Alan is a partner in the Corporate department at RadcliffesLeBrasseur UK LLP, where he undertakes a full range of privacy, commercial and regulatory work in the general commercial, aviation and manufacturing sectors. The main focus of his practice is privacy and regulatory work, and commercial contract negotiations. Alan’s practice ranges from handling regulatory issues to the procurement of suppliers and responses to tenders, to data protection and privacy, information technology, intellectual property, and the drafting and negotiating of various commercial agreements, such as outsourcing, supply, service, and research and development. He has worked extensively on matters in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the United Kingdom. Alan is a regular contributor to publications and speaker at conferences in these sectors, and his articles and book reviews have been widely published.
Weightmans LLP
Lawyers
Alex is a Partner in the Healthcare team. He has more than 30 years’ experience in health related law acting for NHS and private healthcare providers. Alex’s principal area of work is advising professionals working in the NHS on regulatory, disciplinary, employment and ethical issues. Alex has advised participants in major public inquiries and acted in many high profile cases, including: R(Squier) v General Medical Council (GMC), Chhabra v West London MH NHS Trust, Lewis v Secretary of State for Health, R(Bonhoeffer) v General Medical Council (GMC), and Re C. Alex publishes articles and gives seminars.
Alistair is the Managing Partner of the Leeds office and a Partner in the Healthcare and Regulatory team. He is a highly accomplished practitioner and advocate, representing healthcare professionals and providers in regulatory, disciplinary, coronial and criminal proceedings, investigations and prosecutions. He is frequently instructed by the major medical defence organisations (MDOs), healthcare providers and individual professionals in a wide variety of complex regulatory proceedings and misconduct hearings. Alistair advises on a range of matters including: Fitness to practise investigations and hearings at the General Medical Council (GMC) and Coroner’s inquests Trust disciplinary investigations and MHPS hearings Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions Performers List investigations and PLDP hearings Post Incident Procedures and Misconduct Hearings CQC reviews First tier tribunal hearings Health and Safety investigations and prosecutions Judicial Reviews Alistair is an experienced advocate regularly appearing before MPTS and GDC hearings, Coroners Inquests and Criminal Court hearings. He obtained his Higher Rights of Audience to represent clients in all courts in 2005.
Andrew is a Partner in the Litigation team at Weightmans and has well over 30 years' experience of handling and resolving commercial disputes and litigation, all of which has been gained at leading national and global law firms in the UK. In recent years, Andrew has led work on a number of significant and complex cases proceeding in the Commercial Court, Mercantile Court and Court of Appeal. Andrew's specialist areas of practice within commercial litigation include: advising in relation to contract disputes (including contract interpretation, enforcement and termination) warranty claims arising from the sale and purchase of companies shareholder disputes (including claims of unfair prejudice) intellectual property matters (including breach of copyright, trademark infringement and passing off) defamation IT disputes including contracts for the supply of software franchising disputes (including those involving international franchisors) joint venture disputes the enforcement of restrictive covenants and the protection of confidential information advising on claims for compensation by commercial agents procurement disputes He is experienced in managing electronic disclosure in litigation proceedings and in advising clients on appropriate and cost-effective strategies for dealing with electronic disclosure. Andrew has helped numerous clients to settle their disputes either before or during litigation by way of Alternative Dispute Resolution and in particular by way of mediation. He is also National Sector Lead for Manufacturing at Weightmans and a member of the firm's Education Sector group acting as lead Partner for Further Education. Andrew acts for a broad range of clients ranging from large corporates, owner-managed businesses and private individuals as well as universities, further education colleges, local authorities and charities. Prior to joining Weightmans in December 2013, Andrew spent over 20 years at DLA Piper in Liverpool where he had been a Partner since 2007. He is a member of the Society for Computers and Law.
Andrew specialises in medical law and all areas of health and social care law. He acts for a large number of private sector healthcare providers, care home operators and the NHS. Andrew regularly advises on care home law, mental health law, public law and judicial review and all operational legal issues that affect health and social care providers. He has been involved in many important mental health cases in recent years and is seen as a leading practitioner in this field. Andrew has extensive advocacy experience, including attending inquests on behalf of healthcare clients, and has significant experience in the Court of Protection. Andrew acts as an adviser on regulatory matters involving the CQC and the HSE/police. Andrew is a regular lecturer and contributor of articles to the health and legal press. He provides an educational programme to clients and others in the healthcare sector, especially relating to mental health, care homes and human rights.
Head of Service Delivery, Litigation Department. Types of work include contractual disputes, financial sector litigation, property litigation, and general commercial litigation.
Andrew is Regional Office Head of the Leicester office and a partner in the Local Government team based in our Leicester office. He acts for a large number of local authorities, police and fire services, housing providers and education establishments across the country in relation to a wide range of issues. Andrew specialises in complex, high value, multi-party litigation and has significant experience of stress, bullying, assault and harassment claims. He leads the Environmental Technical Claims Unit dealing with flooding, subsidence, tree falls, invasive species and highway winter-maintenance claims. He is also regularly instructed in relation to data loss and information management as well as social care and abuse claims. Andrew acted for the Defendant in an undercover police officer stress case - AB v Chief Constable of X Constabulary [2015] EWHC 13, and for the local authority in a case involving illegal accessing of social services information - Ali v Luton Borough Council [2022] EWHC 132 (QB). He regularly delivers bespoke training at national and regional level.
As Business Change & Knowledge Director, Andy is responsible for the overall delivery of business change at Weightmans, together with our knowledge management. He leads two teams. One consisting of project managers and business analysts engaged on a variety of projects throughout the firm. And the other consisting of professional support lawyers focussed on embedding a knowledge sharing culture that contributes to the success of our clients, our business and our people. Andy and his department are continually and actively looking for ways to enhance the client experience - always seeking to add value and deliver tangible benefits. Andy is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Lean Six Sigma methodology is just one of the approaches used by the team when seeking to review and re-engineer processes. Looking at everything we do, how we do it and how it can be improved. Andy oversees consistent and effective project management nationally and is a certified AgilePM practitioner. He also forms part of the operations board responsible for portfolio management of projects and priorities.As a qualified solicitor, Andy has, in the past, acted for a number of local authorities specialising in the defence of public and employers' liability claims. He also has experience of operations management and team management during his time at Weightmans which is used to good effect in his current role. Andy joined the firm as a trainee in 2001, qualified in 2003 and became a partner in 2009. Andy splits his time between our Liverpool and Birmingham offices.
Anne Green is a Partner in the Healthcare department of the Leeds office. She has a vast range of experience (more than 20 years) in advising medical and dental practitioners in all areas of disciplinary and regulatory law including General Medical Council (GMC), General Dental Council (GDC), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Trust/NHS England and coroners inquests. She advises doctors and dentists and provides representation and assistance in Trust and Local Area Team disciplinary hearings. She is frequently involved with advising doctors and dentists in respect of performance/capability cases and their liaison with their employers and NCAS. She is regularly instructed by the major medical defence organisations (MDOs) and is well known for her particular interest in dental disciplinary cases. She has been involved in many high profile cases. She also advises on appeals to the High Court (including judicial review).
Belinda qualified as a solicitor in 1998 following a career in senior management in the public sector. She acts for police forces and public authorities in defence of civil claims in particular misfeasance cases. Belinda has developed a specialism in applications arising out of legislation aimed at targeting anti social behaviour. This includes applications for ASBOs, crack house closures, football banning orders, sexual offences prevention orders and cash seizures and forfeiture. She has lectured extensively on these areas of law and has provided training in house for the police service.
Ben is head of service delivery for the employment, pensions and immigration team at Weightmans. Formerly a partner with Ford & Warren solicitors, Ben deals with all areas of employment law for a wide variety of clients in both public and private sectors. Ben is an advocate, regularly appearing in multi-day Employment Tribunal Hearings, and also conducts the advocacy in appeal cases at the Employment Appeal Tribunal. He has specialist knowledge from 20 years' experience in the transport sector, including road haulage, rail and bus passenger transport. He is particularly involved in the management of industrial disputes with clients across the transport sector. Ben also leads client management development seminars in the field of employee relations with the emphasis placed upon 'the right to manage'.
Blaise is a partner in Weightmans' large loss team in Leeds. He handles catastrophic injury and major property damage claims for insurers. He has 42 years' experience in all aspects of personal injury and insurance litigation. He has particular experience in head and spinal injury claims, fatal accidents and policy disputes and fire claims. Blaise was a Medical Working Party member for the IUA UK Bodily Injury Awards Study (2003). Blaise has handled fatal and catastrophic injury claims arising not only from accidents on the road, in the workplace and from defective premises and products, but also from hot air ballooning, gliding, paragliding, horse riding, a miniature train ride and 'welly-wanging'. He also handled multi-party litigation arising out of the Bradford fire, the loss of the Herald of Free Enterprise, the Hillsborough stadium disaster, the Myodil pharmaceutical claims and the Dingle Tunnel collapse. Other notable cases include litigation arising out of the finding of the Middleham Jewel and the fire which destroyed the Football Association’s former headquarters at Lancaster Gate. Other fire claims include sauna, gym, school, restaurant, supermarket, home and factory fires. Reported cases include: Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1992] 1 A.C 310 (liability for psychiatric injury) Crabtree v Wilson [1993] PIQR Q24, CA (assessing damages for dependency); and Blair-Ford v CRS Adventures [2012] EWHC 2360 (QB) (risk assessment, foreseeability, Compensation Act, section 1) Thewlis v Groupama [2012] EWHC 3 (TCC) ( CPR part 36) Whitehead v Bruce and others [2013] EWCA Civ 229 ( RTA apportionment of liability; Court of Appeal)
Carina is a Partner in our Family team. She advises a broad range of clients on divorce, and all areas of matrimonial finance work including pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements. Carina also specialises in private law children matters including residence and contact disputes and applications for leave to remove a child from the jurisdiction. As a member of Resolution she is committed to resolving such matters in a constructive and non-confrontational manner.She has expertise and experience in all aspects of family law, including divorce, matrimonial finance, pre and post nuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, civil partnerships, children matters, including residence and contact, domestic violence and emergency relief and enforcement of orders and agreements.
Carole is a partner in the Private Client team at Weightmans. Recognised in the Legal 500 Hall of Fame, she has practised as a family lawyer for over 35 years and was appointed as Deputy District Judge in 2001. Carole has acted for many high profile individuals with significant assets. She has particular expertise in dealing with cases involving onshore and offshore trusts as well as complex corporate and tax issues in cases where the assets are worth many millions. She has considerable experience in drafting prenuptial agreements particularly those involving cross border issues. She is recognised for her extensive knowledge and experience, her exceptional client care skills and her pragmatic approach to family dispute resolution. Carole is consistently recommended and recognised in Legal Directories: Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners as a leader in her field. She has been described as a family lawyer who "makes the so-called 'magic circle' firms look ordinary." Her clients have included household names as well as fellow professionals. Many of her clients are recommended to her by QCs and other lawyers and professionals. She regularly lectures and writes articles on topical family law issues and has appeared on radio and television to discuss and to advise on family law issues and recent developments. Her approach to family law is a sensitive yet proactive approach to dispute resolution with the aim of achieving a successful outcome for each client in a cost-effective manner. Carole is an active member of Resolution, a trained collaborative lawyer and trained Resolution mentor. Carole is recognised as a "Top Recommended" family lawyer for high-net-worth individuals in The Spear’s Family Law Index 2021.
Formerly a partner of Ford & Warren solicitors, Charles has wide experience in all aspects of litigation including indemnity disputes, fraudulent claims and high value / catastrophic injury claims with a value up to £5 million. Under Blaise Smith he also has experience in the handling of claims of the utmost severity, valuing at £10 million+. His specialism is in road traffic/motor claims, particularly those involving brain injury and chronic pain/invisible injury. He also has experience in handling high-value EL and PL claims. In addition, he has developed a name for himself in the industry as a specialist in the defence of credit hire claims, and in 2000 was part of the team that took (successfully) leading case Ketley v Gilbert to the Court of Appeal.
Charlie joined Weightmans in 1997 and leads Weightmans’ credit hire teams. He is responsible for the day to day operational running of the teams, and advises clients on best practice and strategic developments, based on over 15 years experience in the motor litigation sector. Charlie specialises in fraudulent credit hire and handling multi track claims in excess of £50,000.
Chris joined Weightmans in 1994 and has spent his career acting for insurers and self-insured clients across various sectors. Chris is now responsible for the development of solutions for the motor insurance market to ensure clients get the best results on their claims and are able to plan for future challenges. Chris is also a member of various trade associations such as FOIL, CPT, FTA and RHA.
Chris has almost 20 years’ experience of advising commercial and public sector organisations on all aspects of employment law. He has always conducted his own advocacy, representing employers before the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the High Court as well as the Employment Tribunal. He has a very broad range of experience involving almost all applications before the Employment Tribunal and has particular expertise in business protection, unlawful discrimination, outsourcing (TUPE 2006) and industrial action. As well as advising on all aspects of employment law, Chris frequently provides industry-specific training in both the private and the public sectors. ACAS regularly rely on Chris to provide elements of training to their own advisors. Legal 500 recently rated the employment team very highly, stating "Christopher Graham acted as advocate for Atkins before the Croyden Employment Tribunal in its defence against whistleblowing and disability discrimination allegations. Graham, who heads the employment practice, has extensive experience representing employers before employment appeal tribunals and the High Court." Chris also has substantial experience in protecting businesses from unlawful competition, misuse of confidential information and fraud. He usually runs a number of high court actions for employers involving injunctions to enforce restrictive covenants to prevent database misuse and to recover diverted funds. Chris has a particular interest in technology and has recently secured a first injunction allowing for imaging of the defendant's servers and systems. Chris is experienced in freezing orders and contempt applications as well as director's duties more generally. Recent experience Successfully resisting multiple claims under the TUPE Regulations 2006 for an outsourced contractor under a local authority framework agreement following a two week hearing. Such a decision develops the law on fragmentation in the context of framework agreements and, on appeal, will change the law relating to outsourcing Project managing large programmes for redundancy and the transfer of almost 3000 employees following a changeover of a contractor providing services to the government Successfully defending multiple claims under discretionary bonus schemes, resisting complaints for enhanced redundancy terms and managing changes to final salary and other types of pension scheme Successfully bidding for an exclusive contract for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to provide all employment services. Advising a range of new clients including Balfour Beatty Limited, Cape Plc and Whessoe Oil & Gas Limited
Christopher is a Partner in our Property team and specialises in high value residential property work including sales, purchases, letting arrangements and secured lending, investment and development by on-shore or off shore clients. Christopher advises on a wide range of residential property matters including the sale and purchase of substantial residential properties (freehold and leasehold) with a transaction value of £3 million to £10 million for high net worth individuals, and the disposal of freehold buildings by private sale or at auction, for landlords, including the service of Landlord and Tenant Notices on residential tenants. He has also successfully assisted on the completion of mortgages over residential securities for on-shore and off-shore clients of banks and other mortgage lenders. Christopher has considerable experience of landlord and tenant matters, including lease extensions, leasehold reform, enfranchisement of freehold houses, assignment of claims, and collective enfranchisement. He has acted on many mixed use residential schemes for major residential developers. Drafting the lease, advising on the management structure and setting out schemes for the disposal of residential units. Christopher also provides effective estate management advice. Recently, advising on the first registration of two substantial rural estates and acting in connection with the purchase of woodlands and the freehold acquisition of a substantial agricultural property worth £5.8 million.
Clare qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and joined Weightmans in 1999, becoming a partner in 2009. Since qualification Clare’s practice has comprised defendant insurance litigation, encompassing motor, employer and public liability claims for a number of insurance clients. Clare specialises in catastrophic injury claims including tetraplegic, paraplegic, traumatic brain injury, amputation, complex multiple orthopaedic injury and fatal accident claims. Clare is a designated Large Loss Partner for AIG Europe Limited. Her caseload includes claims against local authorities and the police, claims arising out of workplace accidents and road traffic accidents. Clare has presented and written articles, most recently in relation to fatal accident claims, and calculating future loss claims.
Clive Bleasdale has been a Partner since 1993 specialising in commercial property law with an emphasis on local government regeneration developer projects and acting for property investors. He is currently acting for Liverpool City Council on the 1 billion pound Paddington Village project in the City's knowledge quarter. He acts also for £35 million Sefton Holdings group of property investment companies as well as manufacturing clients such as British Steel and caravan/lodge park owners such as Pure Leisure Group amongst others.
David Lewis became the firm’s national Senior Partner in May 2018, having previously been head of the firm’s national Regulatory Department (2004-2018) and a Regional Office Head, first in Liverpool and later in Leeds (2007-2018). He had previously been the firm’s national Deputy Managing Partner (2000-2003) and its Regional Office managing Partner in Liverpool (2003-2007). After joining Weightmans as an Articled Clerk in 1985, David qualified in 1987 and was made a partner in 1992. After qualification he spent many years handling both civil and criminal litigation for insurers and their policyholders, before becoming a founder member of firm's dedicated regulatory services unit in 2004. David is best known for his work defending organisations and individuals facing investigation and prosecution for offences including corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter and breaches of health and safety legislation. The work often entails on-site investigations, PACE interviews and advocacy in Magistrates' and Coroners' Courts. In addition David has experience of environmental, trading standards, food safety and other regulatory enforcement work. David has extensive experience of inquest work, perhaps most notably in the healthcare sector. He is a veteran of hundreds of inquests, many involving juries and/or of a sensitive nature. David is an Assistant Coroner in two areas, and has held coronial office since 2010. Beyond Weightmans, David is currently a Trustee at Lighthouse Futures Trust, a dynamic, award-winning charity providing opportunities for young people with an autistic spectrum disorder and learning difficulties. In 2016 David completed two terms as a Trustee of NEBOSH (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health), including two years as Vice-Chair and two years as Chair of the Strategy Committee. During his period in office the organisation earned the coveted Queen’s Award for Enterprise – International Trade (2014). Between 2005-2011 David was a core tutor and module leader on Nottingham Law School's acclaimed 'MBA in Legal Practice' course.
David is technical lead for large loss, cross border and technical motor claims, having headed up our large loss and technical team for over 20 years. He specialises in catastrophic injury claims and in MIB claims, cross border claims and non-indemnity insurance work advising insurers on policy wording and on liabilities to third parties under both the Road Traffic Act 1988 and Art 75. He has dealt with the full range of catastrophic injury claims including claims of the utmost severity, spinal injuries (paraplegics/tetraplegics), amputations and serious head injuries. David has lectured widely on technical issues and on large loss issues. He was lead lawyer for MIB in relation to the latest Uninsured and Untraced Drivers Agreements. He represented in the Supreme Court case of Moreno (2016) and on the judicial review action brought by RoadPeace challenging various aspects of the Agreements and the 1988 Act as being contrary to European law. He has been involved in many leading cases including the cases of Wigley Foster, McCall v Poulton, Nemeti v Sabre, Winrow v Hemphill, Jacobs v MIB, Howe v MIB and Marshall/Pickard v MIB and others. David has advised MIB on a full range of strategic issues. David also represented MIB in the Supreme Court case of Moreno v MIB (2016) which determined that damages were payable in accordance with the law of the country of the accident.
David is a leading figure in the volume real estate sector and is account manager for Royal Mail and other major national brands in relation to property transactions and estate management covering the whole of England and Wales. David specialises in retail work where he acts for a number of high street brands, as well as the utilities sector where he has established a dedicated team for a regional energy provider delivering quality and efficiency across multiple workstreams. He has developed case manager systems combining data capture and management information to service his clients. His online reporting tool, One View, has been widely used by clients with larger property portfolios to help manage their estate and legal cases, providing data analytics on performance and trends. David has developed the use of Artificial Intelligence technology for real estate clients, employing Kira for lease analysis and data extraction.
David is the head of service delivery for disease claims at Weightmans and has specialised in the defence of all types of occupationally induced disease claims for over 20 years. He specialises in occupational cancer and lung disease claims, especially all asbestos related conditions as well as asthma and work related upper limb disorders. David is instructed regularly by insurers, large corporates and public bodies as well as clients who have no insurance cover and advises clients on Transfer of Undertakings Regulations, corporate liability, associated risk management and policy issues. David has extensive experience in dealing with the transfer of liabilities arising from Local Government reorganisation and in the Further Education sector. He is regularly involved in seminars on these, as well as other aspects of disease litigation both internally and externally.
Head of construction risk and an integral member of Weightmans’ specialty insurance and construction group. Expert on claims across all classes of insurance affecting construction operations and under the major forms of building and engineering contract (including JCT, GC works, FIDIC, ICE, NEC, IChemE and ACE). Professional liability, D&C and coverage accounts for a large proportion of his practice, in particular claims against engineers (all disciplines), architects and design and build contractors; insurance coverage disputes for syndicates at Lloyds and the company market, as well as the preparation and interpretation of policy wordings; arbitration and adjudication; all forms of alternative dispute resolution (including mediation); claims for loss/expense arising from project delays and prolongation; performance bonds and warranties; property damage/business interruption; specialist sub-contract operations (including diamond drilling, piling, telecoms, chemical process plant and demolition); product liability; PFI/PPP; and procurement. Prominent work recently undertaken includes a product liability class action in the Republic of Ireland, tiered adjudications in respect of no less than 28 disputes arising out of the government Building Schools for the Future programme, and matters of jurisdiction and international law in the context of a cross-border insurance dispute. Publications: various in trade press, including ‘Post’, ‘Building’ and ‘Construction News’.
Edwina has worked in both the private and public sectors as a real estate and partnership solicitor. She is ranked in the Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 directories as a medical partnership expert and is widely recognised as a specialist NHS GP adviser. She also has significant experience in working with emergency services clients and local authorities. Edwina leads the Primary Care team at Weightmans and advises GP practices, individual partners, local medical committees and those who work with them. She has a broad experience in the way in which general practice and its finance operates and as such is able to bring a holistic approach to GP partnership business. Her work includes partnership formation, retirement, mergers and other contractual arrangements such as partnership contract variations as well as some practice disputes. She has been involved with the primary care move towards the provision of a wider array of certain health services and the working at scale agenda and a variety of collaboration projects. This includes advising Local Medical Committees and their members in relation to Primary Care Networks and their relationship and transaction activity within the wider health space. She has advised some CCGs on contracting matters where these are linked to partnership problems. Edwina is widely known for negotiating robust and 'GP friendly' property transactions especially in connection with landlord and tenant matters. This includes significant experience 54 Act renewals and in LIFT transactions for GPs together with new development work and section 106 contributions. She has a strong understanding of primary care service contracts and finance and the link to premises issues so that she is able to provide detailed advice and transactional support on a very wide range of issues and has supported many practices on premises matters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Edwina has written many articles in medical practitioner press in relation to service charge issues for GPs. She has assisted GPs and LMCs nationally in relation to demands for unsubstantiated claims and provides training sessions and seminars in respect of partnership premises and core business. She is known as an effective public speaker, encouraging practices to understand the law as it relates to their business. She is regularly invited by LMCs to present to their members She is described by clients as "approachable, supportive, knowledgeable and tenacious," and Chambers and Partners note that clients praise her ability to "provide timely responses and sensible advice in easy-to-understand language." Edwina leads on NHS Trusts' Estate matters representing these clients on a variety of complex property matters and estates strategy and rationalisation in keeping with the government agenda for collaboration and working at scale. She oversees and manages work in relation to large property portfolios and property management generally. Having spent 14 years in local authority property teams, she is familiar with public sector processes. In addition, she has worked on estates and joint venture projects for emergency services clients and supports the Weightmans emergency services team in this respect, undertaking a large level of landlord and tenant matters, as well as providing general property advice. Edwina also worked with the government of Malta to assist in delivering a refurbishment programme to enable health service delivery across 3 sites in Malta and Gozo. Listen to Edwina being interviewed on The General Practice Podcast As an expert GP lawyer, Edwina is regularly asked for her opinion on issues affecting General Practitioners and GP business law. Here, she discusses the evolving nature of GP leases.
Emerson joined Weightmans in 2003 and has been a partner in the Large Loss Team since 2005. Emerson’s case load principally comprises traumatic brain injury and spinal injury cases. He has a wealth of experience in technical and indemnity issues, together with rehabilitation and funding issues. Emerson leads Weightmans' Motor Technology Group, advising insurers on the legal, regulatory and practical implications of advancements in vehicle technologies, along with responding to government consultations and speaking at a wide variety of events/forums. He has also sat on the ABI Autonomous Driving Liability Group. Emerson finds nothing more satisfying than being reappointed to a panel having considerably delivered for a key client.
Emlyn Williams is a partner and employment lawyer specialising in healthcare. Emlyn is a well-respected advocate in both the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeals Tribunal. He specialises in all aspects of employment law, with particular interests in whistleblowing, discrimination, MHPS and TUPE. Emlyn has a significant reputation in the healthcare sector and heads up our healthcare employment team nationally. His clients also include other public sector bodies, charities and private businesses. Emlyn also has a strong track-record in delivering innovative training programmes and regularly undertakes bespoke in-house training for various bodies including multi-national companies, the NHS, ACAS, CIPD and other professional groups. From December 2014 to December 2015 Emlyn was President of Liverpool Law Society. He is also a non-executive Director of Liverpool-based art gallery and charity, FACT.
Family law partner with expertise in all aspects of family law, in particular high value/complex financial matters for both married and unmarried couples including trusts , companies, partnerships , third party interests , offshore assets, jurisdictional issues; regularly receives referrals from a variety of legal and other professionals and business people. Also advises on pre/post nuptial and cohabitation agreements, complex children issues, Schedule I , TOLATA and Inheritance Act matters.
Fiona heads the Liverpool family law team and manages the renowned national family team at Weightmans across our offices. She is recognised by Legal 500 2019 as a Leading Individual in family law in the North West. Fiona specialises in financial and children issues arising out of relationship breakdown with particular expertise in complex divorces involving company, partnership and trust issues. She has a significant practice in pre, post marital and cohabitation agreements, as well as a wealth of experience in dealing with children cases, particularly involving international relocation. Fiona is known for her strategic and focused advice in delivering results for clients. Her understanding of the needs of clients enables her to offer a first-rate and bespoke service to her clients resulting in regular referrals from fellow professionals including barristers and other members of the legal profession. Fiona is keen to offer alternatives to litigation with a child centred and amicable approach to separation. She is a trained collaborative lawyer, she chaired the Merseyside collaborative law group for over six years. She is an active member of Resolution and sits on the Merseyside Regional Committee for Resolution. She also sits on the Liverpool Law Society Family Committee helping to shape local family law issues. Fiona is recognised as a leader in her field in both independent legal directories, Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners, being described as ‘technically excellent; really approachable and able to build a real rapport with clients, who trust her implicitly’. Fiona is a Resolution accredited specialist specialising in complex financial and property matters specifically with high income households with substantial assets as well as medium to low income households. The only solicitor in Liverpool having the qualification in high income households and substantial assets.
Gary qualified in 1989 with Alsop Wilkinson in London (now DLA Piper). In 1991 he returned to the north and for four years worked at Aaron & Partners in Chester. He moved to Mace & Jones in 1995 and became a partner in the corporate department in Liverpool in 1997. Mace & Jones merged into Weightmans in May 2011. Gary offers a wide range of expertise to a varied client base including owner managed businesses, large corporates, universities and the regional venture finance holding fund North West Business Finance Limited. He advises clients on all aspects of corporate work, nationally and internationally, from starting up, shareholders agreements, mergers and acquisitions, MBOs, joint ventures, private equity, fundraising and AIM floatations. Gary advises local authorities, universities, venture capital funds and public and private companies on State aid compliance. Feedback from DCMS state aid team is that the state aid review letter has been the best and most comprehensive they have to date seen across all the Waves of the Local Full Fibre Projects and has now set a new benchmark on quality expected going forward. Gary is the partner principally responsible for the firm's relationship with Legalink, the international network of 70 independent law firms. Gary has helped lead the Legalink network through its management committee since 2013 and was appointed Legalink Chair for two years from October 2017. Gary is actively involved with the International Bar Association and is a member of the IBA Mergers and Acquisitions Committee and Space Law Committee.
Graham has been with Weightmans since 2006 and brings over 20 years' experience in handling disease claims to our national disease unit. He specialises in asbestos related disease claims and acts for many well known run off/legacy insurers providing them with strategic advice. He also regularly deals with NIHL, dermatitis and VWF claims and heads up the Liverpool disease team. He has handled several high profile and widely reported asbestos cases over the years, as well as test case litigation for defendants and their insurers. In addition to this he has presented seminars on the subject and has had articles published in the legal press. He is also the author of a section in Occupational Illness Litigation.
Hei is a Partner in our Property team, specialising in residential and commercial property. Hei’s clients include high net worth individuals, investors, trust companies, with the majority based in offshore jurisdictions, the Far East and the Middle East. Hei understands and appreciates the demands and expectations of clients from different cultural backgrounds and he is trusted to provide an efficient and quality service and have the ability to explain complex legal concepts in English and Chinese.Hei's areas of expertise include: Conveyancing Property finance Lease extensions and collective enfranchisement New build developments and bulk purchases Assignment of contracts Leasing of office blocks, industrial units and high street shops Auction pack preparation and review Right to buy, shared ownership and staircasing
Ian is a Partner in the Healthcare team advising and representing medical defence organisations (MDOs) and doctors, dentists and other healthcare professionals with criminal, employment and regulatory matters. Ian’s practice includes: appearing regularly before Tribunals and disciplinary panels on behalf of clients, considerable experience of General Medical Council/Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service Panels, and General Dental Council committees, appeals to the High Court from decisions of health regulatory bodies including those involving the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care, Crown Court trials including appeals to the Court of Appeal Criminal Division, NHS employee disciplinary proceedings and appeals, First Tier Tribunal Primary Health List hearings and subsequent appeals, and Employment Tribunal hearings and High Court claims for breach of contract and injunctive relief for healthcare professionals. Ian frequently receives plaudits from clients for the quality of his work and the commitment given to individual cases. He also advises on claims for judicial review arising out of the above and undertakes such proceedings on behalf of clients. One senior healthcare professional wrote in 2015: “I am very grateful for your help with my [...] problems and thankful that your expertise resulted in the successful outcome. I was impressed by your insightful opinions and clear thinking and mostly by your articulate delivery at the hearing.”
James has been at Weightmans since 1989. After 25 years as a professional negligence litigator representing solicitors and their insurers including in relation to regulatory matters, James became full time COLP and leads a team of risk professionals with expertise in Data Protection, AML, Information security and business continuity, supplier management/ procurement, internal audit and our Legal counsel. He is also responsible for the firm’s insurance arrangements including its relationship with the London insurance market and for its Lexcel programme.
Jane is a Partner in the Property team, specialising in all forms of commercial and residential landlord and tenant property disputes, including insolvency. She acts for a wide variety of major institutional and landowning clients, property developers and charities as well as private individuals and smaller corporate entities. Jane has a broad range of expertise, encompassing breaches of covenant in commercial and residential leases, including unreasonably withholding consent, unauthorised alterations, disrepair, and contested dilapidations claims arising at the end of a tenancy. She advises on rent arrears and service charge disputes, including advice on the statutory control and management of residential service charges, and in particular, the implementation of major works programmes (and subsequent recovery), and where appropriate, forfeiture proceedings and the preparation and service of s.146 notices, and notices under s.17 of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act, to include the subsequent grant of overriding leases. Jane deals with the recovery of commercial and residential property and all proceedings under the Rent Acts and Housing Acts including claims against trespasser/licensees/service occupancies. She also advises on rights of ownership to land and adverse possession, party wall, minor construction and boundary disputes, nuisance claims and injunctions for trespass.
Jane Price is head of service delivery for casualty claims within Weightmans and client relationship partner for one of the firm’s major insurance clients. She has extensive experience in defending both EL and PL claims on behalf of both commercial organisations and public bodies. Jane’s focus is upon ensuring that Weightmans' clients receive exceptional service and excellent technical, commercial and strategic advice resulting in maximum savings.
Janice is a Partner in the Real Estate department and leads the Liverpool Real Estate team. Janice has 38 years’ experience specialising in all aspects of commercial property work for a wide range of clients in both private and public sectors. Janice’s work includes property development schemes, site acquisition and disposals, property finance and secured lending, leases, landlord and tenant and estate management. Janice also leads the firm’s Real Estate Education team which has seen many years of strong growth in the sector. Other areas of focus are OMB’s and the industrial sector.
Admitted in 1996, Jim has been a partner since May 2003 and joined Weightmans in January 2014. Jim’s expertise is defending disease and toxic exposure claims for the live and legacy insurance markets, upon instruction of carriers, brokers, intermediaries and global corporates. He has extensive experience in all aspects of this litigation, including all asbestos-related diseases, asthma, dermatitis, HAVS, NIHL and stress cases. He has particular expertise in HAVS, following extensive involvement in the British Coal Litigation and Government Compensation Scheme, on behalf of Commercial Union, CGU and NU. Jim has also been instructed by the insurance market on a number of successful group actions, not just in relation to HAVS, but also carbon monoxide, dermatitis, food poisoning, lead poisoning and rhinitis. Jim has successfully defended to trial every type of disease case. He also has successful Court of Appeal experience in HAVS and stress claims. Jim also has a great deal of experience in the discontinued insurance business. He has advised run-off managers and acquirers of run-off books of business on claims-related and corporate liability and coverage matters. He has also taken part in panel discussions on disease-related topics at the annual IRLA Congress and chairs regular claims forums for the key players in the legacy market. Jim is currently an accredited mentor to younger members of IRLA.
Jim has been with Weightmans since 1993 joining from Zurich (Eagle Star) where he was employed between 1985 and 1993. Jim now provides thought leadership across a range of topics affecting personal injury claims. Previously he specialised in occupational disease cases with particular interest in respiratory disease, work related upper limb disorders and noise induced hearing loss claims. Jim has been involved in much high-profile litigation, defending class actions brought by claimants, representing the successful lead appellant in the Notts and Derbyshire Textile Litigation (Baker v Quantum Clothing) in the Supreme Court (UKSC 2011).
John became Weightmans' Managing Partner in 2013 and was re-elected for the second time in 2018 until 2021. Prior to that, he was Weightmans' Commercial Director for 6 years, overseeing the 300% growth in that part of the business during that time. John joined Weightmans having been a CEO of a listed public company in the entertainment industry. During his time on Weightmans' board, John has overseen the firm's acquisitions, opening of new offices, overhauled the partnership remuneration structure and seen the firm's overall revenues rise from £43.8m in 2007 to £100m. Consistently accredited both in the Legal 500 and Chambers UK as a leading individual in corporate work, clients have recognised John as having a "pragmatic and commercially realistic approach", and noted his "extensive experience of corporate transactional, corporate structures and commercial contract work". John's clients range from technology companies and IT suppliers to a variety of private and public sector concerns who outsource the supply of technology and provision of IT services. John has extensive experience in preparing and negotiating innovative contracting arrangements which best fit the specific needs of our clients. He spent 3 years in industry as managing director of a plc technology company so has an authentic perspective of clients’ commercial needs.
John specialises in police and public work. John and his team cover all areas of police law ranging from litigation to operational advice and police discipline. They act for forces in the Midlands, shire counties and East Anglia. The team also do all types of public work ranging from litigation to core work.
Julia is a Partner in the Healthcare team and regularly advises many public and private sector healthcare providers on a wide range of medico legal, contentious and regulatory matters. She has a particular interest in mental health and aftercare and is instructed on behalf of providers in cases involving mental capacity and treatment issues in the Court of Protection. As an experienced advocate, Julia regularly undertakes advocacy at inquests on behalf of health and care providers and has also advised and represented clients in relation to CQC proceedings, HSE prosecutions, police investigations, Local Authority/CCG funding disputes and judicial review. Julia has experience of group action litigation.
Karl is head of our built environment segment. He specialises in all aspects of commercial property law including commercial and residential development, landlord and tenant and acquisitions and disposals. Karl is also an acknowledged expert in the field of urban regeneration, dealing with complex and high-value projects for both the public and private sectors. Karl specialises in city centre regeneration and is an acknowledged expert in the development market with active public and private sector clients. He advised Greater Manchester Arts Centre on the new development of HOME at First Street Manchester. It is the largest arts centre outside of London. Karl is the client relationship partner for Manchester City Council, Co-operative Group, Peel Group, Bruntwood and Pets at Home. Karl has recently been instructed by Manchester City Council in connection with the redevelopment of Oxford Road Railway Station in Manchester. Karl is consistently recommended by Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners as a leading individual.
Kieran is head of our insurance segment. A highly experienced litigator who acts for insurers, public authorities and international commercial organisations, he has significant experience in defendant insurance litigation particularly in high value and high profile sensitive cases. Kieran is also actively involved with and sits on the Board of Insurance Law Global, an international network of "best in class" insurance law firms. He is a regular commentator in the insurance and wider press and a frequent presenter. Memberships include the Law Society, Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL), AIRMIC, Chartered Insurance Institute and Insurance & Reinsurance Legacy Association (IRLA). Kieran is ranked in Chambers & Partners UK and a recommended lawyer in Legal 500.
Laurence is a commercial partner and head of competition law. Laurence advises clients on competition law, including merger control and the control of anti-competitive agreements and practices. Laurence has successfully handled many high profile investigations and inquiries by the European Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority in relation to a wide range of sectors as well as appearing before the specialist competition law court, the Competition Appeal Tribunal, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court on competition law matters. Laurence also advises on the new National Security & Investment Act regime and its impact on different types of transaction, obtaining clearances where appropriate from the UK Government Investment Security Unit. Laurence is rated by the Legal 500 as a “leading individual” for competition law.
Former partner of Ford & Warren solicitors, Lindsay has over 20 years' experience specialising in catastrophic injury claims (spinal cord injury and head injury), fatal accident claims, commercial loss claims and indemnity issues. Her areas of expertise include road traffic claims, employers' liability, public liability, indemnity and holiday claims. Reported cases include: Lee v Airtours 1 Lloyds Rep 683, Leesmith v Evans 2008 EWHC 134 QB, French v Groupama Insurance Company Limited 2011 EWCA Cov 1119 and Annison v Nolan 2012 EWCA Civ54.
Mandy heads the firm's business immigration practice and has over 18 years’ experience in her field. She is experienced in both immigration and employment law so can provide seamless advice on the cross-over between the two areas. Mandy is experienced in providing global immigration solutions to large multinational corporations from a wide range of sectors including logistics, healthcare and technology. With extensive immigration expertise in the education sector, Mandy advises universities, colleges and independent schools and assists with all aspects of compliance, risk management and strategy. Mandy advises on the full range of UK immigration and nationality law matters and has particular expertise in sponsorship, compliance with sponsor duties and the prevention of illegal working regime. Mandy regularly delivers training for businesses on various immigration topics. She is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) and the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA). Recent work highlights Successful negotiated the re-instatement of a Sponsor Licence for a PLC biotechnology company Advising a large borough council on recruitment and compliance issues Successfully appealed and overturned a civil penalty notice against a FTSE100 company Assisting and advising a major hotel chain on a UKVI compliance visit Advising a pharmacovigilance company on immigration options for its global mobility needs Advising on the immigration aspects of a £10m acquisition by a US company of a UK distributor Conducted a mock UKVI audit of a multinational health service company and advised on risk and key areas of compliance Advising a multinational logistics company on the structure of their sponsor licence Advised numerous UK companies on the impact of Brexit on their workforce and assisted with the implementation of strategies.
Marianne is a Partner in our Healthcare Providers team, advising clients on clinical negligence, regulatory and disciplinary matters, inquests, mental health law, criminal investigations and prosecutions, and data protection issues. Marianne is a specialist in CQC issues, NHS Trust disciplinary hearings and HSE prosecutions. She is extremely experienced in defending healthcare professionals in complex, high value negligence claims and representing her clients in both the High Court and Crown Court. Marianne has a particular expertise in Mental Health Act matters and the treatment and detention of mentally ill individuals. She frequently advises on consent and confidentiality matters for mental health patients, vulnerable adults and children.
Former partner of Ford &Warren solicitors, Mark has extensive experience of commercial property law, especially with regard to landlord and tenant issues, estate management and mortgages. Mark has worked in the real estate field for 35 years since qualification in 1992. Mark has overseen the disposal of over 300 properties for one client in the last two years. Mark also led the team that successfully tendered for the Environment Agency's regional property work at Ford&Warren solicitors. Mark has extensive experience of commercial property law, especially disposals and acquisitions, acting for lenders, estate management and landlord and tenant matters. He acts for owners, and investors who range from multi-nationals to smaller regional businesses. He has particular expertise in the licensed and leisure industry and acts for several of the major pubcos. Mark manages sophisticated reporting and recording systems which are tailored to the client's specific requirements.
Previously head of employment and HR at Mace & Jones, Martin specialises in all aspects of employment law and has appeared as an advocate before Employment Tribunals nationwide, as well as before the Employment Appeal Tribunal. He is regularly consulted by private and public sector organisations seeking fast and practical advice on high-profile business transactions, ranging from corporate mergers to European and premier league football transfers. Martin is a specialist in providing strategic advice in high profile and sensitive cases. Martin’s clients include many solicitors, barristers’ chambers and household name companies based throughout the UK, as well as multinationals. He regularly acts for a wide range of public sector clients including education establishments, NHS Trusts and Local Authorities. He is consistently recommended by Independent Legal directories such as Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners as a leading individual.
Martin has been working with organisations in the public sector over the last 20 years. His expertise in police law is exceptional and he is respected for tackling the most challenging of cases that attract national press coverage. Martin has handled a number of issues for organisations who have been challenged in relation to the publication of information, the accuracy of information they hold, the sharing of information with third parties, and the loss of information including retrieving unlawfully removed information. He has represented defendants in a number of reported defamation cases. Martin regularly speaks at seminars and events on all aspects of information law. He led the tender that resulted in the reappointment of Weightmans national police team to the police national legal framework again in 2016 and retained the firm's number one ranking.
Matthew is head of our corporates segment and has responsibility for Weightmans corporate clients in the financial services, transport and logistics, manufacturing, retail and leisure, and energy and utilities sectors. He is client Partner for national retailers as well as third party logistics providers. He primarily advises on complex landlord and tenant matters as well as property acquisitions and disposals with a specialism in negotiating overage and clawback provisions. Matthew sits on the property advisory board of the UK Warehousing Association and has recently worked with them and Savills to develop a model form of warehouse lease, 'Standard Property Lease' in order to provide a starting point for the industry when negotiating a new lease of this type of property. Matthew has expertise in the delivery of client contracts and projects, ensuring both Weightmans and the client’s own Key Performance Indicators are met through bespoke IT solutions. He is product manager for Weightmans' ‘One View’ product which enables team members, whatever the practice area, to deliver an excellent service and to capture, measure and report on those items which are important to the client.
Michaela is a Partner in the Healthcare team. She brings a unique skill and expertise to her clients having trained and worked as an intensive care nurse before becoming a lawyer. She has more than 17 years of experience advising in healthcare law.She provides advice for a wide range of healthcare issues with particular experience of clinical negligence claims, disciplinary and regulatory proceedings, and advising on matters before the General Dental Council (GDC), Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) and Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
Mike trained with Withers and on qualification in 1993 joined specialist London shipping firm More Fisher Brown. Mike joined Weightmans as a partner in May 2006. Mike’s expertise includes the carriage of goods by sea, charterparty and bill of lading claims, hull and P&I insurance, cargo recoveries, freight liability, multimodal transit, CMR and yacht claims. Mike has a related non-contentious practice including vessel sale and purchase and drafting contracts of carriage. Mike is ranked in The Legal 500 2015 as a 'Leading Individual'.
Mike Grant has been recognised for many years in the leading directories for his expertise in defending claims against construction professionals , mediation and insurance coverage work. He has been described as "technically astute", "commercial", "robust enough to deal with anything thrown at him" and as the "go to" expert for defending claims against engineers by The Lawyer Magazine. Chambers 2017 said “Mike Grant knows the insurance market inside and out” He featured in The Lawyer Magazine’s Hot 100 for 2014. He has dealt with many complex and high profile cases and is experienced in arbitration and mediation. He has resolved claims worth in excess of £800m by means of mediation. He speaks regularly to professionals and professional bodies about insurance and risk issues. He has been involved with, and has a particular interest in, the development and delivery of consultancy services.
Mike is a partner in Weightmans large loss team and has over 30 years experience specialising in handling catastrophic loss personal injury claims for insurers, including Ageas and Covea. He handles claims involving severe spinal injuries including paraplegia and tetraplegia, traumatic brain injury, amputation, multiple orthopaedic trauma and fatal claims. Mike is an expert on coverage and indemnity issues.
Neal has been an insurance litigation specialist lawyer from the start of his career in 1992. He was head of insurance litigation at Elliotts where he spent 11 years before joining Weightmans in 2003. Neal has significant experience in defendant insurance litigation particularly high value and sensitive injury litigation including catastrophic injuries. Neal's work is divided between his legal practice and managing client relationships where his approach is pro-active and focused in providing solutions and value to clients' needs. Memberships include the Law Society and Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL).
Patricia heads the firm's finance team and advises on all aspects of financial services. She provides advice to banks and borrowers on bilateral and syndicated facilities. She has particular expertise in public sector finance. Key clients include Santander, Lloyds Bank Plc, Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund and the Midlands Engine. This year Patricia has continued to provide key strategic advice on the impact of Brexit for European Structural Funds. As one of the few solicitors nationally who acts on the establishment of Public Sector Funding schemes, establishment of legacy funds and utilising public and private sector money to create funding platforms for SMEs, this year Patricia has successfully won pitches to act for various fund managers in connection with their bids to be appointed to the £200million South West Investment Fund and the Investment Fund for Scotland. Patricia has continued to provide advice nationally for bank lenders and borrowers on syndicated and bilateral banking documentation. This year Weightmans successfully maintained their position on Lloyds Bank Plc panel and continue to advise institutional lenders on all aspects of deal funding.
Paul set up and leads Weightmans' Disease Counter Fraud Team and has written and presented widely on this subject. He has extensive experience in all occupational disease types including asbestos, noise, legionella, muskuloskeletal issues and asbestos . Recent case highlights include the Supreme Court case of Dryden & Ors v Johnson Matthey plc [2018] UKSC 18; a case that clarified what constitutes a compensateable injury and Zurich Insurance plc v Romaine [2019] EWCA Civ 851; a case that confirmed the procedure to be adopted in contempt of Court claims and emphasized the vital importance of honesty on the part of the claimant in historic disease claims.
Penelope is a partner in the local government team in Birmingham and an expert in local authority litigation with particular emphasis on highways, education and social services and high value complex claims. Penelope has advised clients on policy matters as well as claims and has taken part in numerous training events and spoken at local and national conferences. Noted in Chambers & Partners as an excellent lawyer in the defendant personal injury field, Penelope has been commended for her exceptional client-focused approach.
Peter is a Partner and Head of M&A. He advises on corporate and corporate finance transactions of all different types and sizes. He acts for clients from a wide variety of market sectors. Peter’s clear commercial advice has won him the trust and loyalty of his clients. Peter provides specialist advice on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and shareholders’ agreements, venture capital, corporate finance and fundraising, lending arrangements, company formation, partnerships and commercial contracts. Peter acts for clients from various industry sectors including property, hotels and leisure, healthcare, marketing, IT, education and manufacturing. Some of his recent matters include advising on the $120m exit from an offshore family trust, advising on the £60m purchase of a Championship football club and acting on the $40m buyback of shares in a manufacturing company.
Peter joined Weightmans in September 1997. He became a Partner in 2005. Peter leads the firm’s services to Commercial and Municipal Insurers and is the Lead Partner for Casualty Claims, overseeing the handling of all EL, PL product liability claims for insurers and corporate entities across the firm’s various offices. He sits on the Retail & Leisure and Manufacturing sector groups within the firm. Peter continues to handle claims himself, specialising in the area of EL/PL personal injury litigation, for defendant organisations and their insurers. He is nominated by various corporates including a global retailer, international food manufacturer, a family entertainment scheme and a global oil provider for claims emanating from its forecourt and service station outlets. In addition, Peter specialises in defending theatre owners and production companies in respect of personal injury claims arising in the fields of theatrical production and live performance. Peter also has particular interests in wearable technologies and drones on which he has written various papers and articles. He regularly delivers training seminars and provides risk management advice for clients, particularly focused on the claims process, claims defensibility issues and reducing avoidable litigation in order to save money for his clients. He has written for a number of publications including the firm’s Insurance Insights publication and various trade press such as Insurance Times and Insurance Day, providing thought leadership and best practice advice to the market. He is also a highly regarded speaker at training events on such issues. In 2006 Peter qualified as a mediator with the Academy of Experts. He is also Weightmans’ CSR partner, strategically leading the firm’s fundraising, pro bono and community initiatives for which the firm has been shortlisted for a number of awards over recent years, as well as being the firm’s lead for the LGBTQ+ strand. Peter is a member of FOIL, a mentor with GROW and in his spare time, he acts on a pro bono basis as Hon Gen Solicitor for an arts-based charity in the North West.
Peter trained at Weightmans and qualified in 2003. He became a partner in 2011. He acts for local authorities across the country as well as fire and rescue authorities, education establishments and housing providers. Peter has particular expertise in defending professional negligence and human rights claims against social services and education authorities. He also specialises in abuse claims to include historical matters, multi-claimant cases and group actions. Peter has a special interest in defamation, privacy and data protection law. He also represents local authorities at inquests, particularly Article 2 inquiries and inquests that involve safeguarding issues, social care and Children's Services departments. Peter also lectures and presents on related topics.
Philip is a Partner in our Property team. He specialises in both commercial and residential property and advises his clients on the purchase and sale, redevelopment and refurbishment and refinancing of properties. He has also advised lenders on property secured lending and financing. Philip advises on a full range of property matters and acts for a range of clients from investors, developers, banks, other finance providers and high net worth individuals. Philip's expertise includes: Auction sales and purchases The grant and surrender of commercial leases Landlord and tenant issues, including rent reviews, enforcement of lease covenants and dilapidations Stamp duty and other taxes affecting both residential and commercial properties Refinancing work for both borrowers and lenders Portfolio sales and purchases
Philip is a Partner in our Corporate team. He acts for clients in various sectors, including information technology and e-commerce, the NHS and the care home sector, charities, chemical manufacturing and serviced office accommodation. Philip advises on commercial contracts, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, IT (including software, hardware and other IT-related matters), healthcare law, data protection, e-commerce, private equity, management buy-outs and buy-ins, charity law, corporate structured property transactions and business start-ups. He has lectured on contracting, charity shared services, data protection, corporate mergers and acquisitions and management buy-outs.
Quentin is a Partner the professional risks team in the London office. He specialises in professional negligence and construction claims, almost always acting on behalf of insurers. With over 30 years’ practice in this field, he has particularly extensive experience in the following areas: claims against clients in the construction industry, architects, engineers, M&E consultants, quantity surveyors, project managers, asbestos consultants and design & build contractors (he is a qualified Adjudicator); complaints or claims against financial advisers and IFA networks; and insurance policy coverage disputes. He also regularly handles claims against other professions, such as estate agents, insurance brokers, solicitors, surveyors and accountants. He frequently deals with complaints made to the Financial Ombudsman Service against insurance brokers, insurers, IFAs and the like. He acts for a broad range of Lloyds’ syndicates and company market insurers, including AmTrust, Antares, Argenta, Argo, Aspen, AXA Insurance, CFC, Chaucer, Collegiate, Markel UK, Markel International, MMI (part of Zurich), Nexus, RiverStone, Tokio Marine HCC and Vibe. He has been involved in a number of high-profile and complex cases, including McLaughlin & Harvey v The Hospitals for Sick Children (for the Hospital), Target v Redferns (for the solicitors' excess layer insurers), The Corporation of Lloyds v DEGW & Others (for the architects), Dodson v Dodson (for the insurance brokers) and Panatown v Alfred McAlpine Construction Ltd (for the quantity surveyors). He has also acted for one of the defending parties in a very substantial dispute arising from the collapse of a tunnel at Gerrards Cross. Recently, he acted for Liberty Mutual in the successful defence at trial of a very substantial and complex claim arising from the collapse of the Honister IFA network. He advises frequently on cladding disputes and is currently representing one of the parties involved in the Grenfell Tower refurbishment project. Quentin is recognised by the principal legal directories. Recent comments include: "Quentin Fox has the rare combination of being technically good whilst at the same time being commercially and strategically sound"; "Quentin Fox 'quickly spots the practical difficulties in disputes, and takes a robust line with opponents"; "Quentin has a healthy reputation in the professional indemnity sphere and primarily acts for large insurers. He is admired by the market for his experience and strategic and practical approach to cases.
Rebecca is a partner in the Large Loss team based in Liverpool. She is experienced in all areas of law relating to personal injury claims and specialises in large loss and catastrophic injury claims including traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, amputation claims, fatal accident and chronic pain/subtle TBI/functional neurological disorder claims. Rebecca has worked for numerous large insurers and the Motor Insurers Bureau and has longstanding experience or providing non indemnity advice and currently works for a large car rental company. She is particularly experienced in defending fraudulent/exaggerated claims prevalent in the fast-growing area of chronic pain/STBI/FND. Rebecca works with multiple municipal and corporate insureds with large deductibles as well as individuals and is adept at developing and maintaining good relationships with all levels of customer.
Ricardo is a Partner in the Healthcare team and heads the firm’s medical defence organisation (MDO) claims department. He specialises in the defence of clinical negligence claims in general, hospital and dental practice. Ricardo’s casework often involves serious injuries, and he is particularly interested in and technically skilled at advising on head, neurological and sports-related clinical negligence actions. He is also experienced in handling clinical negligence actions in foreign jurisdictions. Ricardo is a highly proficient litigator, representing clinicians at professional conduct hearings and inquests including proceedings in the High Court, Crown Court and the Court of Appeal. He has represented practitioners against charges involving running a slimming clinic, causing death by rapid opiate detoxification, and the use of research funds to subsidise private practice. He regularly lectures and delivers training to clinicians and experts on medico-legal issues.
Richard is recognised for his expertise having been highlighted as a leader in the field of professional indemnity and “highly recommended” by Legal 500 for several years. A Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and an accredited mediator for the last 13 years, Richard is a skilled negotiator who uses a wide range of dispute resolution tactics to achieve the best results for his clients in complex and high value disputes. He is viewed in The Legal 500 as standing out for his "straightforward professional advice that is always well researched". In Chambers UK 2010 Richard is described as "an extremely good communicator with an excellent ability to analyse problems and get to the heart of the issue". Richard has chaired several Professional Indemnity Seminars in the City of London, hosted by the Professions & Insurance Group, as well as speaking to insurers and brokers on a wide range of professional indemnity related subjects. Richard was also a guest speaker for the Institute of Money Laundering Prevention Officers (IMPLO) at one of their annual conferences and has appeared in a DVD produced by the North East Fraud Forum on the subject of money laundering.
Richard is a Partner in the Healthcare team, specialising in criminal and disciplinary work, acting on behalf of medical defence organisations (MDOs), medical and dental practitioners and other health professionals. He has considerable experience defending cases before the Crown Court, and before panels or committees of the General Medical Council (GMC) and General Dental Council (GDC), and in disciplinary proceedings brought by NHS England. He has also assisted medical professionals under investigation by NHS Protect.
Richard is the national head of our health sector practice and has overall responsibility for leading on the delivery of legal services to existing and new health sector clients. This entails enhancing the quality of the legal services we provide, the development of new products and new markets. Richard sits on the NHS Resolution steering group. This group is tasked with improving KPIs, and identifying how we might best support NHS Resolution in meeting its strategic aims. Richard has been an NHS Resolution Nominated Partner for nearly 20 years for both clinical and non-clinical claims. He leads internally on our non-clinical offering, working closely with NHS Resolution management teams to help them meet the challenges presented by this ever-changing sector. Richard is the client partner for a number of NHS Trusts, focussing on patient safety and helping them identify the learning from incidents, inquests, complaints and claims and how to embed improvements. Richard has become a trusted adviser to a number of healthcare organisations, such as NWAS, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS FT and Tameside & Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT, with the result that Weightmans are now instructed by these Trusts on inquests, and investigations but often on employment, commercial law and property transactions.
Richard was managing partner of Mace & Jones prior to its merger with Weightmans and former head of Mace & Jones' dispute resolution department in Manchester. He now holds the position of regional office head at our Newcastle office. With over 26 years of experience, Richard specialises in all aspects of commercial dispute resolution including partnership matters, commercial disputes, contentious probate and judicial review. Richard’s expertise is dealing with substantial, complex litigation matters, predominantly in the Chancery Division in the High Court. He has a deserved reputation for excellence in handling shareholder disputes, partnership claims, public contract procurement challenges, complex contractual issues and intellectual property matters. Richard has particular expertise in seeking injunctive relief to protect clients’ interests on a pre-emptive basis. On larger, high value cases, Richard would normally lead a team of lawyers ensuring high service levels at a competitive cost base. Richard’s instinctive ability to provide detailed strategic advice is a huge asset in project managing heavy weight cases. Richard has practical hands on experience of all manner of partnership matters. A commercial litigator by trade, Richard brings a hard nosed yet realistic approach to a range of disputes, from partner exits to dealing with under performance, team moves and mergers. He is a member of the Association of Partnership Practitioners (NW region). The Lawyer Awards 2006 shortlisted Mace & Jones for Employment team of the year, citing the case of Celtec v Astley [2006] UK HL 29 that Richard took to the House of Lords. His other reported cases are Bradford & Bingley v Ross [2005] EWCA CIV 394; Bruce Cook v Vehicle Inspectorate [1999] House of Lords, Kemble v Hicks [1999] PLR 287.
Roddy deals with employers' and public liability claims. He has particular experience in workplace stress claims both arising out of overwork cases and harassment. He has lectured on the subject of stress and written a number of published articles. He has dealt with over a thousand stress claims involving overwork bullying and harassment and is often instructed pre litigation and even on occasions before a claim has been made. His stress work also includes claims resulting from violent acts such as the Court of Appeal case of Mitchell and others v United Co-operatives [2012] a case involving shop workers who experienced multiple violent robberies. The successful result was said to have saved the retail industry millions of pounds. Stress is now acknowledged by the Health & Safety Executive to be the most common reason for someone to be off work and is becoming a popular new work stream for claimant lawyers. Stress claims also produce reputational issues for employers especially ones involving allegations of sexual harassment. They tend to be of interest to senior Directors of companies and, as such, require discrete handling for which Roddy is known. Stress claims can be brought in an Employment Tribunal or the County/High Courts. Roddy has experience of the cross overs between the jurisdictions which can be used to bring claims to a satisfactory conclusion. He has dealt with a number of catastrophic injury claims and in particular, spinal and brain injury cases. In addition, he has a wide experience of Occupiers Liability Act claims, having dealt with the leading House of Lords case Tomlinson v Congleton [2003]which has been used in countless claims subsequently to successfully defend claims against occupiers of land. Subsequently he took the case of Poppleton v TPYAC[2008] to the Court of Appeal. That claim involved an accident at an indoor climbing centre. The successful defence was welcomed by the sporting press as was the result in the potential £6 million pounds claim of Grimes v Hawkins [2011]- a swimming pool case, where the successful defence was described as a life line of common sense. In all his cases Roddy appreciates that it is key to find out what success looks like for his clients. Do they wish to defend to trial or is the disposal of the claim quickly and on the best terms the definition of success.
Roland is a partner in Weightmans' corporate team. Based at the Liverpool office, Roland has over 20 years’ experience in dealing with mergers, acquisitions and disposals; corporate finance; private equity investment and joint ventures. Roland has particular expertise in advising clients on non-transactional corporate and company law matters including group structures; corporate governance; share structures and reorganisations. Roland has also accumulated considerable experience advising mid-tier corporates working closely alongside general counsels and assuming a role of trusted adviser in respect of corporate governance and structure in addition to advising on commercial contracts including supply of goods and services, agency and distribution, terms of trade and intellectual property licensing. Roland’s diversity of skills and respected judgment has seen him appointed to the role of in house legal counsel for Weightmans from May 2021. Prior to taking on the legal counsel role, Roland was responsible for operational management of the corporate team nationally across London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds. In addition to his role as in house legal counsel, Roland continues to provide legal advice to a small number of select clients of the firm comprising owner-managed businesses and mid-tier corporates operating in the manufacturing, logistics and retail sectors.
Sam is a Partner and Head of the Healthcare Professionals team, specialising in the representation of medical defence organisations (MDOs) and healthcare professionals in regulatory, disciplinary and criminal investigations and prosecutions. He is a skilled advocate, with extensive experience in the High Court, Crown Court, inquests, Performer's List hearings and General Medical Council (GMC) and General Dental Council (GDC) proceedings. He also undertakes judicial review applications. Two of his notable cases include Cheatle v The General Medical Council and Lim v Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust. Sam has recently defended a doctor accused of manslaughter and a surgeon facing serious allegations at the GMC.
Sean Crotty is a partner in our commercial team with particular experience in data protection, IT, commercial, procurement and intellectual property matters. Sean advises many high profile clients within the private (ranging from SMEs to listed companies) and public sector (including Police Authorities, NHS Trusts, local authorities and universities) on a wide range of strategic and complex data, IT, media and IP issues. Sean has developed a specialism in drafting and negotiating major commercial, IT, entertainment, IP and data contracts within the private and public sector. He understands his way around the relevant industries and their statutory obligations and often provides training in relation to the same. Examples of his work in this area include advising: Peel Ports Group on procurement of works and services for £350 million Liverpool 2 Project; One of the world’s largest packaging companies on a large scale production agreement; A national fraud body on a standard user agreement for the insurance industry (including data sharing arrangements, database use and use of strategic data on an international scale); Upon the £multimillion procurement of a major police force’s content management system; and The Motor Insurers’ Bureau in relation to the UK Government backed MyLicence Project, a revolutionary data sharing project between the DVLA and the UK insurance industry. Sean has vast experience of the video games industry and was awarded the legal services provider of the year award at the TIGA Awards 2016 in recognition of the excellent work provided by his team in the field. Sean also regularly delivers presentations in this field (eg. International Festival of Business 2016) and is regularly published in trade and national press (eg. Financial Times, IP Magazine and Daily Telegraph). Sean is recommended in Legal 500.
Sian qualified as a solicitor in 1990 and joined Weightmans as a partner in 2007. Sian is sector lead for housing and she is also a partner in the property litigation team. She specialises in all aspects of property litigation, both commercial and residential, in the High Court, the County Court, the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) and Upper Tribunal. Sian also acts for a wide range of housing associations, stock transfer organisations and fully mutual housing co-operatives. Sian has specialist knowledge of housing management issues including possession cases based on convictions, breach of tenancy terms and anti-social behaviour, anti-social behaviour injunctions (with and without notice), general estate management issues including exchange, abandoned properties, squatters and disrepair. Sian appears regularly as an advocate in the county court. Sian also has a wealth of experience in commercial property litigation. She is also skilled in all forms of alternative dispute resolution and has had noted success in mediations. Sian is recommended in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 as a leader in her field. She is also a contributor to the Which Guide to Renting and Letting and is a current member of the Law Society’s Housing Committee, having been the Chair between 2011-2014. She is an accomplished external speaker on housing and landlord and tenant issues.
Simon is a Partner in the Healthcare department. He represents doctors, dentists and other healthcare professionals in disciplinary proceedings before their regulators arising from conduct, performance and health issues. Simon also advises and represents practitioners in respect of inquests, NHS Performers List investigations and hospital disciplinary investigations. He is instructed both by medical defence organisations (MDOs) and individual healthcare professionals. Simon is an experienced advocate and appears regularly before professional regulators, coroners and NHS panels.
Simon is a Partner in the Healthcare team. He represents doctors and dentists in criminal, disciplinary, regulatory and employment matters and inquests. He has many years’ experience advising and providing representation for clients. His caseload involves high profile, complex and often sensitive issue and includes inquests, GMC, GDC, LAT and MHPS disciplinary proceedings and in criminal cases. Simon has successfully advised healthcare professionals in their appeals to the High Court and the Court of Appeal, judicial review, criminal investigations through to trial, NHSE LAT and MHPS proceedings and at the GMC and GDC. He regularly appears as an advocate at the GMC/MPTS Interim Orders Tribunal, GDC IOC hearings, NHS Local Area Team disciplinary hearings, inquests, the Magistrates Court, other investigatory meetings including under Maintaining High Professional Standards in the NHS. He also represents clients at interviews and other hearings. Simon regularly provides seminars, workshops and training to healthcare professionals.
Simon joined Weightmans in February 2013 to head up the Local Government team. Formerly head of legal and democratic services at Cheshire West and Cheshire Council, Simon Goacher has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in local government law spanning almost two decades. He has led on significant projects including an innovative housing stock transfer at Wirral Council and on the promotion of a private Act of Parliament. He was awarded the title of Local Government Young Solicitor of the year in 2006. As Head of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer at Wirral Council, Simon was the lead legal adviser for key projects including regeneration schemes in New Brighton and Birkenhead. In 2009, he was appointed Head of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer of the newly created Cheshire West and Chester Council. This involved the creation of a single authority from four councils. Simon has been a member of the projects boards for a number of major projects including the creation of Council-owned companies, as well as significant outsourcing and regeneration projects. Simon is a go-to adviser for authorities on significant governance and vires issues throughout the country including carrying out independent reviews on sensitive and high profile issues. He is a leading practitioner on member conduct and has carried out a number of significant investigations on behalf of local authorities into the behaviour of elected members.
Stephen is a Partner and Solicitor and head of both the Corporate Department and the Corporate Restructuring and Recovery Department. With a wide ranging corporate and commercial practice, Stephen acts for wide variety of clients in many sectors including private equity and venture capital funds, sports manufacturers and retailers, property companies, marketing and management consultants, IT companies and businesses in the leisure and entertainment sectors with many clients having an entrepreneurial bias.Stephen’s work ranges from start-ups to long established companies, management buyouts and joint ventures, to advice on constitutional documents and contractual terms and conditions. Stephen has more than 20 years’ restructuring experience, advising on both solvent and insolvent restructuring. Work areas include corporate rescue and turnaround in addition to solvent restructuring, corporate finance.
Steve has spent his entire legal career at Weightmans. He is an experienced employment lawyer and advocate and is also regional office head for Liverpool. Steve has in depth experience of employment law issues arising in both public and private organisations and has a particular expertise in the education sector where he regularly advises a large portfolio of university, school and college clients. Steve also acts for a number of police forces and has comprehensive knowledge of the application of police regulations to serving officers, in addition to advising on complex employment tribunal disputes involving serving officers and civilian employees such as disability, race and sex discrimination claims. Steve handles boardroom disputes, facilitates senior executive terminations and manages employment related project work. He regularly undertakes advocacy at the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeals Tribunal and has a formidable 'win' record. Steve focuses on providing straightforward and practical advice mainly to employers to achieve outcome based solutions. In May 2015, Steve was awarded the Higher Rights of Audience (HRA) qualification. This allows Steve to represent clients as a solicitor-advocate in the higher civil courts throughout England and Wales. The HRA qualification recognises Steve’s enhanced advocacy capabilities and enables him to offer a cost-efficient and complete service for clients.
Steve re-joined Weightmans as a Partner in July 2012 having previously been an Associate at the firm eight years before. He has nearly 30 years' experience acting for a variety of insurers, loss adjusters, local authorities and self-insured companies. Steve is currently acting for an insolvent Insurer within the Building Guarantee sector. This involves daily interaction with the Joint Administrators, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Policyholders on matters of complexity and sensitivity. Additionally, Steve continues to defend employers' and public liability cases, having spent the majority of his career acting in claims of all values across a variety of sectors, predominantly the Retail, energy distribution, and Manufacturing sectors. He also has specialist expertise in handling product liability claims involving a wide range of products, including contamination in food.
Stuart is a Partner in the Commercial Litigation team. Since qualifying in 2002, he has specialised exclusively in insolvency litigation and is renowned for his work in both personal and corporate insolvency. He has experience of advising and representing solicitors and other professionals facing insolvency issues.Stuart's areas of expertise include: Advising officeholders, directors and other individuals in all aspects of contentious insolvency A particular expertise in personal insolvency, with a number of reported cases Training a number of organisations on insolvency issues, including R3
Stuart is Director of Legal Operations for the Litigation, Transactional and Advisory division of Weightmans. He has over 30 years' experience of employment law, and has an impeccable reputation for commercial and pragmatic advice, particularly specialising in providing advice on commercial situations involving TUPE, reorganisations and collective issues. Stuart proactively contributes to client profitability through analysis of management information and translation of key learning points into corporate training programmes. He is client partner for a range of clients including Swissport and Mitsubishi/Hitachi Power Systems Europe and deputy client partner for Royal Mail Group plc, in addition to advising other legal firms on their employment law issues. Stuart frequently presents at seminars and conferences on HR issues and regularly contributes to national and local publications.
Stuart is a qualified lawyer by trade, having practiced law as a professional indemnity lawyer from 1995. He has been a partner at Weightmans since 2002. During 2003, Stuart become involved in Weightmans’ IT, designing, developing, and rolling out case management systems across the firm. In 2005 Stuart took on responsibility for Weightmans’ IT department and in 2010 was promoted to IS and Operations Director since when he has been a member of Weightmans’ Board and an equity partner. From 2017 as part of Weightmans’ Reorganising for Profit strategic transformation initiative, Stuart took on the role as Business Services and Innovation Director with responsibility for Information Management and Technology, People and Knowledge, Business Process Re-engineering, Risk and Compliance, Facilities and Innovation and most recently has taken on a new role, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, to enable Weightmans to capitalise on the success they have been having in building products for clients that solve some of their issues, only one part of which might involve any actual legal advice. Stuart regularly presents at events with special areas of interest being around BPR, technology and helping lawyers to work smartly in an uncertain market where there is continuous downward pressure on price, upwards pressure on costs and the quality of the service that is delivered to the client needs to be continually improved. He has a MSC in IT, is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a qualified coach and was recently named Legal Week’s Legal Innovation Trailblazer.
Sumaira is a Partner and Solicitor working within both the Corporate and the Corporate Restructuring departments. Sumaira’s general corporate work includes advising on mergers and acquisitions and company formation and structuring work business start-ups and commercial contracts.Within the scope of her restructuring practice, Sumaira advises on general corporate restructuring, business turnaround, corporate recovery, solvent and insolvent rescue, corporate finance, management buyouts, and joint ventures. Sumaira’s clients include private equity houses, venture capital businesses, entrepreneurs and management teams. Sector experience includes acting for clients within recruitment, training, manufacturing, telecommunications, hotels, leisure and entertainment, fashion, property and business advisory and marketing sectors.
Susanna is a Partner in the Solicitors Regulation department, specialising in regulatory law and professional disciplinary work for legal professionals. She is an experienced litigator, acting for solicitors, partners and employees of legal practices in all professional disciplinary matters including SRA investigations, applications and appeals relating to Practising Certificate conditions, disciplinary proceedings before SRA adjudicators, LeO complaints, referrals to the SDT, statutory appeals to the High Court, (challenging intervention decisions, appeals against sanctions and judicial review proceedings). Susanna advises on compliance and reporting obligations and has assisted COLPs and COFAs in relation to compliance investigations and applications for approval as role holders. She advises on the Separate Business Rule, applications for recognition and approval and Alternative Business Structures. Susanna's litigation experience includes contractual disputes, challenging the refusal of professional indemnity cover, partnership issues, insolvency and general commercial disputes. She has a column in the Solicitors’ Journal as a regulatory lawyer and is a contributor for LexisNexis.
Tim is head of Weightmans' London office and leads the firm's relationship with its large corporate clients. He specialises in employment and professional regulatory work with a particular interest in whistleblowing, DPA, FOIA and discrimination claims as well as all aspects of healthcare and local authority employment work. Tim has acted for the General Medical Council and was the first solicitor to act as lead advocate before their professional conduct committees; he has also acted on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive and the General Teaching Council. Tim's employment clients include The Royal Mail Goup, Whitbread Group plc, Pizza Hut UK Limited, Guoman Thistle, Pizza Express, WRB and Tragus as well as Nuffield Health, and a number of local authorities. Tim's professional regulatory clients include the Professional Standards Authority, who is charged with scrutinizing and overseeing the work of the nine healthcare regulatory bodies. Tim is a member of Association Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers, Health & Safety Lawyers Association, Disciplinary Lawyers Association, a committee member of the Institute of Directors (West Midlands) and former world-ranked tennis player.
Tom is a Partner in our Leeds office and acts for clients in relation to regulatory, disciplinary, criminal investigations/prosecutions and inquests. Tom has been representing police officers for more than 14 years. Predominantly instructed by the Police Federation of England and Wales, he has a reputation for acting for clients in high profile cases including allegations of gross negligence manslaughter, serious sexual offences and misconduct in public office, as well as matters arising from the Hillsborough stadium disaster. Tom has extensive experience in advising officers at the police station as well as in relation to criminal prosecutions, both in the Magistrates and Crown Courts and in the Court of Appeal. He is regularly instructed on complex death in custody cases involving jury inquests and also assists officers facing internal misconduct investigations and hearings. Tom has particular expertise advising in the aftermath of death or serious injury cases and post-incident procedures following fatal shootings, deaths in custody and pursuits. Tom regularly lectures and provides training on key topics for the Police Federation and organisations such as the Police Firearms Officers Association.
Tony is a partner and heads the NHS Resolution (formerly NHSLA) clinical negligence team. He has extensive experience in acting for the NHS, having specialised in this area since 1986 and having spent six years in-house as one of a team of regional legal advisers. He has managed multi-party group litigation, including the HIV haemophiliac litigation and has advised the NHS on a number of high-profile claims and inquiries. Tony now specialises in managing high-value and complex clinical negligence claims, whilst providing advice on complex healthcare issues such as treatment decisions and risk management.
Tracy joined Weightmans in 2006 as a partner and has over 25 years' experience acting for insurance companies and self insureds. Tracy also has particular expertise in employers' liability and public liability claims and extensive experience dealing with high value personal injury claims, to include fatal accident dependency claims. Tracy also has particular expertise in multi party construction claims and travel related litigation on behalf of tour operators and insurers. She is a member of FOIL and Head of EL (non disease) FOIL sector focus team.
Vicky joined Weightmans in 1986 as an articled clerk. She specialises in clinical negligence. She deals mostly with high value cases or those with unusual or novel issues including pre-issue resolution of a potential claim by mediation in which it was sought to expand the duty of care owed by the NHS and advising on management of a major patient safety incident relating to over 1,000 patients. She acted for one of the interested parties at the Mid Staffordshire Public Inquiry and has been involved in a number of group actions. For the last five years she has been acting for the blood service and predecessor bodies, core participants in relation the Infected Blood Inquiry and on related claims. Her particular interests are patient safety, mediation and the strategic management of claims. She has advised on aspects of law change and policy development but is most interested in working with the NHS on initiatives to reduce avoidable harm.
Will qualified in 1995, becoming a partner in 2000. He specialises in large loss and technical claims. He acts mainly for MIB, Zurich, AXA Corporate Solutions and Travelers and deals with a whole range of catastrophic injury claims. Will is a member of FOIL and a representative on their specialist Catastrophic Personal Injury group. He is also Client Relationship Partner for AXA Corporate Solutions.
Will is a Partner in the Healthcare department, specialising in advising medical and dental defence organisations, healthcare professionals and other professionals in regulatory, disciplinary and criminal matters. Will is a skilled advocate, frequently appearing before statutory regulators, disciplinary panels and coroners with challenging cases involving complex clinical and legal issues. He has particularly strong experience in cases of alleged sexual misconduct and impropriety.Some of his notable cases include Kulkarni v Milton Keynes Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which established the contractual right for medical staff to be legally represented in disciplinary proceedings, Chauhan v General Medical Council guiding professional and disciplinary panels that they must restrict themselves to the ambit of the charges faced by the practitioner, and Abdullah v General Medical Council regarding the nature and duration of interim restrictions placed upon a practitioner by a regulatory body.