Steven Bird founded the practice in October 2000. He was a partner at Simons Muirhead & Burton from 1993 to 2000 having been with that firm as a trainee, qualifying in 1990.

He specialises in serious criminal cases but especially:-

• murder and other serious offences of violence;
  
• gross negligence manslaughter
  
• rape and other sexual offences;
  
• large drug cases;
  
• confiscation proceedings; and
  
• fraud.
  

He is well known for taking on cases where there has been a potential miscarriage of justice and has a busy appellate practice both in the Court of Appeal and by way of applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. He represents previous victims of miscarriages of justice in claiming compensation from the Home Office.

Steven is highly recommended in Chambers and Partners in which his thorough preparation of cases is praised and he is described by his peers as "a true class act" and "a lawyer's lawyer".

In recent years Steven has defended in:-

• the Robinsons legal aid fraud (the largest legal aid fraud case in which the trial of our client lasted 13 months);
  
• numerous murders including the murder of a young boy by a gang of youths in the East End, a prominent contract killing case in Sussex and the highly publicised murder of a financier at his Chelsea home
  
• an allegation of gross negligence manslaughter by legionnaires' disease following the installation by our client's company of humidification equipment in a hotel buffet unit leading to two deaths
  
• the appeal against conviction of a man convicted of gross negligence manslaughter following the Tebay rail tragedy where 4 people were killed by a runaway trailer
  
• the high profile prosecutions of various animal rights protestors including some charged under the new legislation (Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005), many of those arrested in the recent Operation Achilles raids against SHAC activists and with conspiracy to commit arson to buildings at the University of Oxford.
  
• representing a doctor accused of administering poison to procure a miscarriage (the first trial of its kind since the introduction of the Abortion Act over 40 years ago)

Currently his non-appellate cases include:

• a large insider dealing investigation brought by the FSA which will be a flagship prosecution for the FSA and is currently the largest prosecution of its type;
  
• a case involving allegations of corruption against the managing director of a company in relation to contracts received from a public company;
  
• an investigation into the expense claims made by an MP following the recent controversy brought about by the Daily Telegraph investigation;
  
• an allegation of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice against a criminal defence solicitor;
  
• a multi-handed conspiracy to blackmail in which the firm is instructed on behalf of four animal rights protestors and which involves allegations of blackmail against companies involved with HLS; and
  
• a re-trial following the recent successful appeal against conviction for conspiracy to commit arson by another well known animal rights campaigner where the alleged target of the attacks was the University of Oxford.

  Membership of professional bodies

  Steven is a Committee member of:-

  • the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association (LCCSA);
    
  • Criminal Appeal Lawyers Association (CALA) (where he is also Treasurer)
    
  • Independent Defence Lawyers
    

  He is also a member of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association (CLSA);

  He was a Police Station duty solicitor from 1992 to 2004 and remains a member of the Funding Review Committee for the Legal Services Commission

  Police Station Advisers Index and other publications

  He is the co-author (with Brian Spiro) of the "Police Station Advisers Index" first published in September 1995 and now on its third edition (published July 2005 by Thomson Sweet & Maxwell). He is currently working on the fourth edition. This is one of the three main texts on advising suspects in police stations and is widely used by legal representatives in police stations throughout the country.

  He has recently contributed a chapter to a book entitled "The Criminal Cases Review Commission: Hope for the Innocent?" edited by Michael Naughton and published by Palgrave Macmillan.

  He has also contributed a chapter to the forthcoming second edition of Taylor on Appeals dealing with the funding regime for appellate work including applications to the CCRC and appeals from the lower courts up to the Supreme Court.

  Lectures

  He has lectured on accredited courses for:

  • Justice at their 2006 Human Rights Conference;
    
  • London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association on "Serious Drug Offences", "Drug Trafficking Act 1994" and "Duty Solicitor Police Station Update";
    
  • Criminal Appeal Lawyers Association on funding for criminal appeals;
    
  • Police Station Defence Service on representing clients in the police station (two separate courses);
    
  • Crime In Practice on the right of silence in the police station
    

  In addition he has given his opinion on national News bulletins and appeared on Legal Network Television and "CPDCast" podcasts on witness anonymity and funding for appellate cases.

  Steven was educated at the Royal Liberty School, Romford. He obtained an LLB (Law/French) at the University of Birmingham which included a Diplôme d'Etudes Juridiques Francaises at Universite de Limoges. He studied for his Law Society Finals at the College of Law in Guildford before returning to the University of Birmingham to complete a Master of Laws (LLM) post-graduate degree with a dissertation on children's evidence in child sexual abuse cases.