Sarah Clarke , KC

Sarah spent the first ten years of her career at the self-employed Bar where she had a successful and advocacy heavy practice in general crime, fraud and confiscation.

In 2005, Sarah joined the Enforcement Division of the Financial Services Authority ('FSA') initially on secondment and thereafter as a Technical Specialist and In-House Counsel in the newly formed Litigation Department.

During her time at the FSA, Sarah advised on and conducted many of the FSA's high profile insider dealing prosecutions as well as regulatory and disciplinary proceedings before the Regulatory Decisions Committee ('RDC') and the Upper Tribunal. She conducted many of the FSA's early cases before the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal and advised on and conducted the FSA's first ever prosecution for misleading statements and breaches of the general prohibition.

In October 2011, Sarah returned to private practice where she continues to be instructed by the FSA in its more high profile and difficult insider dealing and regulatory cases. In addition Sarah is instructed in the full range of other regulatory and disciplinary proceedings and related criminal matters.

Sarah's experience of FSA litigation is arguably unique at the Bar. In addition she has considerable experience of advising on and shaping complex and difficult litigation from an early stage and working with large case teams and different stakeholders. She also has the advantage of having had considerable advocacy experience throughout her career which means that she is as comfortable cross-examining in a Crown Court or Tribunal as she is making submissions on difficult legal issues to the Court of Appeal.

Sarah was appointed as a Board Member of the Bar Standards Board ('BSB') in January 2011 and also sits on the BSB's Professional Standards Committee. She therefore has the advantage of understanding another regulator from the inside and is comfortable making difficult decisions on matters of policy and practice.

Sarah is a leading advocacy trainer at the Inner Temple and for the South Eastern Circuit. She is regularly asked to train practitioners in courtroom advocacy both nationally and internationally, including at the South Eastern Circuit Advanced International Advocacy Course, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Supreme Court and the Academy of European Law in Trier. Sarah also conducts advocacy training for Crown Prosecution Service Higher Court Advocates and has been appointed as a CPS external advocacy assessor.