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Conrad Hallin successfully represents Luton Borough Council in the Court of Appeal

29th February 2024

Conrad successfully represented Luton Borough Council in the Court of Appeal in the Official Solicitor’s appeal of the decision of a High Court Judge that it was in the best interests of P, a young man with significant learning difficulties, not to travel to Afghanistan with his extended family, who had previously gained asylum in the UK but were planning a trip to their country of origin. In the first case of its kind, the Court of Appeal refused the Official Solicitor’s appeal on the basis that the first-instance judge had erred by giving too much weight to the Foreign Office Guidance not to travel.

Jamie Mathieson had previously successfully represented Luton Borough Council in the High Court.

Read more about Conrad’s practice here.

Read more about Jamie’s practice here.


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Sophia Roper KC and Benjamin Harrison successfully act for the Official Solicitor in Aberdeenshire Council v SF, EF and Sunderland City Council [2024] EWCOP 10

29th February 2024

Sophia Roper KC and Benjamin Harrison acted for the Official Solicitor in Aberdeenshire Council v SF, EF and Sunderland City Council [2024] EWCOP 10 where they successfully persuaded Poole J to refuse to recognise a Scottish Guardianship Order. The Guardianship Order purported to grant P’s mother the power to authorise the deprivation of P’s liberty for a seven year period without any means of effective review.

The court found that the Scottish Guardianship Order was made in a manner which (i) did not give P an opportunity to be heard in circumstances which (ii) breached of the principles of natural justice, and (iii) breached P’s fundamental human rights under Articles 5, 6 and 8 ECHR.

This case is the only reported example of the Court of Protection exercising its discretion to refuse to recognise a foreign protective measure which was made in another jurisdiction within the UK. Sophia and Ben were instructed by Caroline Hurst of Simpson Millar LLP.

Read more about Sophia’s practice here.

Read more about Ben’s practice here.


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Alexander dos Santos secures acquittal for former solicitor in an FCA insider dealing trial at Southwark Crown Court

13th February 2024

Alexander dos Santos, led by Allison Clare KC of Red Lion Chambers and instructed by Daniel Cundy and Naureen Shariff of Blackfords LLP, secured an acquittal for their client (a former Clifford Chance solicitor) in an FCA insider dealing trial at Southwark Crown Court. After two months at trial, following submissions at the close of the Prosecution case, the FCA offered no-evidence on three of the nine counts and the judge ruled that the remaining six counts could not go ahead.

The case attracted significant media interest: Financial Times, Bloomberg, Legal Cheek, LexisNexis and Law360.

Read more about Alex’s practice here.

 


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Oshea Medad Dover: Rachael Gourley represents parents of baby who died following delays in delivery

9th February 2024

An inquest into the death of a 1-month-old baby has found that delays in ambulance attendance and delays in delivery contributed to his death.  Rachael Gourley appeared for the family of Oshea Medad Dover, instructed by Mercedes Mardell and Hannah Seignior of Slater & Gordon.

Baby Oshea sadly died after he sustained an acute profound hypoxic injury.

Oshea’s mother went into pre-term labour, at 30 weeks, and telephoned for ambulance assistance. The initial 999 calls were wrongly categorised. As a result, paramedics arrived 44 minutes later than they should have for a category 1 call.

Midwifery advice was for the paramedics to bring Oshea’s mother to hospital urgently due to the baby’s prematurity and the mother’s presentation.

There were further delays on scene due to difficulties in extrication. Paramedics were on scene for a total of 83 minutes. Midwives eventually attended the home and Oshea’s mother was brought to hospital.

At the end of the inquest, the Coroner concluded that had the initial call to emergency services been correctly categorised, Oshea’s mother would have been in hospital earlier and in sufficient time for CTG monitoring to be commenced. Such monitoring would have recognised foetal distress and would have prompted an emergency c-section.

The Coroner concluded that “had this happened, it is likely Oshea would have survived.”

Overall, the inquest found that that the delays in Oshea’s delivery caused his death.

In respect of the Prevention of Future Deaths, the inquest heard that whilst the local London Ambulance Service guidance has changed since Oshea’s death, the national guidance has not changed.

A Prevention of Future Deaths (‘PFD’) report was issued to the authors of the national guidance, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (‘AACE’), and the Department of Health and Social Care.

Read more about Rachael’s practice here.


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Mark Harries KC features on the Editorial Board for The British Journal of Professional and Regulatory Law

5th February 2024

We are delighted to announce that Mark Harries KC will be featuring on the Editorial Board for a new Journal in The British Journal of Professional and Regulatory Law.  Mark will be working alongside other stellar legal professionals specialising in the regulatory field, including Andrea James of Keystone Law.

The Journal aims to bridge the gap between academia and the professions, and is led by a joint team of academics, professional regulatory lawyers and regulated professionals from cross sectors.

Academics, professionals, students and practising lawyers with an interest in professional and regulatory law are encouraged to submit their articles for the Journal’s first issue.

An inaugural issue of the Journal will be published in late Spring

Read more about his practice here.

For more information on the submission process, click here.


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Rachael Gourley represents family of Amanda Hitch who died after failures in mental health care and treatment

1st February 2024

Rachael Gourley appeared for the family of Amanda Hitch who tragically died by suicide at Harlow Mill railway station, instructed by Priya Singh at Hodge Jones and Allen.

The inquest into the death of Amanda Hitch found that inadequate mental health care contributed to her death. A preventing future deaths report was issued.

The Article 2 inquest considered the mental health care and treatment provided to Mandy and the role of British Transport Police. Mandy was a known frequent attender at railway stations at times of distress.

Mandy’s escalation in risk and clear suicidal intent was missed by clinicians despite her repeated engagement with services in late January and early February 2022.

The Coroner returned a narrative conclusion which found that the level of risk that Mandy presented “was not sufficiently appreciated and not sufficiently addressed.” The Coroner found that “no formal risk assessment tools were used.”

The Coroner found that the plan made with British Transport Police “may have created a false sense of security” as between BTP and the Mental Health Trust, arising from a lack multi-agency working. Mandy was attending unstaffed railway stations and BTP does not have the resources to identify or report such attendances.

Overall, the Coroner concluded that omissions by the Mental Health Trust contributed to Mandy’s death in that there were “plainly interventions that could have been taken and would have served to protect Mandy from the known risk, and not considering those contributed to her death.”

 

The Coroner identified a risk of future deaths and issued a Preventing Future Deaths report under Regulation 28 to:

  1. NHS England;
  2. British Transport Police; and
  3. Essex Partnership University Trust.

The inquest was covered in the BBC here.


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Nageena Khalique KC shortlisted for Advocate of the Year at The Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2024

19th January 2024

Nageena Khalique KC has been shortlisted for Advocate of the Year at The Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2024.

The shortlisting is in recognition of her contribution to making the UK legal sector more equitable, diverse and inclusive.

Congratulations to all those shortlisted.

Read more about Nageena’s practice here.


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Sarah Clarke KC provides advocacy training for the General Council of the Bar of South Africa’s pre-eminent expert witness course

9th January 2024

Sarah Clarke KC and Grahame Aldous KC of DEKA Chambers were invited as advocacy trainers on the General Council of the Bar of South Africa’s pre-eminent expert witness course in Stellenbosch.

Sarah has conducted advocacy training both nationally and internationally including in developing countries for over 20 years.

She is currently the Course Director of the South Eastern Circuit Advanced International Advocacy Course held annually at Keble College, Oxford.

Sarah’s practice encompasses a wide range of fields including financial services, insider dealing, corporate fraud, sexual offences, police and regulatory proceedings and inquests.

Read more about her practice here.


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Awards

Angus Moon KC 1986 | 2006    Joint Head of Chambers
Michael Horne KC 1992 | 2016    Joint Head of Chambers
Adrian Hopkins KC 1984 | 2003
John Beggs KC 1989 | 2009
Michael Mylonas KC 1988 | 2012
John de Bono KC 1995 | 2014
Dijen Basu KC 1994 | 2015
Nageena Khalique KC 1994 | 2015
Katie Gollop KC 1993 | 2016
Simon Fox KC 1994 | 2016
Bridget Dolan KC 1997 | 2016
Gerard Boyle KC 1992 | 2017
Sarah Clarke KC 1994 | 2017
Debra Powell KC 1995 | 2017
Jon Holl-Allen KC 1990 | 2018
Ian Skelt KC 1994 | 2020
Mark Harries KC 1995 | 2019
Sophia Roper KC 1990 | 2022
Claire Watson KC 2001 | 2022
Neil Davy KC 2000 | 2023
Emma Sutton KC 2006 | 2023
Jemma Lee 2010
Liam Duffy 2012
Chloe Hill 2019
His Honour Brian Barker CBE KC 1969 | 1990    Associate Member
Sir Robert Francis KC 1973 | 1992    Associate Member
James Watson KC 1979 | 2000    Associate Member
Natalie Cargill 2016    Associate Member
Susan Burden 1985    Door Tenant
Anthony Jackson 1995    Door Tenant
Benedict Wray 2009    Door Tenant