Clyde & Co

Adam Lidster

Adam is head of the costs unit and has a particular expertise in costs issues arising in respect of disease cases. He regularly provides lectures, papers and articles on the subject, as well as appearing as an advocate in the senior court costs office (SCCO). Before specialising in legal costs, he spent seven years as a personal injury lawyer dealing with a wide variety of claims, including catastrophic injury and product liability matters. Notable work includes acting for the successful defendants in Barham v Dr Athreya; Woolley v Haden Building Services Ltd (No2); Herbert v Dencover; and Mortiboy v Team Spatz & anor.

Alexander Traill

Alex is a partner in the professional indemnity department. He acts for London market and composite insurers who underwrite D&O and professional indemnity products for financial institutions, companies, surveyors, insurance/other intermediaries and other professionals operating both in the UK and overseas. He advises on coverage both in the respect of direct insurance and reinsurance policies and their substantive matters, and operates as monitoring counsel in respect of overseas claims. Alex has specific expertise in dealing with highly sensitive D&O matters for insurers and corporate organisations. Many of the cases Alex advises on involve‎ multi-jurisdictional elements, including advising reinsurers on claims for indemnity by directors under investigation by the Scandinavian FSA. Alex has advised insurers of companies/financial institutions based in Saudi Arabia, Macau, Cayman Islands and Guernsey over alleged negligence and corporate malfeasance. His team also deliver a range of support services including risk management and training. For example, he has previously delivered a series of joint presentations to non- executive directors in Guernsey and Jersey on the underlying risks to non-executive directors as well as an overview on cyber as an emerging liability to directors.Alex's team also have a well-developed niche for a wide variety of Broker’s E&O matters (both Lloyds and non-Lloyds). As a result, many of the cases Alex and his team advise on involve the potential issues surrounding placement of insurance policies. Work has ranged from dealing with a variety of domestic retail broker disputes (including those involving binders) to a Lloyds broker’s placement of a multi-million Euro Fund Policy for a European bank and the London market placement of a US$ billion property damage policy and the determination of losses arising from Hurricane Sandy.

Andrew Millen

Partner and Head of the Volume Recovery Practice Group. Andrew heads up the Volume Motor and Property Recovery departments, acting for a wide range of insurers and corporate fleets in relation to the recovery of insured and uninsured losses arising out of motor, household and commercial property disputes.  Andrew also leads the claimant personal injury team and has extensive experience in handling large loss and catastrophic injury claims arising from motor, employers’ and public liability accidents received on both a first and third party capture basis. Volume Recovery is based in Manchester and has over 45 lawyers.

Andrew Hibbert

Andy is a partner and Head of BLM's UK and Ireland Catastrophic Injury Practice Group which comprises  over 100 specialist lawyers.He advises on cases of the highest value in all major insurance classes and specialises in defending personal injury claims of the utmost severity, with experience of all the major injury types including brain and spinal injury, amputations and fatal accidents.Andy has also been at the forefront of identifying and agreeing best practice with some of the leading claimant firms to support swifter resolution of catastrophic injury claims to the benefit of our clients and claimant.

Andrew Lawson

Andrew Lawson specialises in defending catastrophic injuries arising from road traffic accidents and accidents at work. His work encompasses spinal cord injury, acquired brain injury and traumatic amputations to both upper and lower limbs . His practice also covers agricultural claims and the defence of regulatory investigations and prosecutions following work-related incidents. He acts on behalf of local authorities in relation to a variety of public sector risks.

Andrew Kerr

Andrew is a partner in the catastrophic injury team specialising in catastrophic and large loss claims. Within BLM he leads the Brain Injury Subject Matter Group together with a number of our specialists which focuses on trends, developments and best practice in handling these claims He is a named individual for a number of insurers on their select panels to handle their highest value cases and currently manages a portfolio of claims with a combined value in excess of £150million. Andrew has many years experience acting exclusively for insurers, corporate policy holders and local authorities handling claims of the utmost severity and complexity. His caseload comprises public liability, employers’ liability and motor claims, especially brain injuries, severe spinal injuries and amputations with expertise in handling infant brain injury claims. He also has experience with insolvency (corporate and recovery) and professional negligence as well as disease claims.   Andrew has written a number of articles commenting on legal issues and developments and regularly provides seminars and training for insurers, policyholders and clients. Aside from supervising and mentoring team members he manages a team of junior lawyers who assist on cases.

Andrew West

Partner specialising in handling and defence of occupational disease and public authority claims. Handles variety of disease, workplace stress and employers’ and public liability claims for insurers, public authorities and self insureds.

Andrew Blair

Andrew Grant

Anthony Brown

Arion Jones

Arion specialises in employers' liability, public liability and travel industry claims, and represents corporate clients in relation to regulatory matters. He is known for his proactive approach and clear advice in otherwise complicated cases.

Barry Jones

Barry has had extensive experience in defending all aspects of motor and employers’ liability claims and is the fraud co-ordinator for the firm’s Liverpool office.  Barry specialises in defending catastrophic injury and large loss claims for insurers, transport operators and retailers.

Ben Parks

Bryn Hodges

Caroline Craigie

Caroline is a partner in the personal injury team. She specialises in the investigation and defence of catastrophic, large loss and complex EL, PL and motor claims for major insurers and corporates and is regularly instructed to act on spinal cord, brain injury, amputation and other complex claims.  She has a specific interest in brain injury and is a member of BLM’s brain injury subject matter group. Caroline has also developed particular expertise in chronic pain claims and identifying exaggerated claims. She also advises clients on policy and indemnity issues and is a member of BLM’s Policy Indemnity Unit. She has experience of fully remote and hybrid trials having participated in a fully remote 4 day quantum only trial in April 2020, a quantum only hybrid trial in September 2020 and a hybrid liability only trial in February 2021.

Caroline Kane

Caroline is a partner in BLM’s commercial litigation team, and heads up the Birmingham property damage recovery and liability team, pursuing and defending claims for corporates and insurers, as well as advising on policy coverage. She is known for a good understanding of the technical aspects of these claims, and a strong commercial common sense approach to dispute resolution. As a recoveries specialist she is also instructed by individuals and corporates to pursue claims of deceit, conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty and associated claims against the perpetrators of fraud. She is well practised at obtaining fast injunctive relief, and has a particular skill in asset tracing, including cross-border tracing where necessary. Caroline is a member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Network, with a particular focus on Gender Inclusion issues such as the support of working parents.

Catherine Mangham

Catherine leads the Property Damage Team in Manchester as technical manager. She specialises in property damage recovery and liability claims and insurance litigation. She is the go to contact for subsidence damage claims having developed a niche practice in particular handling subsidence damage claims for major Local Authority clients, contractor’s liability and construction and engineering matters. She handles major loss property damage work involving fire and flood and policy coverage and manages property damage recovery schemes for major insurers, leading a team to achieve cost-effective recoveries relating to both injury and property damage settlement. Her successes include at the Technology and Construction Court and Court of Appeal in the case of Epsom College Ltd v Pierse Contracting Southern Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1449 when she acted for a major insurer, recovering rectification costs from a defendant construction company for causing a nail to penetrate a pipe during the course of building works undertaken 3 years prior to the damage occurring. She also handled the high profile TPO case securing felling of the 100 year beech tree in Irton. Catherine has presented at the Post Magazine Annual Property Conference on Subsidence Strategy and provides conducts regular claims clinics to insurers providing expertise and training on property damage claims. She has been praised by insurers who ‘admire her work’ and for her ‘hard work’ ‘excellent and very useful training pitched at just the right level’. Clients include: Allianz Insurance, Crawley Borough Council, Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, Sainsbury’s, Travelers Insurance, Zurich Insurance.

Chris Morrison

Chris Fletcher

Chris is a partner and head of the Occupational Disease group.  He advises in relation to the full range of disease litigation, both long and short tail, with emphasis on asbestos-related disease, occupational cancers and work-related stress and related policy wording issues. He advises insurers in relation to strategic disease litigation issues, emerging risk issues and response to government consultations on changes in the law. He also advises corporate clients in relation to corporate structure implications relating to acquired legacy disease liability difficulties and has advised corporate clients with respect to pan-jurisdiction implications of group cancer litigation strategy in other European jurisdictions.  He is also a Director of Global Insurance Law Connect, the international insurance law firm network co-founded by BLM.

Christopher Kilner

Partner

Claire Opacic

Claire is a partner in the casualty team and deals with a mixture of employers' liability and public liability claims. She also handles claims with issues under the New Roads and Street Works Act and has experience with product liability claims under the Consumer Protection Act and Sales of Goods Act, acting for both manufacturers and suppliers.

Claire Lawlor

Claire is a partner in the Occupational Disease team and have over 25 years of personal injury litigation experience.She specialises predominately in short-tail occupational disease namely cumulative back injuries, work-related upper limb disorders, occupational asthma, dermatitis, and stress/bullying in the workplace. She also specialises in claims concerning food poisoning, food allergies, housing disrepair, carbon monoxide poisoning and EL/PL transmission of infectious diseases.Claire is the lead of BLM's COSHH Subject Matter Group, one of a number of SMGs which ensure the development and sharing of in-depth and market-leading subject matter expertise.She has been involved in large number of in-house and external client training sessions and contributes to BLM publications upon short-tail disease topics and tactics including QOCS and fundamental dishonesty/fraud issues.She works directly with a number of policyholders including food manufacturers/retailers on claim prevention, improving internal procedures and floodgate management most recently in relation COVID-19 claims and the impact of this upon other short-tail disease risks/claims.

Claire Dinoff

Partner

Claire Collins

I am a Partner at BLM based in the London catastrophic injury team. I joined BLM in March 2016. I deal with a wide range of catastrophic/ large loss defendant personal injury claims. I have over 20 years’ experience dealing with large and complex claims arising out of road traffic accidents in the UK and abroad. I have a strong technical background with many years’ experience dealing with high value, high profile personal injury claims for many leading insurers. I am regularly instructed to act on spinal cord, brain injury, amputation and other complex claims. I have a specific interest in brain injury claims and am a member of BLM's brain injury subject matter group. I acted on behalf of the defendant in the reported case of MacDonald V Burton 2019. I am an active member of FOIL and have spoken at a seminar to members on the recording of medical examinations. I have also mentored individual claims controllers at various insurers in their personal, technical and professional development.

Claire Petts

Clare Garnett

Clare is a leading large loss and complex injury lawyer and a member of the BLM national catastrophic injury group, taking responsibility for the development and alignment of strategy within the group.Clare has extensive experience dealing with large and complex claims arising from industrial accidents, accidents at work and claims involving animals which result in a variety of values including catastrophic injury, chronic pain and complex issues.  Clare has developed a niche area of specialism within the equestrian market and is well-regarded for her knowledge and expertise within this area.  Clare has a particular interest in the racing industry and acts for a number of well-known owners and trainers. In addition to equestrian claims, Clare is instructed on a number of bovine and canine cases as well as industrial accidents, rail accidents and farming incidents.Clare has successfully fought to trial a large number of cases. She regularly advises on cases with fraud and exaggeration achieving favourable results and in particular achieving discontinuance despite liability being admitted. Clare advises on coverage and policy issues and also has extensive experience of employment and family law from her previous roles.Clare supervises and supports teams of proficient lawyers across the London and Southampton offices, all of whom deal with cases involving large and complex losses.Significant reported cases:Network Rail and QBE v Dermody [2016] EWHC 2060 (QB)UK Insurance Ltd v T/A Farrow & Sons [2016] EWHC 190 (QB)Tuson v. Murphy [2018] EWCA Civ 1461. Ford v. 1) Northern Rail 2) QBE Insurance [2018] EWHC 1417 (QBD)

Daniel Thomas

Daniel has a wide range of experience specialising in fraudulent casualty, first party and motor claims. Dan represents a number of leading insurance companies dealing with a wide range of matters arising from suspicious claims, incuding large loss and fraudulent exaggeration as well as claims made under consumer and commercial insurance contracts. Daniel regularly advises upon complex indemnity issues, policy interpretation including invoking and declining claims based on a “fraud clause”, the application and interpretation of the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 and the Insurance Act 2015 dealing with the pre-contractual duty of disclosure and the insurer’s remedies when presented with a fraudulent claim. Daniel is part of the management team of the Fraud Practice Group and supervises a team of lawyers handing casualty and motor fraud claims.

David Caswell

I am a partner and head of BLM's laims solutions business stream with responsibility for the quality of products, service delivery and performance of the claims solution business stream at BLM, which includes the work of almost 300 lawyers engaged in the delivery of solutions for our clients across casualty, motor, fraud, claims management services, costs and volume recovery. My litigation practice is focused upon the defence of serious and catastrophic injury claims, assisting our clients to repudiate the claims or minimise their indemnity spend where a settlement is required.  I acted on behalf of the successful defendant in the Court of Appeal in Macsalvors v Brush Transformers, a precedent setting decision upon the scope of the Construction Plant Association (CPA) conditions of hire. I also chair the Innovations Group at BLM focused upon Analytics and Automation products for the benefit of our clients.

David Spencer

Partner dealing with catastrophic and fatal injury litigation arising from EL, PL, RTA and sports.  Panel solicitor for liability claims involving the UK governing bodies of 2 and 4 wheeled motorsport, and other national sporting and recreational associations.  Heads the Sports Practice Group and responsible for coordinating BLM’s Sports Law offering.  Regular speaker at customer and client events on claims handling, liability and civil procedure.

David Bennet

Donna Rawding

Donna is a partner and lead lawyer in BLM’s Catastrophic Injury and Large Loss team advising and representing individuals, SME's and corporate clients through insurer instructions. She is also the primary nominated catastrophic injury lawyer in Manchester for a specific insurer.She specialises in defending complex claims arising from EL, PL and motor accidents and has experience across a broad range of sectors. Her caseload includes serious and life changing orthopaedic and amputation injuries, chronic pain, brain injuries, spinal injuries, claims for psychiatric injury and fatal accidents. In view of the type of work she undertakes, she also regularly handles cases where the HSE and other regulatory bodies are involved.Donna is also experienced in handling fraudulent claims and has secured findings of fundamental dishonesty at trial.Donna leads BLM’s Policy Indemnity Unit and so regularly advises on policy cover and indemnity.

Elizabeth Wallace

Partner and lead lawyer in BLM's Manchester catastrophic injury team handling complex and high value claims for large insurers and corporates. Liz specialises in large loss and catastrophic claims with a particular interest in amputation claims but a caseload including brain injury, severe multiple injury and spinal matters. Liz is recognised for adopting a collaborative, pragmatic and credible approach to claims solutions.

Elliot Pound

Elliot is a leading partner within BLM’s London office. He has provided advice on professional indemnity claims and insurance disputes throughout his 20 years at the firm, the last 14 years of which as a partner. He has considerable experience of all forms of civil litigation, including litigated claims in the High Court and county courts (including discrimination claims), judicial reviews and tribunal claims. Elliot has also been extremely successful in recent years in achieving excellent results for his clients through mediations. His professional indemnity practice covers a broad mix of emerging and traditional professions, from solicitors and surveyors, to educational establishments and trade unions. His key clients include the Royal College of Nursing and UNISON, for which his reported EAT decisions are Carl Jervis v UNISON (2006) and Brennan & ors v Sunderland City Council, GMB and UNISON (2012). Another important area is his work in an education context, where important clients include the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. His reported decisions in this field include R v University of Oxford ex parte Ahmed (2000, Administrative Court), Ahmed v University of Oxford (2002, Court of Appeal), Van Mellaert v University of Oxford (2006, High Court), S v Chapman (2008, Court of Appeal), Speed v London Borough of Waltham Forest and others (2010, Court of Appeal) and Saha v Imperial College (2011, High Court). He is often instructed in complex and high value matters, a notable example being nine distinct (but forensically similar) sex discrimination claims brought on behalf of in excess of 5,000 claimants which, had the claims been successful, would have had extremely damaging consequences for the client, both reputational and financial. In addition, Elliot regularly advises insurers in relation to all types of policy issues (such as the scope of coverage, aggregation, double insurance, insurer obligations and responsibilities and the insured’s obligations in relation to matters such as notification requirements, policy conditions, breach of warranty, misrepresentation, non-disclosure and fraud). He also advises in relation to a wide range of policies (including public liability, employer’s liability, products liability, medical malpractice and other forms of professional indemnity) and is frequently called upon to advise insurers when they are considering, or wish to investigate the possibility of, taking a policy point against an insured, or where proceedings are issued or threatened against them (whether by insureds, other insurers or claimants).

Gemma Pearce

Gemma qualified as a barrister in 2001, cross-qualifying as a solicitor in 2005. She has 20 years’ experience in the sector specialising in shipping, marine and non-marine insurance, international trade and in the travel and cruise sectors. Gemma handles all aspects of claims whether pre-litigated or litigated involving charter parties, bills of lading, supply and carriage of goods, cargo, passenger and crew claims, with particular emphasis on P&I and FD&D matters. She has also worked extensively in the area of policy coverage disputes. She regularly assists owners, charterers, operators, brokers and insurers in a wide range of jurisdictions in both, marine and non-marine insurance matters relating to the industry and associated, international trade(s).She also advises on personal injury and loss of life cases; medical negligence claims and class actions arising out of illness and disease outbreaks, as well as extensive occupational disease experience in the sector.She draws upon her practical experience and real commercial understanding when handling marine casualty work but with particular emphasis on shipping, offshore and transport-related personal injury and fatal accident cases including accidents involving cargo ships, passenger ships, offshore platforms/CTV and port/terminal operations. She also drafts/advises on health and safety procedures, policies and risk management, and trains management and personnel.On the non-marine side, Gemma has worked extensively with a global self-insured chemical company for many years, handling disease claims on their behalf and a large retail client. Gemma works with numerous P & I Clubs within the international group, traditional mainstream insurers and bespoke marine specialist insurers and brokers. Additionally Gemma has worked with a large ship owner for 20 years, providing claims handling services to their Ro-Ro fleet. Gemma also works closely with international law firms in the sector, including those based in Central and North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Gemma Brannigan

Gill Rothwell

Partner

Hatty Sumption

Henry Kirkup

Henry is a partner and Head of the SHE & Regulatory practice group and lead the Leeds general liability team.He is a contact partner for a number of insurers, managing agents and companies and his practice involves advising clients involved in high value claims for damages as well as claims for damages under the Human Rights Act.He regularly represents clients in corporate manslaughter and HSE prosecutions and investigations. His experience includes dealing with claims involving chronic pain, serious head injuries (including subtle brain injury) and serious spinal injuries.Henry regularly speaks at seminars on all aspects of health and safety law.

Ian Walker

Ian is a partner in the personal injury team in London. He specialises in all aspects of road traffic litigation, ranging from high value personal injury claims, to fatal accidents, and motor prosecutions. Ian successfully represented the defendant in the Court of Appeal decision of Armsden v Kent Police [2009] EWCA Civ 631, where its liability was reduced from 100% to 40%. Ian also recovered in excess of £120,000.00 in costs in the case of Lyons v Chief Constable of Kent Police [2012] EWHC 364 QB, when the claimant failed to beat a Part 36 offer following a trial on causation. Ian also succesfully represented the defendant in the case of Dursan v J Sainsbury Plc [2015] EWHC 233 (QB), which was a fatal case involving a pedestrian.

Ian Ginbey

Ivan Wilkinson

Jagdeep Hayre

Jagdeep is a partner and specialises in advising on a wide range of complex and high value claims including historic and institutional abuse, Social Services negligence, failure to remove and HRA claims, contract and commercial litigation, common law, construction & property disputes, fraud recoveries work, professional indemnity, and personal injury.He is a member of the BLM Abuse and Neglect Team.Jag is also instructed in undertaking high profile strategic investigations. He has a broad range of experience acting for claimants and defendants alike. Jag joined BLM in 2014. Prior to BLM, Jag had a long career in local government where he was head of civil litigation at Birmingham City Council, before which Jag worked in private practice.Cases include: defence of a £16m+ dispute in the technology construction court for breach of warranties under contract, arising from a large scale voluntary housing stock transfer in 1996; defence of a £2.4m claim brought by department communities and local government for recoupment of a European regional development fund grant for breach of grant conditions and failure to achieve performance milestones; defence of 1.75m tripartite LGPS pension dispute; acting for claimants in respect of several multi-million pound construction disputes (value £1m-40m) in respect of claims for overpayment, misapplication of the pricing mechanisms under the contract, miss-measurement, works not undertaken or not necessary.Jag also has group litigation experience and acted as lead defence solicitor in respect of uninsured historic abuse claims for a local authority in respect a care regime between 1979-83 at a regional residential assessment centre to include defending to trial claims against numerous former Lord Mayor’s, being ex-officio members of the establishment in the early 1960/70’s.Key clients include Birmingham City Council, London Borough of Bromley, London Borough of Lambeth, Dudley MBC, Gloucestershire County Council, Middlesbrough Council, Monmouthshire County Council, Northamptonshire County Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Telford & Wrekin Council, Torfaen County Borough Council and Walsall MBC & North Somerset Council.

James Harvey

James is a partner and heads up the BLM Broker and Corporate Sector Groups.He specialises in employers' liability, public liability and motor with significant experience of acting for clients in a number of sectors to include facilities services, retail, leisure, manufacturing and construction.His clients include major PLCs as well as composite insurance companies.James leads BLM's relationship with Airmic and BIBA and is a member of BLM's Executive Board.

James Preece

Jim Sherwood

Jim leads the product liability and recall team at BLM, acting for insurers, suppliers and manufacturers. With his team he handles domestic and international product liability and recall claims and regulatory issues across a range of industry sectors, from minor injury claims to major group litigation and international claims, working with a global network of specialists. He provides coverage advice arising from public and product liability policy issues. His team handles high-value fire/flood damage commercial property claims involving products designed, supplied and/or installed. He leads the BLM team acting for the main defendant in the PIP Breast Implant Group Litigation and also acted for a number of defendants in the ‘toxic sofa’ group litigation, the largest group action ever mounted in the UK. He was a guest speaker at the annual Liability Underwriters Group (LUG) conference in 2014, presenting on group litigation and emerging risks in product liability. He led the product recall workshop at the annual AIRMIC conference in 2014. Jim has been recognised as an expert for several years by the legal directories, praised by clients as an “astute tactician” and for providing an “excellent service and proactive approach”.

Joe Wakeford

Joe is a highly experienced catastrophe injury partner, dealing with complex loss and high value claims. He has a background in clinical negligence. He is nominated partner for the NHSLA and works with NHS Trusts, representing them through inquests and advising on a wide range of healthcare issues. He also manages their non-clinical claims. Joe was one of the key partners responsible for establishing BLM’s presence in Dublin. Member of the Bristol Medico Legal Society and Civil Courts Committee.

John Collins

John specialises specialises in defending complex and high value liability claims brought against a variety of organisations.  He also handles multi party claims arising from food poisoning outbreaks in the catering and leisure industries, and also represents client’s interests at Inquests in the Coroner’s court.   His experience also covers all aspects of casualty fraud.  He has represented clients on a number of occasions in the Court of Appeal and also acts for clients in cross-border matters involving parties outside the jurisdiction of England and Wales.

Julian Smart

Julian is a partner and specialises in commercial fraud and recovering misappropriated funds on behalf of clients, with particular expertise in freezing and tracing assets. Having previously worked in BLM's London office Julian moved to Birmingham to establish the recovery and professional indemnity team. He is instructed by professional indemnity insurers to defend negligence claims against professionals including: surveyors, accountants, architects and engineers.

Katie Costello

Katie is a partner and has over 25 years' experience of acting for healthcare professionals in regulatory and disciplinary hearings, police interviews, criminal trials, and inquests, including several cases which have had national media coverage. She is often asked by defence organisations to assist in their more complex and difficult cases.

Kelly Matthews

Executive Claims Advisor

Louisa Martindale

Partner.

Lucy Ryder

Partner, specialises in a variety of work, most particularly inquests, judicial review and administrative law, claims for breach of human rights and employers’ and public liability claims. Acts for critical services suppliers, statutory bodies and retailers. Interested in restraint asphyxia, occupational disease and false imprisonment.

Luisa Lamb

Partner.

Mark Aitken

Mark is a partner and works closely with insurers who monitor the increase in fraudulent property claims at both the claims and underwriting stages to detect and defend such claims.Mark has worked in the insurance sector for over 25 years and has extensive experience of high value and complex property fraud claims involving arson, staged theft and other deliberate or exaggerated damage. In addition to property and commercial claims involving fraud, he also specialises in related policy coverage issues. He regularly advises insurers preparing responses to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Mark Chetwood

Mark Chetwood is a partner and specialises in large loss, complex and sensitive claims. Mark has a particular expertise in handling military claims, including accidents involving aircraft and vehicles, gunshot wounding, explosions, parachuting accidents and various training-related accidents. Mark also has extensive experience in retail claims and advises on risk management systems and effective measures top reduce exposure claims. He is a member of the BLM transport, environment and regulatory group.

Mark Eisen

Mark is a partner and Head of the public sector team in Liverpool. He is responsible for supervising a team of litigators and claims handlers dealing with EL, PL and product liability claims.His experience has involved working with public sector clients and the military on a wide variety of different claims and his specialism is in handling large loss, and complex EL & PL claims.He has many years' experience of working for large national retail and supermarket companies on a wide variety of different claims including slips and trips, manual handling, defective equipment, product liability, chronic pain, assault, harassment and fatalities.He also advises on risk management systems and effective measures to reduce exposure to claims.

Martin Smith

Martin Smith is a partner and is head of the motor team in Birmingham. He specialises in representing clients operating in a wide range of industrial and retail sectors in relation to personal injury claims, employers’ and public liability, motor cases and general insurance issues.

Matthew Harrington

Matthew was appointed senior partner on 1 March 2018 having previously held a position on the firm’s Partnership Board helping to manage the firm’s people development, partners and culture.His role is to chair the firm’s Executive Board, lead and co-ordinate the firm’s continued strategy to grow and diversify, sustaining the firm’s position as a provider of legal service for the insurance sector and London market as well as strengthening its business in insurance risk and commercial law.He has been a partner since joining the firm in 2007 and has specialised in health and safety, environmental and food hygiene matters, advising on crisis response, accident investigation and liaison with external investigating bodies.Matthew's practice also includes occupational disease, large and complex casualty claims, including cases of the utmost severity such as brain, spinal injury and amputation cases.In the recent past, he has been the client relationship partner for some of the firm’s largest insurer and corporate clients.

Matthew Ford

Matthew is Head of BLM's London Casualty team and deals with large loss, complex and sensitive injury claims for insurers and corporate clients.He leads the Travel and Tour Operator Liability team and is head of the Travel Practice Group.

Matthew Stanton

Matthew is a partner and since joining BLM he has dealt exclusively with occupational disease work on behalf of insurers and defendant companies. He deals with a variety of claims including noise-induced hearing loss, vibration white finger, work-related upper limb disorders, stress/psychiatric injuries, cumulative back injuries, respiratory conditions and dermatitis. He has a particular interest in fraudulent disease claims, having achieved a finding of fundamental dishonesty in one of his high profile cases.

Michael Pether

Michael is a partner and specialises in the defence of high profile sexual/physical abuse and bullying claims, including group litigation.He is nominated by several religious organisations, local authorities and insurers to deal with their most sensitive claims.He has represented clients as core participants in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and advises insurance and non-insurance clients on IICSA-related matters.Michael has significant experience in advising a variety of organisations including those in the public sector, faith, education and sport sectors in connection with responding to allegations of non-recent child sexual abuse.He specialises in high value and complex employers' liability, public liability and abuse claims.

Michael Cairns

I qualified as a solicitor in 2004 and was made partner in 2014. My main focus is handling occupational disease claims with a particular focus on NIHL, HAVS and asbestos-related diseases. I act for a variety of insurers and corporate clients. I regularly write articles and deliver training to clients and others in relation to occupational disease claims.

Michael Swangard

Michelle Flint

Michelle is a partner who has been part of BLM’s specialist Prison Team for the last 15 years. She acts on behalf of the secure estate including private prison sector and specialises in representing clients at Inquests following a death in prison or police custody (Article 2 ECHR). Michelle’s expertise also includes defending civil claims, her work is varied and comprises of claims for assault, false imprisonment, misfeasance in public office, breach of human rights, and negligence. She is also instructed on group actions, judicial reviews and civil claims pursued arising out of a death in custody.

Michelle Penn

Partner, heads up the OD team in London and specialises in all types of disease claims and advoises on plocy coverage issues. Michelle heads up the care /neglect group in London and manages a Care Matters Blog.Michelle chaired the review of the disease and illness PAP which introduced the Mesothelioma annex. Michelle contributes to responses to consultations concerning reforms relevant to disease litigation. Michelle was appointed Chieff Assesor of the Disease Accreditation Scheme at The law Socety .Michelle also worked with the ABI on the developmentof the Mesothelioma Support fund.Michelle is BLMs Training Principal and is reponsible for trainees nationally.Mchelle presents at various seminars both for BLM and externally and also provides training for both clients and at BLM.

Mike Dobson

Mike is Head of the Large Loss and Technical Business Stream taking responsibility for the operational and technical excellence of this business unit. Within the business stream there are over 200 partners and lawyers handling cases of the utmost severity, value and complexity including Catastrophic and Large Loss Injury, Occupational Disease, Regulatory, Abuse and Travel litigation. Mike is a specialist Catastrophic Injury and Foreign Jurisdiction lawyer with over 25 years’ experience acting for insurance companies across Motor and Casualty claims. He has a personal caseload dealing with cases of the utmost severity involving serious brain injury, paraplegia, fatalities in the workplace, amputations and chronic pain handling claims across Jurisdictions. Mike’s is a leading expert in cross jurisdiction claims arising out of accidents abroad and has handled a range of cases for foreign insurers from France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Hungary. His role includes acting as a Client Relationship Partner advising and shaping insurers’ strategic response to the developing legal landscape.

Natalie Puce

Natalie is a partner in BLM's regulatory team and represents a broad range of clients from the corporate and public sectors. She also represents both individuals and organisations on effective response to police and regulatory authorities' investigations and prosecutions. She advises on many fatal and serious accidents and provides support in the immediate aftermath, advising on the regulators' powers and investigation, commencing an investigation and advising on all stages thereafter to include options in respect of interviews under caution. Natalie advises on plea and prepares cases for court, both plea and mitigation hearings and trials. She represents clients’ interests at many inquests, including complex Article 2 inquests and also in public inquiries.Natalie has been instructed in several high profile cases including the HSE investigation of Merlin Entertainments following the incident on the Smiler roller coaster in June 2015 and she is currently involved in the Manchester Arena Inquiry. She is part of the BLM 24/7 Crisis Connection Emergency Helpline ensuring that clients have access to specialist legal advice as soon as an incident occurs. She also delivers training to clients on emergency response, inquests and what to expect during a regulatory investigation.

Neil Beresford

Nicholas Thorne

Nicholas is a partner in the Catastrophic Injury Team and exclusively handles claims of the utmost severity on behalf of insurers, local authorities and large corporate policyholders. He regularly handles cases involving complex liability disputes of particular importance and sensitivity to both his lay and insurer client. He has a particular specialism in highways and occupiers’ liability claims, having acted for the defendants in Yates v National Trust [2014] EWHC 222 (QB); MacDonald v Myerscough College [LTL] 13/04/2016; Robinson v North Yorkshire Council (1) and Richmondshire District Council (2) [LTL 16/05/2017]; Quick v Nottinghamshire County Council [2021] 3 WLUK 786 25 March 2021; and Parker v National Trust [2021] EWHC 1589 (QB).

Nigel Lock

Nigel is a partner in the London Occupational Disease team, specialising in long tail disease claims, in particular Noise, Respiratory and Vibration cases. He heads up the Noise and vibration sub unit, and represents Insurers and reinsurers, legacy and run-off companies, corporates, and government departments advising on claims and strategy. He represents clients across all industry sectors from Transport and Energy, to Music and Entertainment.

Nikolas Stott

Nikolas qualified as a solicitor in 1997. For the first ten years of practice, he was a claimant solicitor. Initially he predominantly worked on RTA claims before moving to deal with employers’ and public liability claims. In 2007 he joined BLM’s casualty department in Liverpool. Since this time, Nikolas has dealt with mainly large loss. He also handles matters that have novel issues and case with potentially difficult PR issues. More recently he has been dealing with claims with a catastrophic element to them, for example, brain injury, amputations, serious spinal injuries and serious psychological injuries. He has a specific interest in cases involving chronic pain and complex regional pain syndrome. Nikolas has been heavily involved in BLM’s response to the MoJ reforms and the implementation of the Jackson Reforms. He has provided firm wide training in relation to claims handling on the new EL/PL portal.

Orla Scanlan

Orla is a partner and head of BLM's national police team. She has over 25 years' experience in defending public and employers' liability claims on behalf of police forces nationally. She is instructed to deal with claims involving assault, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, negligence, misfeasance, public order demonstrations and deaths in custody. She has extensive experience in representing police forces in claims involving national security and public interest immunity issues.Her particular strength is in advising on technical and complex claims arising out of alleged breaches of the Human Rights Act and associated Article 2 inquests. Orla was instructed in the reported case of AAA v Chief Constable of Kent (2017) in which the Article 5 deprivation of liberty claim, was struck out in the High Court. Orla is acting for a layer insurer in a group action brought by hundreds of claimants seeking damages from South Yorkshire and West Midlands Police for misfeasance in public office over conduct of officers on the day of, and after, the Hillsborough disaster.

Paul Wainwright

Partner

Paul Owston

Works predominantly in defendant insurance litigation, specialising in defending claims against local authorities (public liability and employers’ liability) and pharmacists (clinical negligence and public liability). Notable cases include Louise Wootton v J Doctor Ltd and another [2008] CA, DJC (pregnancy, negligence of pharmacy/locum pharmacist in dispensing wrong contraceptive pills); Carol Harrison v Derby City Council [2008] CA (highways, rare defect insufficient for new investigation); Rogerson v Bolsover District Council [2019} CA (Landlord & Tenant, Defebtive Premises Act 1972, duty to inspect).

Paula Jefferson

Paula has extensive experience in advising on all issues resulting from non-recent sexual abuse allegations. Her advice extends to representation in the IICSA, establishment of voluntary compensation schemes (including on behalf of the BBC in connection with Jimmy Savile) and responding to civil claims, including with a cross-jurisdictional element. She represents many organisations including in the faith, youth, charity, education and healthcare sectors as well as insurers. Paula is head of the London office of BLM and is a member of the firm's Equality, Diversity & Inclusion steering committeeShe has been shortlisted for the Insurance Lawyer Award at the 2019 Women in Insurance Awards where she is described by the Judges as having "Great expertise and focused on supporting colleagues - must be one of the leading lawyers in her field."

Philip Adamis

Philip is a partner and a dual-qualified chartered loss adjuster and solicitor. He has worked in the insurance industry for over 30 years in various roles including that of insurer, insurance broker, insured and chartered loss adjuster. As such, he is able to bring a unique perspective to his work to ensure that clients receive prompt and pragmatic advice and solutions to their claims.His specialism is property work, including policy coverage, subrogated recoveries and third party property damage. Philip has considerable experience of dealing with claims across the full range of insured perils including fire, escape of water and subsidence and other geo-technical claims where he has considerable expertise in defending, and pursuing, such claims.

Rachael Lumb

Rachael is a partner in the BLM Liverpool who works within an insurance litigation team acting for a major retailer and a London bus company dealing with large value claims often involving chronic pain issues. She works closely with a team of pre litigation casualty handlers dealing with high volume claims and also assists in the management of a larger casualty, litigation team.Rachael also has experience of attending inquests and police interviews and handling health and safety prosecutions.

Rebecca Shafto

Rebecca’s practice is focused on the defence of catastrophic injury claims arising out of RTA, EL and PL accidents. Her caseload consists mainly of claims concerning severe brain injury, amputations and other multiple traumatic injuries. Historically most of her cases have damages valued in excess of £1m. She has dealt with a number of cases involving children who have sustained severe brain injuries and liability has been in dispute. She has dealt with claims involving periodical payments. She has handled a number of cases involving serious injuries arising from falls from heights where alcohol was an issue. She has investigated and defended numerous complex EL claims involving a number of parties such as employers, main contractors and occupiers.

Richard Harrison

Rob Wilson

Ruth Graham

Ruth is a partner and head of BLM's transport unit. She handles motor, EL and PL catastrophic injury claims associated in particular with transport (bus and coach), also multi-party road traffic accidents in foreign jurisdictions She is Client Relationship Partner for one of BLM's top 10 clients. She is lead editor on Bingham and Berrymans' Personal Injury Motor Claims Cases.Ruth was a nominee Insurance Lawyer of the year 2020. Recent notable cases Court of Appeal Farley v Buckley and Evitt v Burton

Sally Whalley

Sally is a partner and specialises in catastrophic injury and large loss claims and advise on a wide range of claims including road traffic accidents, employers' liability, public liability and occupiers' liability.Her experience includes defending claims involving complex liability and quantum issues involving brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputee claims, fatal accidents and serious orthopaedic injuries.She also advises on policy coverage and indemnity issues.

Sarah Woodwark

Sarah is a partner and Head of BLM’s national healthcare team . Her specialist area is primarily high value clinical negligence claims brought against doctors and dentists, and public and independent inquiries.  She has many years' experience in  handling clinical negligence claims and has handled a wide variety of cases over her career, including cases involving brain and spinal injury, obstetric, paediatric and cancer cases. Prior to qualifying into the legal profession Sarah was a staff nurse at York District Hospital. This invaluable experience has assisted her throughout her practice and brings a pragmatic and insightful approach to her work.

Sarah Hill

Sarah is a partner, Head of the Fraud Practice Group and Head of BLM's Birmingham Office.Having qualifed as a barrister before joining BLM in 2008 she is responsible for the strategic development of counter fraud initiatives across all business lines within BLM as well as leading the department nationally.She has 20 years of legal experience in managing fraudulent insurance clients and her areas of specific expertise includes all aspects of fraud claims, staged and contrived incidents, bogus and exaggerated claims and policyholder frauds.Sarah has acted for a number of Top 10 insurance companies and has led intelligence enquiries and co-ordinated investigations into complex fraud cases.She also advises on current regulatory legislature which assists in the combating of fraud and regularly advises clients on fraud processs and procedures and the implementation of fraud identification systems and models.

Sarah Clover

Sharon MacArthur-Powell

Sharon specialises in the investigation and defence of high value EL and PL personal injury matters and has developed particular expertise in occupier's liability and rail industry claims. She leads an EL and PL team responding to a wide range of claims from slips and trips to catastrophic injury, as well as advising on policy and indemnity issues and recoveries from third parties.She is often instructed at an early stage to undertake the initial liability investigation and has had a number of successful liability trials. Her successes include achieving a strike out on a £1 million case following the robust defence of a relief from sanctions application; a discontinuance on a £3.6 million case in which the claimant sustained a spinal  injury falling down an escalator and a withdrawal of a £5 million claim for a claimant who slipped in a public area. She has a particular interest in chronic pain cases, which require a forensic review of the evidence and is an excellent tactition, negotiating some noteworthy and excellent result for insurers. Reported cases include the successful defence of an  £1 million RTA case in the Court of Appeal involving a pedestrian, Sam v Atkins [2005] EWCA Civ 1452 which has proved an excellent precedent for motor insurers.

Simon Morrow

Partner and joint head of BLM's occupational disease team based at its Manchester office. Specialising in claims arising from workplace exposure to dust, particularly asbestos-related claims, and managing a 20+ strong team of lawyers handling the full range of short and long tail disease claims on behalf of general insurers, individuals, corporates and legacy claims managers. Also involved in advising clients on issues arising in respect of occupational illness, regularly speaking at internal and external conferences and client training events and frequently contributing to BLM and external publications.

Simon Jones

Simon Jones specialises in high value/large loss employers and public liability claims. In addition he has considerable experience of handling chronic pain cases. He is a member of a number of special interest groups, including transport and retail. In addition Simon is a member of a number of external organisations, including the Manchester Law Society and Manchester and District Medico-Legal Society. Simon manages a team of 30 lawyers in the firm’s Manchester office, and is Head of the Casualty Practice Group at BLM which includes over 200 lawyers.  Simon has handled two cases which are Court of Appeal authorities. Booth v Britannia Hotels, Court of Appeal 2002, underlined the concept that exaggeration can, in certain circumstances, be implied by reference to a settlement figure as compared to the stated value of a case. The claimant was awarded a fraction of her costs after settling for a vastly reduced sum because of recently disclosed surveillance evidence. The Appeal Court held that the judge conducting the assessment of costs should have considered the matter in the round to determine whether the costs were reasonable having regard to the amount for which the claim properly should have been made. The case of Guntripp v Cheneys Coaches involved restriction of expert evidence in circumstances where there was clear a example expert shopping, in close proximity to trial.

Simon Konsta

Stephen Browning

Stuart Hardy

Specialises in utmost severity injury claims, including amputation, brain and spinal injuries, arising out of road traffic, EL and PL accidents. Main clients are Motor Insurers Bureau and Ecclesiastical Insurance.

Stuart Furniss

Stuart is a partner and heads the motor, large loss and catastrophic injuries teams in Liverpool. He specialises in catastrophic injury cases arising from employers’ liability, public liability and motor claims involving complex liability issues, head injuries, amputation, serious orthopaedic injuries and other claims with a high level of damages and is one of a small number of lawyers appointd to handle claims of the highest value and complexity by a number of large insurer clients. He is currently dealing with a number of traumatic brain injury and serious spinal injury claims valued in excess of £10m.Stuart also leads BLM's Care, Statutory Funding and Rehabilitation Subject Matter Group, together with a number of our specialists which focuses on trends and developments in this area.Stuart takes a commercial and pragmatic approach when handling such claims, working closely with both the client and claimant’s solicitors. He regularly writes articles and provides seminars and training on various topics within his areas of expertise.He also contributed to and co-edited the 15th edition of Bingham and Berrymans’ Personal Injury and Motor Claims Cases.

Tanya Cross

Partner; specialises in occupational disease work covering all fields; also undertakes EL/PL work; receives instructions from both insurers and major insured clients.

Tim Large

Partner specializing in complex and high-value claims arising primarily out of road traffic accident, with particular experience of dealing with cases resulting in chronic pain. Reported cases include Drinkall v Whitwood and Hiscocks v Dietrich.

Tom White

Toni Ashby

Trish Taylor

Trish is a partner who now works with BLM’s Compliance Officer for legal practice, including investigation of breaches and preparation of reports. Having previously specialised in road traffic accident work, case management development and provision of management information to major insurer clients Trish had a keen interest in compliance and the SRA’s new approach under OFR so transferred teams in 2014 Trish supports and advises the business on legal regulatory risk and compliance issues and obligations relating to the Solicitors Code of Conduct. Working as part of BLM’s risk and compliance team she helps co-ordinate the firm’s compliance agenda and central risk reporting framework for claims, complaints incidents and breaches. She liaises with BLM’s Learning and Development and Knowledge Management teams to ensure delivery of a compliance training programme for the business and that the team’s technical guidance output is easily accessible and shared successfully across the firm.

Val Hughes

Head of the occupational disease unit in Birmingham.  She has been dealing with disease claims for the past 30 years including all types of occupational diseases including asbestos-related; VWF; deafness; RSI; asthma; stress. Val also led the Defence team in a Group Litigation Action arising in the waste water industry which resulted in injury from Hydrogen Sulphide exposure. More recently she was involved in claims arising in the green waste industry from exposure to aspergillus fumigatus spores.  Val has particular expertise dealing with private corporate clients and the associated corporate issues and indemnities where claims against old Companies are pursued.

Vanessa Latham

  Vanessa is a partner specialising in employment law and defendant occupational disease claims with a particular interest in stress, bullying, harassment and discrimination cases. She frequently advises insurers on overlapping jurisdiction and policy issues arising out of such claims and advises on a broad range of employment issues.Vanessa also advises on public liability discrimination claims relating to the provision of goods and services. She acted for the defendant in Majrowski v Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, which was subject to an appeal to the House of Lords on the issue of whether an employer could be vicariously liable under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

Vivienne Williams

Vivienne has been a solicitor for over 30 years. She trained at BLM and is now the firm’s Managing Partner having held a number of senior management positions within the firm.As Managing Partner, in addition to being responsible for putting into action the strategy set by the Executive Board and ensuring the smooth running of the firm’s service to clients, internal operations and financial wellbeing, she is focused on developing solutions for clients beyond legal advice.Vivienne introduced a data analytics team to BLM and played a lead role in launching the firm’s BLM Innovations suite of tools.The well-being of all colleagues at BLM is an important part of her role. She founded the firm’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee and BLM’s employee forum, The Voice of BLM.