Speakers
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Mr Justice Pepperall

High Court Judge

Sir Edward Pepperall was called to the Bar in 1989, appointed a recorder in 2009, Queen's Counsel in 2013, a Deputy High Court Judge in 2016 (Queen's Bench & Chancery) and a Justice of the Court of Appeal of the Falklands Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in 2017. He was appointed a High Court Judge in 2018 and sits in the Queen's Bench Division. He is a judge of the Technology & Construction Court and a Presiding Judge of the Midland Circuit. Sir Edward practised from St Philips Chambers in Birmingham and London, where he was a Deputy Head of Chambers, Chairman of the Commercial Group and Chairman of the Midland Chancery & Commercial Bar Association. He was a barrister member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee for six years and was the chief architect of the 2015 reforms to Part 36. He is an editor of the White Book and a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn.

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Alexander Acaster

Chief Operating Officer

After graduating University, Alex has worked exclusively within the clinical negligence sector alongside expert witnesses, insurers and legal professionals. This work has been to promote the use of technology in the sector to drive efficiencies, analytics and patient safety improvements.

Overseeing the day-to-day running of a company reviewing 750 cases of alleged negligence a month Alex has developed a key understanding of the nuances of the sector and how technology can be utilised to help all involved.

Read Bio

Isabel Bathurst

Specialist in catastrophic injury claims involving brain and spinal injured claimants

Isabel is a specialist in catastrophic injury claims involving brain and spinal injured claimants and also has extensive clinical negligence experience, with expertise developed over 20 years. During the past 7 years, Isabel has concentrated her practice on foreign jurisdiction claims for both claimants and defendants and on inquest and inquiry work. Isabel's expertise includes European law cases but also cases in other jurisdictions outside the European Union including the US, Australia, Africa, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The current trend of cosmetic surgery cases abroad is also serving to generate cross-border clinical claims.

Isabel has experience of providing personal representation and advocacy on behalf of families at inquests and giving support via the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with Victim Support for advice and family liaison for families subject to homicide abroad. Isabel facilitates legal support from an extensive network of foreign lawyers so that families may have legal advice abroad and representation at foreign criminal trials. Isabel has significant expertise of inquest hearings, notably as a Recognised Legal Representative to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which is subject to Article 2 of the ECHR. Isabel's clinical negligence experience includes acting for protected parties and she was recently involved with the Court of Protection and the Official Solicitor on the settlement of a case at £7.6 million.

Isabel also lectures and trains consultants and expert witnesses on clinical negligence cases and inquests. In her role as a Solicitor Advocate at Inquests, Isabel will provide an update to the media outside court.

Read Bio

Caroline Bennett

Medico-legal Risk Management and Education Consultant

Former Head of Regional and International Claims at the Medical Protection Society with 30 years collective experience firstly as a litigation lawyer and subsequently in claims management working with medical and dental clinicians, experts and lawyers in the UK and over 20 countries around the world. Since 2019. a Consultant in medico legal risk management and education focusing on understanding and how to meet the challenges of today's risk management landscape from first contact with a patient to the outcome of a claim, complaint or inquest.

Read Bio

Chris Danbury

Consultant Intensive Care Physician, University Hospital Southampton, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton

Chris has over 30 years’ experience as a doctor. He trained in general internal medicine, microbiology/virology and anaesthesia before switching to intensive care medicine. In 2002 he was appointed as consultant intensive physician, at the Royal Berkshire Hospital before moving to University Hospital Southampton in December 2020. His practice is in General and Neuro Intensive Care Medicine. Chris also has academic roles at the University of Southampton, Kings College London and the University of Reading. His research interests are in complex decision making related to serious medical treatment. Chris has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine for exceptional services to the science and practice of Forensic and Legal Medicine.

Read Bio

Chloe Davies

Associate

Associate Solicitor in the Clinical Risk department at DAC Beachcroft, Leeds, acting on behalf of NHS Resolution in defence of clinical negligence claims. Responsible for a varied caseload, including birth injury, cauda equina and amputation claims and a particular interest in advising on claims involving fundamental dishonesty/fraudulent exaggeration, with experience of contempt of court proceedings arising out of the same.

Read Bio

Simon Hammond

Director of Claims Management

Simon Hammond joined the NHS Resolution Senior Management Team on 7 January 2019 as the Director of Claims Management. Simon has a wide variety of experience in handling claims having worked for the insurance industry for over 25 years.

Simon held head of fraud roles at national law firms, before joining his previous employer, BLM, in 2009. He was promoted to associate solicitor in 2010 and to partner in 2011.

Simon has experience of handling all aspects of claims, from policy interpretation, indemnity issues, litigation and prosecution matters. He sat on the Personal Injury Sub Working Group of the Treasury’s Insurance Fraud Task Force, and has also presented at national conferences and edited a chapter of a leading insurance text book.

More recently Simon has chaired national conferences on the subject of Clinical Negligence and has given evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee on the subject of NHS litigation reform.

Read Bio

Laura Johnson Kc

Barrister

Laura's work encompasses all areas of clinical practice, acting for both claimants and defendants. She is very experienced in cases involving catastrophic injury, including brain and spinal injury. She has a particular interest in novel legal issues and has appeared recently in the Court of Appeal and High Court in leading cases involving questions of consent and the duty of care owed to secondary victims. She has particular expertise in claims involving obstetrics and gynaecology with recent instructions spanning emergency care, oncology, opthalmics, general surgery, colorectal surgery, cardiology and cardiac surgery, mental health and cosmetic surgery.

Read Bio

Anirudh Mandagere

Barrister

Anirudh has a keen interest in clinical negligence and has experience of drafting statements of case, schedules and counter-schedules of loss, and advices on both liability and quantum. He has been exposed to a range of complex medical claims including birth injuries, failure to diagnose cauda equina syndrome and delayed diagnosis of cancer. Recent work includes drafting a Particulars of Claim alleging a failure to diagnose heart failure, advising and drafting a Defence responding to allegations of dental negligence, and advising on several multi-defendant clinical negligence claims, including alleged failures to diagnose bowel and cervical cancer.

Read Bio

Andrew J Parker

Consultant Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon

Mr Parker is a Consultant Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon, previously at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield and now at Peak Medical Practice in the Hope Valley, Derbyshire and based in the Clinical Sciences Block at Huntbridge Hall, Matlock.  After qualifying from Leeds Medical School in 1981, he undertook Registrar and post-graduate research training in Bristol before becoming Senior Registrar to the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in 1988 and then obtaining his Consultant appointment in 1992.

He is currently in NHS and private practice in the High Peak area of Derbyshire, centred upon  Chapel-en-le Frith and Sheffield.  Mr Parker has been Programme Director for the North Trent ENT training rotation and Lead clinician for Head and Neck cancer at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. He is a member of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Mr Parker has engaged in busy medico-legal practice from the early 1990s, concentrating on the areas of personal injury, acoustic shock, whiplash, noise induced hearing loss, voice disorder and occupational rhinosinusitis.

Read Bio

Georgina Parkin

Managing Director and co-owner

Georgina Parkin is the Managing Director and co-owner of Truth Legal solicitors, based in Harrogate and Leeds. Truth Legal specialises in personal injury, clinical negligence, professional negligence, family law, immigration law and employment law. The firm’s website (truthlegal.com) has a wealth of legal information and ranks as one of the best-read law blogs in the country, with a readership of around 40,000 per month.

Georgina joined Truth Legal in 2013, rapidly rising to the position of Director in 2016 and Managing Director in 2020. In January 2021, Georgina became co-owner of Truth Legal. She was President of the Harrogate and District Law Society in 2020 and continues to sit on the membership committee of the Harrogate and District Law Society.

Georgina has over ten years of experience in personal injury law, which includes claims for accidents at work, road traffic accidents, assaults at work, public liability, product liability and clinical negligence. Whilst Georgina acts solely for Claimants at Truth Legal, she has previously represented Defendant insurance companies and retail organisations. She has particular expertise in chronic pain disorders and serious injury cases.

Read Bio

Dominic Regan

City Law School, London. Head of Know-How, Frenkel Topping. Legal Speaker, Writer and Broadcaster. Wine Critic, ‘Counsel’ Magazine.

Prof Dominic Regan is visiting Professor at City Law School, London, and head of Know-How at forensic accountants, Frenkel Topping. He worked with Sir Rupert Jackson on aspects of Civil Procedure Reform from 2011 until the Lord Justice retired in 2017.

He has advised Government on costs in Employment Tribunal cases and the House of Commons on legal aspects of non-disclosure agreements. Each year he delivers litigation training to thousands of lawyers and other professionals who engage with civil claims.

'The Times' legal commentator recently described him as a “Costs guru”. He is also wine critic for ‘Counsel’ magazine with Sean Jones QC.

Read Bio

Niki Sinclaire

Personal Transport Expert Witness

I have worked in the automotive industry for over 20 years and have been with Personal Mobility Solutions for 5 years.  I have a background in litigation and worked for a leading car hire company as a Litigation Manager.  Wanting to expand my qualifications I studied as a counsellor and spent time working on an all-female acute forensic ward with patients of varying mental and physical ability under the Mental Health and Mental Capacity Act. On average I see 3-4 clients a week for both passenger and driver need including all wheelchair accessible vehicle requirements.

Read Bio

Clare Stapleton

Medicolegal Consultant

Clare Stapleton is a Medicolegal Consultant at the London Office of Medical Protection. Before joining MPS she was a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at Wexham Park Hospital, Frimley Health for 16 years.  She was the patient safety lead clinician and also led the mortality review process and set up the Medical Examiner service at Frimley Health.

At Medical Protection she assists members by providing medicolegal advice and supports and advises doctors who are involved in Serious Incidents, inquests, disciplinary and regulatory investigations.

Read Bio

Andrew Unwin

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon

I am in clinical practice as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in London and Berkshire. I was appointed as a full time NHS Consultant in 1996 at Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals. I qualified in Medicine at Imperial College London (Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School) in 1988. My clinical practice is in knee surgery, sports injuries and paediatric orthopaedics.  My specialist interest is arthroscopic knee surgery, ACL reconstruction, lower limb trauma and rehabilitation after amputation surgery. I have been in medico-legal practice since 1992.  My medico-legal practice is in both Berkshire and London. I am regularly instructed on behalf of claimants, defendants and as a single joint expert in personal injury and clinical negligence.

Read Bio

Mr Justice Pepperall

High Court Judge

MOJ

Sir Edward Pepperall was called to the Bar in 1989, appointed a recorder in 2009, Queen's Counsel in 2013, a Deputy High Court Judge in 2016 (Queen's Bench & Chancery) and a Justice of the Court of Appeal of the Falklands Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in 2017. He was appointed a High Court Judge in 2018 and sits in the Queen's Bench Division. He is a judge of the Technology & Construction Court and a Presiding Judge of the Midland Circuit. Sir Edward practised from St Philips Chambers in Birmingham and London, where he was a Deputy Head of Chambers, Chairman of the Commercial Group and Chairman of the Midland Chancery & Commercial Bar Association. He was a barrister member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee for six years and was the chief architect of the 2015 reforms to Part 36. He is an editor of the White Book and a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn.

Read Bio

Alexander Acaster

Chief Operating Officer

TMLEP

After graduating University, Alex has worked exclusively within the clinical negligence sector alongside expert witnesses, insurers and legal professionals. This work has been to promote the use of technology in the sector to drive efficiencies, analytics and patient safety improvements.

Overseeing the day-to-day running of a company reviewing 750 cases of alleged negligence a month Alex has developed a key understanding of the nuances of the sector and how technology can be utilised to help all involved.

Read Bio

Isabel Bathurst

Specialist in catastrophic injury claims involving brain and spinal injured claimants

Isabel Bathurst Consulting Limited

Isabel is a specialist in catastrophic injury claims involving brain and spinal injured claimants and also has extensive clinical negligence experience, with expertise developed over 20 years. During the past 7 years, Isabel has concentrated her practice on foreign jurisdiction claims for both claimants and defendants and on inquest and inquiry work. Isabel's expertise includes European law cases but also cases in other jurisdictions outside the European Union including the US, Australia, Africa, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The current trend of cosmetic surgery cases abroad is also serving to generate cross-border clinical claims.

Isabel has experience of providing personal representation and advocacy on behalf of families at inquests and giving support via the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with Victim Support for advice and family liaison for families subject to homicide abroad. Isabel facilitates legal support from an extensive network of foreign lawyers so that families may have legal advice abroad and representation at foreign criminal trials. Isabel has significant expertise of inquest hearings, notably as a Recognised Legal Representative to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which is subject to Article 2 of the ECHR. Isabel's clinical negligence experience includes acting for protected parties and she was recently involved with the Court of Protection and the Official Solicitor on the settlement of a case at £7.6 million.

Isabel also lectures and trains consultants and expert witnesses on clinical negligence cases and inquests. In her role as a Solicitor Advocate at Inquests, Isabel will provide an update to the media outside court.

Read Bio

Caroline Bennett

Medico-legal Risk Management and Education Consultant

Former Head of Regional and International Claims at the Medical Protection Society with 30 years collective experience firstly as a litigation lawyer and subsequently in claims management working with medical and dental clinicians, experts and lawyers in the UK and over 20 countries around the world. Since 2019. a Consultant in medico legal risk management and education focusing on understanding and how to meet the challenges of today's risk management landscape from first contact with a patient to the outcome of a claim, complaint or inquest.

Read Bio

Chris Danbury

Consultant Intensive Care Physician, University Hospital Southampton, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton

Chris has over 30 years’ experience as a doctor. He trained in general internal medicine, microbiology/virology and anaesthesia before switching to intensive care medicine. In 2002 he was appointed as consultant intensive physician, at the Royal Berkshire Hospital before moving to University Hospital Southampton in December 2020. His practice is in General and Neuro Intensive Care Medicine. Chris also has academic roles at the University of Southampton, Kings College London and the University of Reading. His research interests are in complex decision making related to serious medical treatment. Chris has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine for exceptional services to the science and practice of Forensic and Legal Medicine.

Read Bio

Chloe Davies

Associate

DAC Beachcroft LLP

Associate Solicitor in the Clinical Risk department at DAC Beachcroft, Leeds, acting on behalf of NHS Resolution in defence of clinical negligence claims. Responsible for a varied caseload, including birth injury, cauda equina and amputation claims and a particular interest in advising on claims involving fundamental dishonesty/fraudulent exaggeration, with experience of contempt of court proceedings arising out of the same.

Read Bio

Simon Hammond

Director of Claims Management

NHS Resolution

Simon Hammond joined the NHS Resolution Senior Management Team on 7 January 2019 as the Director of Claims Management. Simon has a wide variety of experience in handling claims having worked for the insurance industry for over 25 years.

Simon held head of fraud roles at national law firms, before joining his previous employer, BLM, in 2009. He was promoted to associate solicitor in 2010 and to partner in 2011.

Simon has experience of handling all aspects of claims, from policy interpretation, indemnity issues, litigation and prosecution matters. He sat on the Personal Injury Sub Working Group of the Treasury’s Insurance Fraud Task Force, and has also presented at national conferences and edited a chapter of a leading insurance text book.

More recently Simon has chaired national conferences on the subject of Clinical Negligence and has given evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee on the subject of NHS litigation reform.

Read Bio

Laura Johnson Kc

Barrister

Deka Chambers

Laura's work encompasses all areas of clinical practice, acting for both claimants and defendants. She is very experienced in cases involving catastrophic injury, including brain and spinal injury. She has a particular interest in novel legal issues and has appeared recently in the Court of Appeal and High Court in leading cases involving questions of consent and the duty of care owed to secondary victims. She has particular expertise in claims involving obstetrics and gynaecology with recent instructions spanning emergency care, oncology, opthalmics, general surgery, colorectal surgery, cardiology and cardiac surgery, mental health and cosmetic surgery.

Read Bio

Anirudh Mandagere

Barrister

Deka Chambers

Anirudh has a keen interest in clinical negligence and has experience of drafting statements of case, schedules and counter-schedules of loss, and advices on both liability and quantum. He has been exposed to a range of complex medical claims including birth injuries, failure to diagnose cauda equina syndrome and delayed diagnosis of cancer. Recent work includes drafting a Particulars of Claim alleging a failure to diagnose heart failure, advising and drafting a Defence responding to allegations of dental negligence, and advising on several multi-defendant clinical negligence claims, including alleged failures to diagnose bowel and cervical cancer.

Read Bio

Andrew J Parker

Consultant Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon

Peak Medical Practice

Mr Parker is a Consultant Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon, previously at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield and now at Peak Medical Practice in the Hope Valley, Derbyshire and based in the Clinical Sciences Block at Huntbridge Hall, Matlock.  After qualifying from Leeds Medical School in 1981, he undertook Registrar and post-graduate research training in Bristol before becoming Senior Registrar to the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in 1988 and then obtaining his Consultant appointment in 1992.

He is currently in NHS and private practice in the High Peak area of Derbyshire, centred upon  Chapel-en-le Frith and Sheffield.  Mr Parker has been Programme Director for the North Trent ENT training rotation and Lead clinician for Head and Neck cancer at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. He is a member of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Mr Parker has engaged in busy medico-legal practice from the early 1990s, concentrating on the areas of personal injury, acoustic shock, whiplash, noise induced hearing loss, voice disorder and occupational rhinosinusitis.

Read Bio

Georgina Parkin

Managing Director and co-owner

Truth Legal Solicitors

Georgina Parkin is the Managing Director and co-owner of Truth Legal solicitors, based in Harrogate and Leeds. Truth Legal specialises in personal injury, clinical negligence, professional negligence, family law, immigration law and employment law. The firm’s website (truthlegal.com) has a wealth of legal information and ranks as one of the best-read law blogs in the country, with a readership of around 40,000 per month.

Georgina joined Truth Legal in 2013, rapidly rising to the position of Director in 2016 and Managing Director in 2020. In January 2021, Georgina became co-owner of Truth Legal. She was President of the Harrogate and District Law Society in 2020 and continues to sit on the membership committee of the Harrogate and District Law Society.

Georgina has over ten years of experience in personal injury law, which includes claims for accidents at work, road traffic accidents, assaults at work, public liability, product liability and clinical negligence. Whilst Georgina acts solely for Claimants at Truth Legal, she has previously represented Defendant insurance companies and retail organisations. She has particular expertise in chronic pain disorders and serious injury cases.

Read Bio

Dominic Regan

City Law School, London. Head of Know-How, Frenkel Topping. Legal Speaker, Writer and Broadcaster. Wine Critic, ‘Counsel’ Magazine.

Prof Dominic Regan is visiting Professor at City Law School, London, and head of Know-How at forensic accountants, Frenkel Topping. He worked with Sir Rupert Jackson on aspects of Civil Procedure Reform from 2011 until the Lord Justice retired in 2017.

He has advised Government on costs in Employment Tribunal cases and the House of Commons on legal aspects of non-disclosure agreements. Each year he delivers litigation training to thousands of lawyers and other professionals who engage with civil claims.

'The Times' legal commentator recently described him as a “Costs guru”. He is also wine critic for ‘Counsel’ magazine with Sean Jones QC.

Read Bio

Niki Sinclaire

Personal Transport Expert Witness

Personal Mobility Solutions

I have worked in the automotive industry for over 20 years and have been with Personal Mobility Solutions for 5 years.  I have a background in litigation and worked for a leading car hire company as a Litigation Manager.  Wanting to expand my qualifications I studied as a counsellor and spent time working on an all-female acute forensic ward with patients of varying mental and physical ability under the Mental Health and Mental Capacity Act. On average I see 3-4 clients a week for both passenger and driver need including all wheelchair accessible vehicle requirements.

Read Bio

Clare Stapleton

Medicolegal Consultant

Medical Protection Society

Clare Stapleton is a Medicolegal Consultant at the London Office of Medical Protection. Before joining MPS she was a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at Wexham Park Hospital, Frimley Health for 16 years.  She was the patient safety lead clinician and also led the mortality review process and set up the Medical Examiner service at Frimley Health.

At Medical Protection she assists members by providing medicolegal advice and supports and advises doctors who are involved in Serious Incidents, inquests, disciplinary and regulatory investigations.

Read Bio

Andrew Unwin

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon

AJ Unwin Medico-Legal Ltd

I am in clinical practice as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in London and Berkshire. I was appointed as a full time NHS Consultant in 1996 at Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals. I qualified in Medicine at Imperial College London (Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School) in 1988. My clinical practice is in knee surgery, sports injuries and paediatric orthopaedics.  My specialist interest is arthroscopic knee surgery, ACL reconstruction, lower limb trauma and rehabilitation after amputation surgery. I have been in medico-legal practice since 1992.  My medico-legal practice is in both Berkshire and London. I am regularly instructed on behalf of claimants, defendants and as a single joint expert in personal injury and clinical negligence.

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