the Crown Court, presents cases on behalf of the Nursing and Midwifery Council before Fitness to Practise Committees, and regularly undertakes specialist disclosure work for prosecuting authorities, regulators and private clients.

Vanessa is regularly instructed in cases involving serious violence, drugs, fraud, dishonesty and sexual offences. She is known for her thorough preparation, pragmatic approach and persuasive advocacy, and has experience acting for both the prosecution and the defence.

Her regulatory practice includes presenting cases before the Nursing and Midwifery Council in proceedings involving misconduct, lack of competence, health and criminal convictions.

Alongside her advocacy practice, Vanessa has established particular expertise in disclosure, document review and legal professional privilege.

Between November 2021 and April 2024, Vanessa was seconded to the Financial Conduct Authority as Disclosure Counsel whilst maintaining her practice at the Bar. During her secondment, she advised on disclosure in complex financial investigations, undertaking relevance reviews and assisting with disclosure strategy in accordance with the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996.

From June 2024 to January 2026, Vanessa was instructed by the Serious Fraud Office to undertake relevance reviews, legal professional privilege assessments and complex document review in large-scale fraud investigations.

Between January and June 2026, she was instructed by Greater Manchester Police to carry out legal professional privilege reviews on a separate serious and complex criminal investigation.

Since February 2026, Vanessa has been instructed by a defence firm in an ongoing Serious Fraud Office prosecution involving the use of AI in document review. Her work includes reviewing and validating AI-generated document descriptions against the underlying source material, assisting in the refinement of prompts to improve the quality and consistency of AI-generated outputs.

Her experience across regulatory, prosecuting and defence work provides a well-rounded understanding of disclosure obligations, digital evidence and legal professional privilege. As a practising trial advocate, she brings a litigation-focused perspective to complex disclosure exercises, combining detailed legal analysis with practical experience of how documentary evidence is deployed in court.

Vanessa welcomes instructions in relation to serious criminal matters, professional discipline, disclosure, legal professional privilege, document review and technology-assisted legal review.

  • Crime
  • Regulatory
  • Fraud
  • Professional Discipline
  • Disclosure
  • Legal Professional Privilege
  • Financial Crime
  • Document Review
  • Digital Evidence
  • AI & Technology-Assisted Legal Review

Recent Cases

R v PB and others (Harrow Crown Court, 2022) – Vanessa was instructed on day two of the trial to assist leading counsel in reviewing over 80,000 pages of phone evidence. This case involved complex legal arguments relating to disclosure, bad character and hearsay. The Defendant was acquitted on all counts following an eight-week trial.

R v LC (Southampton Crown Court, 2021) – Vanessa acted for the defendant in a section 18 Grievous bodily harm and theft matter.

R v FM (Cambridge Crown Court, 2021) – Vanessa acted for a sixteen-year-old youth who was tried in the Crown Court for two section 18 offences and two Robbery offences.

R v NH (Kingston Crown Court, 2021) – Vanessa acted for the third of three co-defendants in a conspiracy to supply Class A drugs case.

R v J – [2018] EWCA 834 (Crim) – Central Criminal Court – and Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) – Vanessa acted as Junior Counsel in this case where the Defendant faced trial for his third murder offence.

R v A and ors (Southwark Crown Court) – The defendant had worked for the Ministry of Justice and along with three other court staff had been charged with several counts of perverting the course of justice. Vanessa took the case on two weeks before trial and was able to identify disclosure issues, which resulted in legal arguments being made on the first day of trial, and the crown offering no evidence.

R v W-M (Kingston-Upon-Thames Crown Court) – Vanessa acted as Junior Counsel in this 3-week murder trial. This case was unusual in that the Crown and Defence both had experts agreeing the defendant had paranoid schizophrenia and fell within the realm of Diminished responsibility; however, the defendant maintained he was acting in self-defence. The jury found him guilty of Manslaughter by reason of Diminished Responsibility.

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