email: info@sgkllp.com call: 020 7734 9700
LAURA PORTEOUS
Senior Associate
(Admitted 2010)
Email: l.porteous@sgkllp.com
Secure email: l.porteous@sgkllp.com.cjsm.net
Office: 020 7734 9700
Direct dial: 020 3167 6467
Laura joined Shaw Grahm Kersh in 2010 from another Legal 500 recommended London firm. Since then she has developed a reputation for being an incredibly hardworking, intelligent and unflappable lawyer who will do all she can to achieve the right result for her clients.
She is a qualified duty solicitor and is on the Central London Magistrates’ Court rotas. She regularly attends the police station and the Magistrates’ Courts where she has garnered much praise from the bench for her skilful advocacy.
Laura also manages a case load covering the full spectrum of criminal offences from sexual assault, violent assault, theft and dishonesty, and drugs matters. Her ability to quickly identify the issues in a case and get to grips with matters at short notice has resulted in her regularly accepting late instructions in cases where legal aid has been transferred from other firms.
Laura has a particular interest in Youth Court work and has dealt sympathetically and conscientiously with children and young adults charged with the most serious of matters.
Laura is a member of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association.
"Your presentation was elegant, skilful, thorough and always concise. I was so impressed with your professionalism and especially thankful of your consideration with my nerves in the situation. Thanks for guiding me through this difficult moment, and for getting me the outcome I so needed"
"Thank you for seeing the honesty in me. You treated us with kindness and empathy. If all solicitors were like you it would be good"
"I found Laura always clear, sympathetic and a good explainer of the issues and law. [Her] time efficient attention to detail…impressed me. In all my nervousness, I felt confident in her good work".
2024 Maidstone Crown Court
Representing a man of previously good character in connection with the alleged rape and sexual abuse of his step-daughter.
2023 Wood Green Crown Court
Representing a long-term client in an ongoing 7-handed conspiracy to supply Class A drugs matter.
2023 Birmingham Crown Court
Representing a serving prisoner charged alongside 4 others with conspiracy to blackmail in relation to a serious incident at HMP Birmingham.
2020 Investigation by Metropolitan Police
Represented London man charged with terrorist offences in relation to his political views opposed to Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF.
2020 Investigation by Metropolitan Police & O’N (ongoing)
Representing a mother being investigated by the police in connection with the death of her 3 year old daughter from a cocaine overdose.
2018 Inner London Crown Court
The first prosecution to be brought under the Modern Slavery Act Case concerning the trafficking of women and children from Romania for prostitution in a cross-border collaborative investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Command Trafficking Unit of the Metropolitan Police and the General Directorate for Countering Organized Crime of the Poliția Română. Whilst the substantive case has concluded, issues remain with regard to an application for a Slavery Protection Order, understood to also be the first of its kind.
2018 Kingston Crown Court
Successful defence of mentally ill defendant on a single charge of rape.
2017 Central Criminal Court
Successful defence of Britain’s first ever ‘crowd-funded’ private prosecution for causing a cyclist’s death by careless driving with the defendant acquitted by the jury in just 17 minutes.
