Health and safety

A well-respected and experienced health & safety lawyer, Dewi has been ranked for a number of years in Chambers and Legal 500 and his reputation with peers and clients continues to grow. He specialises in work in the criminal and coronial jurisdictions. His main focus is assisting organisations in post-death investigations, managing regulatory enforcement action and representing clients at inquests. He has represented clients at hundreds of inquests around the country, involving the most sensitive of cases, workplace deaths and Article 2 hearings in front of juries. After qualifying, Dewi quickly found himself at home dealing largely with insurer/insured public sector clients. He is dedicated to working within the criminal, regulatory and coronial jurisdictions. Dewi advises a wide range of clients in investigating serious incidents and representing them at inquests, as well as assisting with risk management and behavioural change. His areas of specialty include: Working with organisations to understand their Corporate Risk Profile, to improve culture and behaviours and make the workplace safer. Crisis Management Support (24/7) - advice and representation in the wake of incidents. Assisting organisations with legally privileged incident investigations to protect their position, learn lessons and make any necessary changes. Preparing clients who may be exposed to Regulatory or Coronial investigations/inquests/enforcement action. Defence of Health & Safety and Corporate Manslaughter prosecutions. Inquests as a result of workplace fatalities & road traffic incidents. Dewi provides advice and representation to a range of household-name clients such as: Nike, E.On UK, RWE Renewables, Kimberly Clark Ltd, Emcor UK Ltd, Chubb Fire & Security and various local authorities and NHS/healthcare clients As a former Executive Committee Member of the Health & Safety Lawyers’ Association for many years, he was involved in shaping the Guidelines on Sentencing for Corporate Manslaughter and continues to regularly present to a number of regional health & safety focus groups and public sector forums.

Partner

Sally is a partner and leads the Manchester SHE regulatory team as well as heading up the natinoal SHE team at BLM. She has over 20 years’ experience advising and representing corporate clients, individuals and public bodies through direct nominations as well as insurer and broker instructions. She specialises in advising and representing companies and individuals involved in complex police and regulatory body investigations and prosecutions following serious and fatal incidents.  She also regularly represents clients at inquests, including Article 2 and jury inquests.  Sally takes a proactive and strategic approach and carries out her own investigations and advocacy, ensuring a close relationship with each of her clients. Her advice extends from initial crisis management to the ongoing support required in the aftermath of an incident including strategy, managing a regulatory body investigation, interviews under caution, responding to enforcement notices and reputation management. Sally’s role in leading the national SHE group is pivotal to the strategic developments of the BLM national SHE practice.  She has been described in the Legal 500 as having ‘great judgement and communications skills’; ‘a good eye for detail’ and being ‘gentle but firm in cases involving fatalities’. Sally is an accomplished speaker at national and trade SHE events and regularly delivers bespoke training across a broad spectrum of regulatory and inquest topics, including crisis management, sentencing, corporate manslaughter and directors in the dock.

Solicitor