Julie Norris

Julie is a partner in the Regulatory Team. She specialises in advising in the health, professional services, legal and financial fields, advising professionals, businesses and regulators on regulatory compliance, investigations, adjudication, enforcement and prosecutions.
 

Clients come to Julie for advice on regulatory issues that affect their ability to practice or run their organisations, as well as those regulatory issues that may impact their reputation or professional standing. 

Julie predominantly acts for students, professionals, companies and institutions across the financial, legal, health, education and professional service sectors. Julie’s early career at the criminal bar and “…mastery of criminal law and procedure and its application to regulatory work...” (Chambers UK) means that Julie is particularly well placed to advise clients in regulatory investigations with a criminal angle. Julie regularly advises companies and organisations in inquiries and investigations instigated by regulators and charities, or commenced of their own initiative. In the health sector, Julie advises care homes and primary care providers on their regulatory obligations with the Care Quality Commission.

Julie often advises professionals at the outset of investigations when the responses to the regulator may have particularly serious implications; Julie has an impressive track record for halting investigations pre-hearing.  Julie is particularly well known for achieving better than expected outcomes for clients and challenging regimes and decisions that are legally unsound or unfair.  

Julie is a recognised expert in her field and regularly speaks at industry events, including for ARK, Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) and the Association of Partnership Practitioners (APP) as well as writing in journals and other publications. Julie is a Legal assessor for the British Acupuncture Council. 

Recent work

• Representing a student in university disciplinary proceedings relating to allegations of sexual assault
• Advising a firm of solicitors as to the notification requirements under the SRA Standards and Regulations
• Representing witnesses in an FCA lessons learned review
• Advising a firm of chartered surveyors on an internal investigation following the financial impropriety of a director 
• Advising an accountancy firm in ICAEW proceedings relating to the conduct of audits
• Advising a care home on enforcement action taken by the CQC
• Representing the CEO of a humanitarian charity in a Charity Commission statutory inquiry involving wide ranging allegations concerning financial mismanagement
• Advising a charity on the conduct of its internal investigation in respect of alleged trustee misconduct
• Acting in a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors investigation in respect of an allegation against a chartered surveyor that they had caused the death of a person due to a deficient inspection/report 
• Advising an Insolvency Practitioner in disciplinary proceedings before the ICAEW
• Representing a psychotherapist in an Inquest in which it was alleged that the treatment provided was ineffective 
• Representing an accountant in Financial Reporting Council proceedings relating to accounting irregularities said to have misled auditors
• Representing a doctor alleged to have accepted referral fees
• Representation of a teacher before the Teaching Agency facing allegations of racially motivated unprofessional conduct arising out of the Trojan Horse scandal
• Representing a  psychiatrist before the General Medical Council (GMC) against allegations surrounding the inadequacy of a clinical report and expert evidence given
• Acting for a psychoanalyst in successfully defending allegations of professional misconduct brought by the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC)
• Advising a doctor on the scope of the ‘practise of medicine’ for the purposes of the GMC determining if they needed a licence to practise
• Advising a counselling practice on the legality of accepting referral fees
• Advising a charity on the lawful operation of its medical practices in the UK
• Advising a dental practice on GDC compliance vis-à-vis the employment of qualified overseas non-GDC registered professionals
• Advising a private equity administration firm on the regulatory requirements for employees to hold practicing certificates

What clients and directories have said

"She's very good, she's hard-working and she makes very good tactical judgements."

Chambers UK, A Clients Guide to the UK Legal Profession,  2019

She has a mastery of the detail and is a great tactician.

Chambers UK, A Clients Guide to the UK Legal Profession,  2018

"She is exceptional

 Chambers UK, A Clients Guide to the UK Legal Profession,  2018

She is praised for her "incisive, clear and intelligent" approach to cases

Legal 500 UK 2015

“Defence work is overseen by the ‘articulate, fluid and highly skilled' Julie Norris.”

Legal 500, 2014

'She has a mastery of criminal law and procedure and its application to regulatory work – her cross-examinations are truly brilliant’.“

Chambers UK, A Clients Guide to the UK Legal Profession,  2014

Publications and articles

• The role of managers in promoting a good working culture within law firms, Legal Compliance Insight, April 2020
• Universities lack the skills to properly investigate sexual misconduct claims, THE, October 2019
• Innocent until proven guilty: how universities must handle sexual allegations, University Business, September 2019
• Getting disability inclusion on the agenda; being diversish is not enough…, September 2019
• Innocent until proven guilty: how universities must handle sexual allegations, University Business, September 2019
• Combatting workplace sexual harassment in accounting firms, Accountancy Age, October 2018
• GMC rethink required on anonymous complaints, PULSE, January 2016
• Professional regulatory hearings—2015 in review, Lexis PSL, December 2015
• Let's not scapegoat the GMC, PULSE, November 2015
• Dos and Don’ts of dealing with a patient complaint, Holistic Therapist Magazine, August 2015
• Fitness to practice—all change for the GMC regime? Lexis PSL Corporate Crime, April 2015
• The importance of wording in fitness to practice allegations, Lexis, PSL, Personal Injury, November 2014
• 'Close the loophole on therapists and counsellors', HSJ, November 2014
• Co-author of The Law of Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions - A practical guide, (February 2011, Oxford  University Press). Described as “an authoritative compendium of current law and practice”, it is the only text to provide comprehensive coverage of the new regulatory enforcement regime, dealing with the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 and the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007
• Contributing editor to Kingsley Napley: Serious Fraud, Investigation and Trial, Fourth edition [2008]

Professional societies and memberships

• Committee member of the City of London Law Society (CLLS) 
• The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
• Whitehall and Industry Group Lawyers’ Network (WIG)
• Member of the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers (ARDL)
• Law Society of England and Wales
• Financial Services Lawyers Association (FSLA)
• Fellow of the Faculty of the History and Philosophy of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries